World's Biggest Ski Dome, Anyone? Design by CEBRA

Danish firm CEBRA has shared with us its adventurous project Skidome Denmark, a vision for the 'world’s biggest ski dome' in the city of Randers, Denmark. The concept was commissioned by ski traveling agency Danski.

Video of CEBRA's proposed Skidome Denmark

Project Description from CEBRA:

The proposal offers over 3 km of indoor and outdoor slopes, freestyle park, hotel, restaurant and shops, covering a total area of 100.000 m2. CEBRA’s ambitious proposal consists of three centrally connected arches, which resemble the basic shape of a six-armed snowflake. The arches each span 700 m across the river Gudenåen and the top arch’s highest point rises 110 m over ground, creating a distinctive landmark for the entire region.

Bringing a piece of the Alps to Denmark

The basic idea of Skidome Denmark is to share and pass on the joy of skiing to the Danes by creating spectacular indoor facilities that bring skiers as close as possible to the experience of hurtling down a mountain side in the Alps. In order to meet this ambition, the architects have been inspired reversely, so to speak. Most ski domes around the world are designed from the inside with no or very few windows. However, an essential part of the skiing experience consists in being able to enjoy the surrounding scenery. The proposal’s high-rise composition of three arches combined with a filigree façade structure allows for spectacular views over Randers and the river-meadow area.

Skidome Denmark brings, quite literally, a piece of the Alps to Denmark: The slopes are developed in association with Alpe d’Huez ski resort in France, and the gradients are copied directly from the most popular pistes. The arches contain a total of six slopes with real snow and varying degrees of difficulty, so that skiers of all ages will be able to find challenges according to skills and experience. Every piste has its own chair lift and the three arches are conjoint by an elevator for transporting skiers between the different levels. In order to ensure variation in the landscape over time, it is possible to transform the pistes’ topography, providing visitors with a different experience each time they visit the ski dome.

Connecting the city

Besides its primary function as a ski park, the vision for Skidome Denmark is designed to form an addition to Randers’ infrastructure, connecting the city across the natural barrier formed by the river Gudenåen. It is the aim of the concept that the dome can be used and enjoyed by everyone – any time of the day, any time of the year. Thus, the arches’ exterior roof surfaces are an integrated part of the design equal to the interior ski slopes. The top arch’s roof offers two black pistes, allowing outdoor skiing even during the summer. The middle arch is shaped like an urban playground with street sport facilities for skateboarding, BMX etc., while the bottom arch has a green landscape roof, which like a raised city park invites to a wide range of leisure activities.

Project Details:

Name: Skidome Denmark
Commission: Private
Client: Danski
Type: Conceptual proposal
Location: Randers, DK
Area: 100,000 m2
Max. capacity: 3,000 guests
Facilities: 6 indoor and 2 outdoor ski slopes (total length of 3,020 m), 1 freestyle park, hotel, restaurant, bar, shops, public street sports park and green park