Design that Educates Awards 2020

The project - also known as ‘Amager Bakke’ - is a waste-to-energy plant with an urban recreation center comprising a lush nature park, ski slope, hiking trail, the world’s tallest climbing wall as well as an environmental education hub.

Copenhill is a 41,000 m2 waste-to-energy plant that turns social infrastructure into an architectural landmark with new nature activities and high biodiversity. Copenhill is conceived as a public infrastructure with intended social side-effects from day one.
In 2019, replacing the adjacent 50-year old Amager Ressourcecenter (ARC), Copenhill’s new sustainable waste incinerating facilities integrate the latest technologies in waste treatment and energy production. Due to its location on the industrial waterfront of Amager, where raw industrial facilities have become the site for extreme sports from wakeboarding to go-kart racing, the new power plant adds new nature activities such as skiing, hiking, rock climbing and a lush nature park to thrill seekers’ wish lists.
The internal volumes of the waste-to-energy plant are determined by the precise positioning and organization of its machinery in height order, creating an efficient, sloping rooftop fit for a 9,000 m2 ski terrain. At the top, experts can glide down the artificial ski slope with the same length as an Olympic half-pipe, test the freestyle park or try the timed slalom course.
Recreation buffs and visitors reaching the summit of Copenhill will feel the novelty of a mountain in an otherwise-flat country. Non-skiers can enjoy the roof bar, cross-fit area, climbing wall or highest viewing plateau in the city before descending the 490 meter tree-lined hiking and running trail within a lush, mountainous nature park and terrain. Meanwhile, the 10,000 m2 green roof addresses the challenging micro-climate the 80+ meter high roof park, rewilding a biodiverse landscape while absorbing heat, removing air particles and minimizing stormwater runoff.
Creating a nature-filled and green activity park on top of an 88 meter tall waste-to-energy plant is something that has never been realized before. The up to 45 degrees steep slope of the roof poses great requirements for plant- and landscape design, and the complicated wind and weather conditions create difficult living conditions for trees and plants. The heat from the large energy boilers under the roof has had to be handled to solve the many challenges of the project, so SLA has devised several nature-based design solutions and tested different types of vegetation and materials.
The different types of habitat are specially selected to meet the nature park's challenging living conditions and to provide optimal microclimate and wind conditions for the visitors on the roof. The result is a wild, lush and hardy nature design that allows for the use of the roof park year-round, while creating a sensuousness and varied environment for all nature activities on the hill.
Beneath the slopes and nature roof park, whirring furnaces, steam, and turbines convert 440,000 tons of waste annually into enough clean energy to deliver electricity and district heating for 100,000 homes.