Oslo, Norway – Norwegian developer The Selvaag Group has given its approval to construct Lørenskog Winter Park near Oslo. Once completed, it will be the world’s largest indoor ski area.

Like many other similar snow domes around the world, the concept for Lørenskog Winter Park involves hotels, restaurants, shops, apartments and more surrounding an indoor ski slope a 10-minute drive outside of Oslo. Developers claim that Lørenskog will be the only indoor ski area in the world to feature 50,000-square meters of alpine skiing and freeride terrain as well as 2.5 km of cross-country skiing tracks, set on a suspended mezzanine at the top of one of the five lifts that will provide the uphill transport.

Alpine slopes of up to 505 meters in length are planned with slope angles of up to 40 percent. The five lifts will have an uphill capacity of 5,000 riders per hour. Up to 3,000 spectators will be able to watch special events and competitions.

For the project, developers have tapped Madrid architects Chapman Taylor, who also designed that city’s Xanadu indoor skiing complex. To achieve energy efficiency, designers plan to create a permanent snow field directly on bedrock composed of gneiss.

Developers expect to break ground before the end of the year, and Lørenskog Winter Park is projected to open in 2018.