Experience Copenhagen’s new award-winning, tree trunk-covered power plant

Meet the architects and the client behind Copenhagen’s new award-winning power plant and experience the equally acclaimed lighting design, bringing the open tree trunk-facades to life after dark. 



The project demonstrates how critical infrastructure can be designed to encourage curiosity and learning about the planet’s crucial resources, while also adding a recreational space to the city. The architectural design of Copenhagen’s new biomass-fired district heating power plant makes a virtue of opening this piece of – usually fenced in and heavily guarded - critical infrastructure to the outside world and as such representing a trend towards a higher level of knowledge and conscience regarding the energy we consume and where it’s coming from.

Copenhagen’s new power plant is wrapped in a six-meter-deep curtain of suspended tree trunks, creating the appearance of a dense forest, symbolizing the transition away from coal as source of energy. As a further step towards connecting the public with the infrastructure, the facade integrates a staircase leading to a viewing platform, perched on the edge of the roof, affording a unique view of the city, the harbour and the sea. The walk inside the curtain of tree trunks is dotted by stops at large bay windows, offering a look inside the power plant interior and the energy production. Between sunset and midnight, a light installation illuminates the façade, adding a new layer of calmly moving patterns, inspired natural structures like leaves or waves.

The event will start at 9.30 pm where visitors are invited to walk up the staircase through the curtain of tree trunks. The client and architects behind the design of the plant will be present to present and discuss the ideas and ambitions for the power plant and its design.