Outlandish Incinerator/Ski Slope Breaks Ground in Denmark

"Against all odds, BIG-founder Bjarke Ingels is actually building a mountain-slash-ski-slope-slash-waste-to-energy-power-plant in his hometown of Copenhagen," says Klayko. "Announced in 2011, the project nearly stalled during the approval process, but officials in the Danish capital broke ground on the facility on Monday. Called the Amager Bakke Waste-to-Energy Plant, the structure represents Ingels’ concept of Hedonistic Sustainability, the notion that a sustainable building shouldn’t only be green, but should also be fun."

And it turns out that one of our favorite trifles from the original plan has been retained in the final design. "A slender chimney at the building’s peak, updated from the original design, releases smoke rings periodically, indicating when one ton of CO2 has been released into the atmosphere."

"In 2011, the price of the incinerator was estimated at $645 million."