The image of the day: an incinerator/ski slope in Copenhagen by BIG

The Guardian revealed today BIG's ambition to design the incinerator, also known as waste-to-energy power plant, that will act also as ski slope in Copenhagen, Denmark. I have already wrote a post on his design proposal in January, so I will not go back over it.

Waste-to-energy Power Plan, Copenhagen, © BIG 

Why doubling this incinerator with a ski slope? BIG wants to create multi-use incinerator that can function as sustainable perspectives as well as a public park, an attraction. Or a landmark for the city of Copenhagen. For BIG, sustainability is above all "[improving] the quality of life and human enjoyment'. According to Bjarke Ingels, "the fact that Copenhagen is so clean you can actually jump in the harbour [water] in the city centre is almost a miracle. The city is sustainable but doesn't become synonymous with making lots of sacrifices."

Be it provocative or not, I agree to some extent that people will not stop driving their cars as they will not change their behaviour. People need their cars for daily uses. Consequently they will keep on polluting. For Bjarke Ingels, the idea is not about to change people's behaviour but to design, to shape a city in a smarter way. Put another way, this means to use this behaviour as a resource… such as using waste as a resource. This is the aim of this versatile waste-to-energy power plant. As Ingels says, "one tone of waste almost equates to two brells of oil."

This leads to the previous post on Daniel and Maximilian Zielinski's Paris Reinterpretation design proposal inviting us not to delete but to do with our behaviour with an environmental education that will help us adapt to changing contexts. At least to reduce impacts of challenging issues (climate change, building footprint, cities footprint, etc., the list is too long to be summed up here) on cities, and our daily life…

This may be what Ingels wants to say with this multi-use waste-to-energy plant.

As Bjarke Ingels says: "It's a type of radical architectural realisation of political transparency." So let's wait the completion to see how this waste-to-energy and playful building will turn.

Source: The Guardian