Eight years ago Danish architect Bjarke Ingels came up with a fantastical idea — putting a ski slope on a power plant. Well, now, it’s actually happening — the $660 million Amager Bakke is preparing to welcome brave ski bunnies in Copenhagen. Affectionately known to locals as Copenhill, this cutting-edge renewable energy system coverts waste into energy while giving sports lovers access to a 2,000-feet-long ski slope, a 295-feet-high climbing wall, and hiking and running paths. The new artificial hill is the most visible demonstration yet of Copenhagen’s determination to become the world’s first carbon neutral city by 2025.

According to Babcock & Wilcox Vølund, the engineers of the power plant, Copenhill will convert 400,000 tons of waste each year into heat for 250,000 homes and energy for another 62,500, all the while producing zero toxic air pollution. Some 100,000 pounds of ash collected from the waste incineration process will be reused to build roads; and some 90 percent of the metals in the waste stream will be salvaged.

Two ski lifts take visitors up to the slope, which allow for all types of skiing — alpine and racing — along with snowblading and snowboarding. On the Copenhill website, one can already reserve a time to snowplow or slalom down the slopes for about $20 an hour. Visitors can also rent equipment, take a ski class, or join SKI365, the building’s ski club. The big plus: because the slope is built using specialized artificial turf, people will be able to ski up there year round.

Translating their website from Danish, it’s clear they’ve tried to design the space for everyone: “If you a beginner, a shark on skis, free-styler, fun skier, man, woman, boy, girl, thick, thin, tall or short, then you are part of the community. We have something for everyone. There are both red / black, blue, and green courses. In addition, there is also a slalom course, free-style park, and, of course, an area for the smallest.”

For those who avoid skiing, there are paths sloping from 5-35 percent where one can walk up or take a heart-pounding run. Bjarke Ingels’ firm BIG and landscape architects with SLA planted more than 30 trees in landscaped areas. There, Copenhill invites you to “take a picnic in the shrubbery or just enjoy the view on one of the reclining benches.” There’s also a club for these enthusiasts — RUN365, with crossfit training options for members.

The facility replaces an older power plant, and the cost is shared by the five municipalities who will sell Copenhill’s heat and power. But according to Bloomberg, the city government perhaps thinks it’s the tourism money — more than the heat or power — that will end up offsetting a larger share of the cost of the new plant. Situated just 13 minutes from the airport, it will be hard for first-time visitors — particularly those with kids — to avoid making a stop.

According to an interview with BIG in Inhabitat, the building is expected to blow CO2 “smoke” rings at some point. The technology apparently works — they are now fine-tuning.

See more images at DesignBoom and check out an interview we did with Ingels in 2011, where he discussed his then-new ideas about merging buildings and landscapes.

A federal judge ruled that a lawsuit filed by Protect Our Parks to stop the Obama Foundation from building a new presidential center in Jackson Park, a 500-acre waterfront public park on the South Side of Chicago, can move forward. The ruling creates significant new challenges for the proposed $500 million project, which has been designed by Todd Williams Bill Tsien Architects and landscape architecture firm Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates. The center was expected to open in 2021, but hasn’t broken ground due to the outstanding legal issues.

U.S. Judge John Robert Blakey didn’t make a ruling on the legal merits of the lawsuit filed by Protect Our Parks and other parties, only stating there is ground to proceed.

At dispute is whether protected public park land can be used to build a privately-run presidential center; the Obamas have chosen not to create an official, National Archives-managed presidential library.

The Obama Foundation stated it chose the proposed location in Jackson Park so it would be near the Museum of Science and Industry and connect to the existing museum hub in the park, which was designed Frederick Law Olmsted and other Olmsted Brothers firms.

Chicago’s city government, led by Obama’s former chief of staff and current Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, has been highly supportive of the project, viewing it as a way to boost economic development, create 2,500 local jobs, and attract 760,000 tourists to the under-served South Side. City officials and the Obama foundation also see it as an important step in improving equity by creating a major attraction far outside the downtown loop area.

According to the Associated Press, many steps have been taken by the city and state to move the project forward. State legislators amended the state’s Illinois Aquarium and Museum Act to “include presidential libraries as an exception to the no-development rules if there’s a compelling public interest.” And the Chicago City Council approved building the presidential center in Jackson Park, 47-to-1 (and provided construction permits).

As part of the deal, the Chicago Park District sold the 19.3 acres of Jackson Park requested for the presidential center to the city for $1. The Obama Foundation then paid the city $10 to use the land in Jackson Park for 99 years, but also agreed to raise the $500 million needed for the presidential center and pay for all costs associated with operating the center for 99 years. After the opening of the physical center, the foundation would then transfer ownership of the building back to the city.

If the city councilors truly represent the will of their districts, this seems to indicate widespread public support for the project, at least in Chicago.

But there are a number of detractors. The Chicago Tribune reports the lawsuit isn’t directed at the Obama Foundation itself but is instead lobbed at the city government and Chicago Parks District. The suit argues that “the presidential center is not the same as a presidential library and should not be granted access to public land.” The lawsuit states: “defendants have chosen to deal with it in a classic Chicago political way … to deceive and seemingly legitimize an illegal land grab.”

Furthermore, critics contend the state will need to spend $175 million of taxpayer money to re-route roads around the presidential center. And the center would damage the environment and create an obstacle for migratory birds and butterflies.

