Outstanding Architectural Design

on october 4, 2019, ‘copenhill’ — the power plant/ski slope designed by bjarke ingels group and landscape architects SLA — opened to the public in copenhagen. billed as ‘the world’s cleanest waste-to-energy plant’, the project — also known as amager bakke — contains an environmental education hub and is topped with an urban recreation center comprising a ski slope, a hiking trail, and a climbing wall. located on the waterfront of the danish city, the plant is surrounded by other destinations for extreme sports enthusiasts, as well as waterfront communities. to document the building within this context, photographer nils koenning visited the site and has shared his images below.

📷 image © nils koenning (also main image)

in addition to capturing those hiking to the power plant’s peak (complete with observation deck), and those skiing down its man-made slope, koenning’s photos also illustrate the activity taking place around the site. a stone’s throw from copenhill, go-karts line up to race in the shadow of the chimney, while wild swimmers take advantage of the region’s clean water. aligning with copenhagen’s goal of becoming the world’s first carbon-neutral city by 2025, the scheme embodies bjarke ingels’ idea of ‘hedonistic sustainability’ — a notion that a sustainable city is not only better for the environment, it is also more enjoyable for the lives of its citizens.

📷 image © nils koenning

‘as a power plant, copenhill is so clean that we have been able to turn its building mass into the bedrock of the social life of the city — its façade is climbable, its roof is hikeable, and its slopes are skiable,’ says bjarke ingels. ‘to me copenhill is a perfect example of the world-changing power of architecture. that we have the power to give form to the future that we want to live in.’ see designboom’s previous coverage of the project here.

📷 image © nils koenning

📷 image © nils koenning

📷 image © nils koenning

📷 image © nils koenning

📷 image © nils koenning

📷 image © nils koenning

📷 image © nils koenning

📷 image © nils koenning

📷 image © nils koenning

📷 image © nils koenning

📷image © nils koenning

📷image © nils koenning

📷image © nils koenning

📷image © nils koenning

📷image © nils koenning

📷image © nils koenning

📷image © nils koenning

📷image © nils koenning

project info:

name: copenhill / amager bakke type: international competition size: 41,000 sqm / 441,300 sqf location: copenhagen, denmark client: amager ressourcecenter collaborators: detailed design: SLA, lüchinger+meyer, MOE, rambøll, jesper kongshaug, and BIG ideas; competition: AKT, topotek 1, man made land, realities:united