Best Restoration award for Blu

The world’s first design hotel, the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Copenhagen in Denmark is in the final stages of its extensive renewal. Wallpaper*, the world’s leading design magazine, is so impressed by the result that it has awarded the hotel the Best Restoration prize in its annual Design Awards issue.

In 1960, the legendary Danish architect Arne Jacobsen designed the whole ‘Royal Hotel’, today known as the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Copenhagen. Over the past year, the acclaimed Space Copenhagen (along with international architects and project leaders from Rezidor Hotel Group) has orchestrated the renewal, which has transformed all the guest rooms, the lobby, the restaurant and bar, and the entire meeting and events space.

The whole hotel will be fully renovated by spring 2018, with only one room remaining untouched - the iconic Room 606 on the sixth floor. It is one of the world’s most famous hotel rooms, and is kept exactly as it was designed by Arne Jacobsen in 1960.

By staying true to the legacy of the hotel, while reviving some of Arne Jacobsen’s less-known design classics and introducing new design elements, the world-famous icon has been modernized for the future.

In its annual Design Awards issue (February 2018), Wallpaper* says ‘the revival of a landmark Copenhagen hotel has staying power’, as it awarded the prize for Best Restoration. The magazine goes on to say:

Now, with little fanfare, the 259-property has revealed the final stages of a complete overhaul that has put it back on top form. Happily, many of Jacobsen’s original designs, such as his iconic Swan and Egg chairs and the central spiral staircase, have been reconditioned and reinstated, with local design studio Space Copenhagen adding its own signature flavour like custom lighting and furnishings in an urban charcoal colour palette with flecks of brass.

The result is a modern take on what the designers think Jacobsen would have done, while still respecting the architect’s legacy and honouring the property’s iconic status as the world’s first design hotel.

“The team working on this project has shown outstanding dedication and engagement to make sure the result is every bit as iconic as the original,” says Tom Flanagan, Area Senior Vice President Nordics of the Rezidor Hotel Group. “This prestigious award is recognition of everyone involved in the project.”

The Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Copenhagen is no stranger to awards. It received Condé Nast’s Readers’ Choice Awards 2017: Top Hotels in Northern Europe, and the World Travel Awards™ prize for Denmark’s Leading Hotel 2017. Now it adds Best Restoration by Wallpaper* Magazine in February 2018 to the list.

Congratulations to everyone who has worked hard to make the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Copenhagen renovation a huge success - the award is well deserved.

If you want to read the full article, click here to download a pdf version.