Hospitality Design - February 2018 - 106

siteseeing

copenhagen

Arcgency transformed a circa-1944 coal crane into the daring Krane,
comprising a single guestroom, meeting space, and spa

3XN. Its peekaboo façade of undulating timber
fins is arresting, as is its podium containing
a staircase and plazas meant to engage the
community. Even Tivoli Gardens, the storied,
19th-century amusement park, has a new
pavilion designed by New York architects Pei
Cobb Freed & Partners. Dubbed Tivoli Hjørnet,
it beckons from the street with an animated
glass wall-a nod to the fortification walls and
moat that once surrounded the city-while
stepped terracotta terraces on the garden side
look out on the park. Containing a food hall
and retail outlets, it's also home to 21 additional
rooms with balconies for the now 38-room
Nimb Hotel, dressed with four-poster beds and
antique furnishings by René Jasper Thomsen,
founder of local studio JasperJasper.
A few unconventional accommodations
also sprouted up in 2017, revealing
Copenhagen's free-spirited mentality. Vipp,
the Danish retailer known for design-forward
renditions of products like soap dishes and
trash bins, took a deeper plunge into the
hospitality arena with Vipp Loft. Located above
the company's Islands Brygge office, locally

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February 2018 hospitalitydesign.com

Douglas fir floors and black tones dress the Krane's
meeting space, which offers sweeping views

based Studio David Thulstrup successfully
carved a large, open space into fluid, intimate
zones and outfitted the retreat with a palette
of gray, green, and mustard. Black perforated
metal stairs complement an array of metal art
pieces. "We're on the brink of a new movement
for Scandinavian design. The same values
are still there, but we're truly coming out
from under the long shadow of midcentury
modernism," explains Thulstrup. "We are not
only minimalistic and Nordic, we are daring,
colorful, and experimenting."
That certainly holds true at the recently
refurbished 288-room Skt. Petri in the
Latin Quarter, where a vibrant emerald
and purple jewel-toned color scheme stands
in stark contrast to the usual neutral tones
synonymous with Scandinavian design. Vilhelm
Lauritzen's building from 1928 now features
the contemporary touch of Oslo-based designer
Anemone Wille Våge, mixing materials like
terrazzo and chenille, as well as heaps of works
from Danish artists such as the group Superflex.
Sister to the Stockholm original, there is also
Caption
the Nobis, a 77-key property designed
by here

Swedish architect Gert Wingårdh in the former
home of the Royal Danish Conservatory of
Music that flaunts its 1903 architectural bones
throughout, notably in the wood and marble
staircase. Inspired by a Le Corbusier monastery,
Wingårdh turned to a roster of natural
materials, including stone and glass, while
calming wood parquet floors in the guestrooms
are brightened by blue-green walls.
But perhaps the boldest example of new
Scandinavian design is on display at the
Krane, cleverly situated within a circa-1944
coal crane on Nordhavn Harbour. Remarkably,
Copenhagen's Arcgency converted it into a sole
guestroom, meeting space, and spa. Dominated
by varying shades of black, it features a
Dinesen Douglas fir floor and leather, stone,
and steel. Arcgency also made functional,
custom furniture pieces that effortlessly fold
away. Founding partner Mads Møller says that
sleeping "in the glass box on a Danish summer
night, opening up the sliding doors, the breeze
and light combined with the interior, the raw
crane elements, and the view of the ocean" are
highlights of the experience.
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Hospitality Design - February 2018

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