Ski Slope On A Power Station (08-Feb-11)

A new power station will also contain a ski slope..

A new power station will also contain a ski slope under a new plan in Denmark according to a report in the country’s Politiken newspaper.

Denmark is already home to Europe’s happiest people according to surveys, and now the country aims to make them happier still by integrating the ski run in the design of a new 3.5 billion Kroner combined heat and power (CHP) plant in the country’s Amager district, already home to an old-style artificial service slope at the local Dan theme park.

The ski slope concept in the rather flat country is the work of a design by architecture company the Bjarke Ingels Group who have decided to wrap the plant in a transparent shell, 90-metres high, which will enable people to ski down on it, with a 1.5km long artificial ski surface slope on top – the world’s longest. This will be accessed by a lift inside the building. At the top there will be a viewing area from which users can look over Copenhagen and as far as southern Sweden, before skiing back down.

“A CHP plant with a ski slope on the roof is a great example of a city and a building which is
ecological, economical and socially viable,” said Bjarke Ingels, founder of BIG, which beat more than 25 other designs to win the contract. Work is due to begin next year and the ski slope (and power plant) open in 2016.