Waste-to-energy Power Plant Facility, Copenhagen, Denmark

Waste-to-energy power stations are usually ugly eyesores, but a new power plant planned for Copenhagen is different: it is designed to blow smoke rings and double as a ski slope. The facility has been announced as the winner of a competition to design a new waste-to-energy plant for Copenhagen, with expected completion in 2016. Designed by BIG architects to replace an adjacent 40-year-old plant, the roof of the new construction will feature 1,500 metres of green, blue and black-diamond ski runs.
Lifts will run alongside the stack to transport skiers to the top of the building, with the journey up affording passengers a view inside the plant.
Berlin-based studio realities: united have designed the smokestack as an installation named BIG VORTEX. Described as "a gentle reminder of the residues of waste burning" the chimney will gently blow clouds in the shape of smoke rings. It is claimed each ring, approximately 30 metres in diameter and 3 metres in height, will constitute exactly one ton of fossil carbon dioxide. At night the smoke rings will be lit up by heat-tracking lasers able to project a pie-chart onto the smoke that displays a quota of fossil-fuel CO2. Located in an industrial area on the outskirts of the city, the building, planned for waste-to-energy company Amagerforbraending, is the single largest environmental initiative in Denmark, with a budget of £400m.