The Cultural Landscape Foundation (TCLF) filed a “friend of the court” brief in support of Protect the Parks’ lawsuit. In a statement, Charles A. Birnbaum, FASLA, President & CEO writes: “The Obama Foundation and the University of Chicago created this controversy by insisting on the confiscation of public parkland. The Obama Foundation could make this issue go away by using vacant and/or city-owned land on the South Side for the Obama Presidential Center (which is planned to be a private facility rather than a presidential library administered by the National Archives), or, better still, land owned by the University of Chicago, which submitted the winning bid to host the Center.”

TCLF and other park advocacy groups have long called for the presidential center to be moved out of Jackson Park, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. As the lawsuit moves to trial in federal court, it remains to be seen whether the Obama Foundation will attempt to persuade the judge of the merits of their proposal or pick up and move to another location in Chicago or elsewhere.

Supporters of the Obama Presidential Center worry that the lawsuit will scare off the Obama Foundation, just as a similar suit caused George Lucas to move his proposed $400 million Museum of Narrative Arts, which was to be located on the waterfront in Chicago, to downtown Los Angeles. Lucas didn’t even wait for the judge’s ruling.

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We can feel the passage of time as we watch the sun chart its course across the sky. But we have also become very accustomed to the daily arc of our closest star. To bring the movement of the sun — and the progression of time — into the foreground, Indian street artist Daku leveraged the sun’s shadow-casting power to create a temporary installation — Theories of Time — for the St+art India art festival along a commercial street in Panjim, Goa.

A street-long awning holds up stenciled adages that project shadows forming a tapestry of words on the ground: “Things take time; time is a great teacher; time heals all wounds; lost time is never found again.”

In 2016, Daku created Time Changes Everything, installing words to the front side of a white-faced building, letting the movement of the sun form and then slowly disintegrate words.

The artist seems to enjoy incorporating surprising words and sentiments into the built environment — in particular humorous messages aimed at motorists.

Still, Daku’s shadow-casting artwork add an interesting layer to the streetscape — and is a concept that would readily apply to parks and plazas.

During the Sui dynasty, it took a decade for master craftsman Li Chun to build the Anji stone bridge in southern Hebei province. Some 1,400 years later, Tsinghua University robotics professor Xu Weiguo copied the structure in just 19 days, with the assistance of robots 3D printing in concrete. The resulting engineering marvel — an 86-feet-long, 12-feet-wide bridge in the Boashan district of Shanghai — uses a single load-bearing arch, just like Anji.

Robotic arms swung back and forth for some 450 hours, fulfilling the demands of their algorithms. The robots were trained to follow separate models of the arch structure, fence, and deck, yielding some 176 uniquely-shaped pieces, which were then slotted into place.

The hyper-real, curvilinear, machine asthetic of many 3D modeled objects is also found in this bridge. On the deck, a brain coral pattern filled with fine stones add some warmth, bringing the feel of traditional Chinese garden path.

According to Tsinghua University, the 3D printed bridge costs just two-thirds the price of a bridge produced the conventional way.

Professor Xu and his team at the Tsinghua University School of Architecture’s Zoina Land Joint Research Center for Digital Architecture (JCDA) tested the bridge design using a 1:4 scale model to ensure it would be bear the weight of pedestrians. But for extra safety, they built in a real-time monitoring system. Wires and sensors embedded throughout the structure send a constant stream of data on the performance of the bridge.

ArchDaily notes the world’s first 3D printed steel bridge just debuted in The Netherlands, and Columbia Unversity has been experimenting with 3D printing timber lookalikes. Construction is becoming more intelligent.

In Detroit, twelve cultural and educational institutions are clustered together geographically, but have failed to form a unified district, a true cultural destination. The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) and the Midtown Detroit Inc, hope that a new central public space around the DIA and a broader urban design to boost connectivity and accessibility can change that. In an attempt to create a coherent, inclusive, accessible, and sustainable cultural district that can attract both residents and tourists, DIA and Midtown launched an international design competition last year, which has since yielded three finalists that presented to some 200 local residents at the DIA last week.

More than 40 submissions from 10 countries were narrowed down to eight finalists. And now it’s down to three interdisciplinary teams led by landscape architecture firms: Agence Ter from Paris, France; Mikyoung Kim Design from Boston, Massachusetts; and TEN x TEN, which is based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

According to the DIA and Midtown Detroit, Inc, who worked with the twelve educational and cultural institutions in the district, the finalist proposals are the result of a year of input from committees and residents, which participated through 40 public engagement sessions.

Finalists presented to the competition jury at the DIA, which includes Salvador Salort-Pons, president of the DIA; Maurice Cox, Detroit’s planning director; and landscape architect Julie Bargmann, ASLA, founder of D.I.R.T. Studio.

All the teams seemed to shrink down the width of boulevards; remove parking; add event spaces, cafes, and public art installations; and vastly expand public green space. The new designs look like the National Mall of Detroit or an interactive university campus. The design teams seek to bring people in from around the Detroit and the suburbs and keep them there, engaged and entertained year-round.

The Agence Ter team offered meandering paths through forested and planted areas, with experimental event spaces for local artists and public art installations that speak to Detroit’s unique history.

The Mikyoung Kim Design team envisioned a lush space, with a central lawn that can host events, as well as an outdoor movie screen, cafe, playground, and maze garden that coverts into an ice rink in winter.

And the TEN x TEN team proposed a more angular, contemporary design, with green space but also “fog gardens,” an “exploratorium,” and interactive light graffiti wall.

An exhibition of the proposals is on view at the DIA until April 1. The winning proposal will be announced before the end of April.

This incredible investment in Detroit, which can raise its profile as a cultural mecca, can only help this city get back on its feet after years of disinvestment and near bankruptcy. Only a few years ago, the city seriously considered selling off the amazing art at the DIA to pay down debt.