Danish designers are known for creating some of the most iconic furnishings of the midcentury-modern era — think of Louis Poulson’s coveted PH Artichoke lamp, Arne Jacobsen’s Drop, Egg and Swan chairs or Hans Wegner’s Papa Bear chair — and their legacy of clean lines and curated minimalism is certainly alive and well today in Copenhagen.
A handful of the city’s best boutique hotels — some new, others long-established — have become design destinations in their own right. From a hotel in a former coal crane to rooms inspired by theater sets, see highlights from the most notable design-driven hotels in Copenhagen — as well as recommendations for the suites to stay in.
Nobis Hotel
The Swedish architect Gert Wingardh transformed this turn-of-the-century building — formerly the Royal Danish Conservatory of Music — into a modern luxury hotel, which is perfectly in step with its upscale namesake sister property in Sweden. The intense blue Nobis Suite is the hotel’s highlight, with a design rich in carefully considered details — bathrooms tiled floor-to-ceiling in gray Bardiglio marble, an angular cube-shaped steel poster bed and crystal drinking glasses by the Danish design firebrand Frederik Bagger.
Hotel Alexandra
All rooms at Hotel Alexandra pay tribute to Danish modern design: Doubles and singles feature either 1960s or 1970s-inspired furnishings and colors. But the real throwbacks are its top-floor suites, which honor individual Danish designers and are decorated with original pieces. The Verner Panton corner suite is the hotel’s most visually arresting space, with its shocking pink entranceway, purple-blue-toned bedroom and all-orange living area. To stay there is to immerse in Panton’s bold, colorful and futuristic world.
Hotel Sanders
Rather than design rooms as spaces in which to rest, the former ballerina and producer-turned-hotelier Alexander Kolpin approached Hotel Sanders’s 54 accommodations in the same way he would a theater set. He brought together eclectic décor and furnishings — Danish woodwork, Italian marble, eccentric Liberty London prints and modernist and expressionist artworks — to create the hotel’s richly detailed, Danish colonial-cum-modern settings.
While the tiny, single-bed, train-cabin-inspired coupé room is Kolpin’s favorite, the 19th-century building’s expansive Sanders apartments are more suited to entertaining, sleeping up to six people with a kitchen and dining room. “I’ve always created experiences for an audience,” he says — in this case, the guests.
Vipp Hotel
The Danish industrial-product design firm Vipp has moved into hospitality with Vipp Hotel, a series of exclusive-use suites in multiple destinations. Its first “room,” in Sweden, was a modern take on an archetypal cabin in the woods — and last November, the company opened the Vipp loft, a 4300-square-foot, one-bedroom suite atop the company’s offices, which occupy a former printing factory in Copenhagen’s industrial Islands Brygge area. (Chimney House, Vipp’s next project within a former pumping house, will be its third room, opening early 2018.)
Framed by sloping ceilings and original oak rafters, the space is anchored by an open, fireplace-heated living space and kitchen; upstairs, the bedroom is perched under the apex of the roof with a study and a library occupying the north and south wings.
Thekrane
The developer Klaus Kastbjerg is known for transforming disused industrial landmarks; he turned a former Danish press paper storage facility into the art, food and fashion hub Papiroen (Paper Island). But for his latest project, Thekrane, a luxury one-room hotel, one-room spa and “glass box” meeting room are housed where you’d least expect them: within a long defunct 1970s coal crane, offering guests an unparalleled view of the city, including panoramas of the still-undeveloped Nordhavn (North Harbor). Within Kraneroom’s all black, pared-back interiors are custom furnishings — in leather, wood, stone and steel — made by Scandinavian artisans.
Hotel SP34
Set within three renovated townhouses, the contemporary design Hotel SP34 immerses you in neighborhood life within Copenhagen’s Latin Quarter. Its roomy penthouse, nestled under the eaves, offers views of the green-spired city hall and the tower of Christiansborg Palace. Skylights flood the suite with natural light, highlighting warm champagne- and tan-colored leather couches and beds with individually mounted oak headboards and soft leather neck-pillows.
Radisson Blu Hotel
When it opened in 1960, the Radisson Blu Hotel became a “landmark of the jet age,” Denmark’s first skyscraper — and the world’s first design hotel. (It was conceived entirely by Arne Jacobsen for SAS Airlines, which ran a terminal on the ground floor.)
Since then, the hotel’s spaces have been upgraded several times, but rooms in every category still include Jacobsen’s chair designs. Four suites have been refreshed in partnership with design house Fritz Hansen, in keeping with Jacobsen’s signature aesthetic — Room 1206 features Poul Kjaerholm furnishings, including a one-of-a-kind graphic artwork; Room 1106 incorporates several one-off pieces, such as a marble AJ sofa table, a leather Egg chair and a velvet Swan chair.
But in room 606 — now open only for guided tours — Jacobsen’s original interiors have been maintained exactly as installed. Painted in light shades of green with maple-wood-paneled walls, the room features iconic furnishings such as “The Drop” chair and the “3300” sofa series designed for the airport terminal in 1956, with a built-in makeup mirror, radio and intercom system.
Nimb Hotel
More than a century separates Hotel Nimb’s original 1909 Venetian-marble-clad facade and its modern wing, Tivoli Corner, but the upscale, private-home-feel of Nimb’s 17 rooms has been carried through to Tivoli’s 21 new suites.
Most rooms at Tivoli Corner feature fireplaces but are otherwise unique, eclectically furnished with antiques as well as modern artworks by Cathrine Raben Davidsen. But the standout is the 1536-square-foot Suite Vilhelm, inspired by the original hotel’s founder, Vilhelm Nimb, and his love of entertaining. A combined dining-and-living area flows into a Grand Balcony, where guests can enjoy private dinners with views of the Victorian-era amusement park Tivoli Gardens’ twinkling lights and scenic, restaurant-lined arcades below. “It’s a beautiful setting during day and night, overlooking the open-air pantomime stage — you can literally enjoy a ballet show or a concert from your own balcony,” says General Manager Iben Marburger Juul.
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