At Niels Brocks Gade 1 in Copenhagen stands a building that has attracted many an admiring gaze. The magnificent original building was designed in 1903 for an insurance company, and was later home to the Royal Danish Academy of Music. After standing vacant for an extended period, the building now welcomes the Nobis Hotel Copenhagen, which is opening today.

Wingårdh Architects has redesigned the interior of the hotel. With a painstakingly deft touch they’ve preserved the neoclassicism of the old building: the well-to-do elegance, the spaciousness, the beautiful details. At the same time, some new features have been added with the renovation based on a combination of clean lines with playful furniture and color elements. Vivid blue-green tones have been introduced into the seventy-seven guest rooms, with additions to the original décor clearly articulated as freestanding objects. The materials are sourced directly from nature: marble, wood, leather, and wool. Much of the interiors have been custom designed to realize Nobis’s mission of providing a warm and relaxed hotel environment.

“By basing our work on Nobis’s own visions for the new hotel and on the given conditions of the site, the design of the interior becomes integral to the project as a whole,” says Helena Toresson, an interior designer at Wingårdh Architects. “That creates a fidelity to the project concept that would have been impossible to achieve if we had relied on off-the-shelf furniture.”

The guest rooms feature custom-designed steel-framed beds combined with wardrobes, stools, benches, and desks made from wood and natural leather. Here the art that usually hangs on the walls lies instead on the floors, incorporated into the expressive woolen rugs found on every level. The bathrooms have freestanding vanity cabinets with coordinating mirrors. And in the lobby the guests are met by a reception desk of cast concrete, a reference to the fact that the original building was one of the first to be constructed of the material. From the lobby, the monumental staircase has been extended downward, leading to the restaurant. The courtyard wing is an addition from the 1960s that is now clad in copper sheeting and glass, the irregular pattern varying in both length and width in an homage to Le Cobusier’s convent La Tourette. Inside the restaurant are tables and bar counters that have been custom-designed for Nobis.

Project in Brief
Client: Nobis AB
Type: Interior renovation
Site: Niels Brocks Gade 1, Copenhagen
Size: 5,500 sq m
Program: 77 guest rooms, restaurant with seating for 80, spa, two conference rooms, one chambre séparée.