Self proclaimed hedonistic architect, Bjarke Ingels, has won the right to design Copenhagen’s greenest incinerator, with his vision of snow bunnies gliding down walls that house blazing garbage, in an industrial pleasure-seeking world first.
Set to open in 2016, the new 100 metre tall waste-to-energy plant come ski resort will figure as the Danish city’s tallest building, while aiming to be among the world’s cleanest energy constructions.
Upon designing the project, the 36-year-old Danish architect says he worked with the idea of “hedonistic sustainability” – sustainability that improves human enjoyment. He adds when spending 3.5bn Kroner ($Au 636.6m), you sure don’t want to construct a hideous towering slop scorcher that will entice people to protest.
Besides the obvious novelty of skiing over an enormous pit of flaming rubbish, Ingels’ project contains several other quirks. A lift inside the furnace will transport visitors to the top, while offering them front row incinerator excitement.
However, not simply aimed at thrills, Ingels’ plan is to take the intangibility out of carbon emissions, by including a smokestack that emits a 30-metre smoke ring when a tonne of CO2 is released. He says in order to gauge the amount of carbon being emitted, one simply needs to count the number of rings present.
With Denmark’s record of a 50% waste to clean energy conversion rate behind his idea, Ingels confidently asserts his multi-purpose mountain mission is about designing society “in a smarter way”, by improving quality of life.
Not according to Danish geologist, Dr Hans Vasti-vasti, who labels the idea an absurd and decadent plunge into recreational stupidity.
He says if Denmark proposes to be so waste conscious, then the resort’s visitors should sign a disclaimer allowing their bodies to be used for the nation’s dog food, in the event they plummet through the incinerator’s walls when global warming triggers its next round of terrifying earthquakes.
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