Denmark's Premier Incineration Plant 'Amager Bakke'
Daring Design Combining Building and Artificial Mountain
Shedding the Stigma of 'Nuisance Facility' to Become a Landmark
Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon, currently on a business trip in Europe, announced that he plans to use Denmark's resource recovery facility 'Amager Bakke' as a role model when constructing a new incineration plant in Seoul. Amager Bakke, completed in 2017 in Copenhagen, is known for its beautiful and eco-friendly design. It is praised for breaking the stereotype of incineration plants being 'undesirable facilities' among local residents.
On the 20th (local time), Mayor Oh visited Amager Bakke, a waste incineration and combined heat and power plant in Copenhagen, Denmark's capital. After touring the facility, he stated, "If you fully underground (the incineration plant), there are limits to making it an attractive element," adding, "It would be good to keep the possibility open flexibly, such as undergrounding only 50-80% of the entire facility."
Seoul plans to establish a new incineration plant in Sangam-dong, Mapo-gu, and operate it from 2026. To alleviate residents' opposition, the city has promised to fully underground the main facilities.
Turning an Undesirable Facility into a Landmark with a Reversed Perspective
Amager Bakke Denmark Copenhagen Waste Incineration and Power Plant Facility [Image Source=Amager Bakke Foundation]
Amager Bakke, which Mayor Oh found as a solution to the Mapo incineration plant conflict, is a facility that incinerates waste such as garbage and generates electricity using the heat produced in the process. The facility measures 200 meters in width and 85 meters in height, and despite being a state-of-the-art incineration plant, it does not underground the structure but exposes the entire building above ground.
The incineration plant is a building surrounded by unique exterior walls and a chimney, with a small artificial hill and a path created on the rooftop. Residents can take walks or enjoy sports along this path, and in winter, artificial snow is added to use it as a ski resort. Naturally standing on a gentle plain in Copenhagen, it has attracted attention as a landmark and even earned the nickname Coppen Hill.
This bold design was proposed by the Danish architectural firm Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). Typically, waste incineration plants are targets of NIMBY (Not In My Backyard) even in developed countries. Therefore, efforts have been focused on undergrounding the facilities as much as possible to hide the structures.
However, BIG took a reversed approach by constructing a distinctive building that stands out with its unique structural style, attracting local residents' attention and even adding an artificial ski resort. As a result, Amager Bakke transformed from an undesirable facility into a cultural facility. In particular, the design where the building and artificial hill coexist was selected as the 'World Building of the Year' at the 2021 World Architecture Festival (WAF).
The incineration plant’s original function is also excellent. It is built with a double structure to prevent the odor of waste from escaping outside the plant, incinerates an average of 440,000 tons of waste annually, and supplies 57 megawatts (MW) of electricity to the city.
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