The archive · Public & Social · Product decision · 2019
Copenhagen puts a ski slope on a waste incinerator — CopenHill opens in 2019
Copenhagen's ARC turned its new waste-to-energy plant into a playground — a 450m ski slope, hiking trail and climbing wall on a working incinerator.
Amager Ressourcecenter (ARC)
What it had to solve
ARC had to replace Copenhagen's ageing waste incinerator, and a big new plant on the waterfront risked being an unwelcome neighbour; BIG's design turned it into a destination instead, under the slogan 'hedonistic sustainability'.
How it works
When Copenhagen needed a new waste-to-energy plant, the city's utility ARC faced the classic problem: nobody wants an incinerator in their neighbourhood. Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) answered by refusing to hide it — the 41,000 m² Amager Bakke (CopenHill) plant was designed as a mountain-shaped building whose roof is a public recreation centre, with a 450-metre year-round artificial ski slope, a hiking trail, an 85-metre climbing wall and a rooftop café.
The plant opened to the public on 4 October 2019. Beneath the slope, up to 450,000 tonnes of waste a year are converted into heat and electricity — enough to power and heat around 150,000 homes — while visitors ride a glass elevator up through the working factory, look into the furnaces, and step out onto a free rooftop. BIG calls the approach 'hedonistic sustainability': the environmental facility is also the attraction.
The project sits inside Copenhagen's goal of becoming the world's first carbon-neutral capital, and the building doubles as an environmental education hub with tours, workshops and conferences. The idea reframed a utility that residents typically oppose as a place families choose to visit, and CopenHill has become one of the city's most photographed landmarks.
Why it lands
- It solved the NIMBY problem by making the plant the opposite of a nuisance — a place people want to go.
- The building's stepped facade carries the recreation programme, so the ski slope is part of how the plant works, not decoration.
- Free rooftop access removed the barrier between public and infrastructure, letting residents treat a working factory as their park.
- The glass elevator made the energy process visible, turning the plant into environmental education as well as a facility.
What it did
Opened to the public on 4 October 2019; underneath the slope up to 450,000 tonnes of waste a year are converted into heat and electricity for around 150,000 homes, while the roof became a free, year-round public space with ski school, sledding, running club and events — infrastructure that people choose to visit.
What you can take
A piece of infrastructure people usually resent can be redesigned as something they want to visit: instead of hiding the waste plant, make the plant itself the attraction.
Since then
CopenHill became a fixture of Copenhagen tourism and a worldwide reference case for 'infrastructure as destination', studied by other cities planning waste and energy plants. The plant keeps running around the clock while the roof hosts ski school, sledding, a running community and events, and the rooftop, café and hiking route remain free during opening hours. BIG's famous smoke-ring smokestack — a device that would puff a ring each time a tonne of fossil CO2 is released as a 'gentle reminder of the impact of consumption' — was prototyped but still awaited funding when the building opened.
Sources
- Denmark's Copenhagen opens artificial ski slope above waste incinerator
- CopenHill Energy Plant and Urban Recreation Center / BIG
- BIG's Much-Anticipated Copenhill Power Plant Finally Opens
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