Hospitality Design - February/March 2021 - 101

VILLA COPENHAGEN

Arches made from copper found on the building's roof add
character to Villa Copenhagen's breakfast restaurant

A wraparound bar defines
Kontrast brasserie

The rooftop space features a pool, bar, and a
hidden garden that supplies the F&B venues

Photos by STINE CHRISTIANSEN and ANDY LIFFNER

Guestrooms boast Nordic-style furnishings
like walnut wood-wrapped wardrobes

Little has changed on the façade of the neoBaroque Copenhagen Central Post Building.
Unveiled in 1912 as the headquarters for the
Danish Post and Telegraph Company and now
reborn as the 390-room Villa Copenhagen,
its interiors, by contrast, are largely shorn of
historic ornamentation.
" From the outside, it looks palatial. You
would have expected the same inside, but
so much was stripped out in the 1960s and
'70s, " recalls Richard McConkey, associate
director and head of hospitality at London's
Universal Design Studio, which designed 381
of the guestrooms. Local jeweler Shamballa
Jewels, responsible for the villa's glass-capped
courtyard lobby, designed eight suites, while
Danish architect Eva Harlou kitted out one
solely with sustainable components.
Because of the building's quirky interior
architecture, Villa Copenhagen flaunts
more than 50 room types, ranging from
airy lairs with 13-foot-high ceilings to cozy
attic accommodations with exposed beams.
Wardrobes crafted from walnut, smoked glass,
and brass are an ode to Danish Modernist
cabinets, while custom light fixtures
reinterpret photos from the post office archives.
Hues of green-gray and pale ochre are redolent
of late 19th-century Danish artist Vilhelm
Hammershøi's moody paintings. " We wanted
them to feel residential, " says McConkey.
Villa Copenhagen's five F&B venues come
courtesy of Epicurean, the restaurant and bar
design studio from Goddard Littlefair, which
also handled the hotel's other public spaces.
Buoyed by vintage images capturing the
breakfast room's past as a hub for sorting mail,
Epicurean reimagined that era with materials,
such as the freestanding arches shaped from
copper that was stripped off the hotel's roof.
" It was important for us to key into the
architecture, culture, and history, " says
Jo Littlefair, director and cofounder of
the London firm, who noted how yellow
brickwork and stone flooring were unearthed
during the construction process. " There were
loads of strands to pick up and see where they
took us. "
One of the few corners where heritage
elements were preserved in the hotel is now
home to the T37 Bar, fashioned around the
existing Arabescato marble columns and
starring an assemblage of leather satchel straps
and brass joinings that are reminiscent of mail
carrier bags. " It's a place that is special, but not
ostentatious, " says Littlefair. " It puts its arms
around people and helps them unwind. "

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