Photo by Andy Liffner.

Located in a brutalist former bank headquarters in Stockholm, Universal Design Studio’s latest project, the At Six hotel, is home to one of Europe’s most ambitious contemporary art collections within a hotel. The London-based studio carried out a complete interior renovation to create the 343-room luxury hotel in the Swedish capital’s Brunkebergstorg Square. The brief was to create a desirable, fashionable destination that would appeal to both locals as well as international guests, and become the premier luxury hotel in Stockholm.

Working on the immediate architectural landscape of the square through to the extensive interior renovation and new façade, the scheme includes ten floors of guest rooms, comprising 343 rooms, 38 suites, a ’Masterpiece suite’ with a private rooftop terrace and panoramic windows in three directions, a 100 cover restaurant, a wine bar, cocktail bar and a 2000 sqm events and flexible work space. The Listening Lounge is the hotel’s social living room with focus on sound and music quality, featuring world-class collectors, local and international DJs, lectures and album sessions.

Swedish architects Boijsen & Efervgren originally designed the building, a brutalist high-rise structure, in the 1970s. Moving away from the uncompromising and unforgiving aesthetic often associated with brutalism – Universal’s brief was to create a desirable destination. The design is focused on humanising the architecture, bringing a sense of desirability and luxury and turning it into a contemporary version of a metropolitan grand hotel.

A palette of sawn stone, blackened steel, fine timber and polished granite is combined with warm greys, natural materials, soft furnishings and classic furniture editions. Light against dark, fineness against mass. Guest rooms feature custom furniture and bespoke lighting, a dark oak clad window bay with tinted mirrors and marble credenzas that run the full length of each room.

The selection of contemporary and classic furniture pieces are complemented by bespoke pieces from local makers and established Scandinavian designers Universal commissioned directly for the project. Custom lighting by Rubn feature in each room, local glassmaker Carina Seth Anderson was commissioned to create handmade glass pieces for the public areas, while a local saddle maker hand-wrapped the Swedish leather handrail for the white granite grand staircase in the lobby. In the wine bar sits a communal table carved from a single Swedish Elm trunk by local artist Lies-Marie Hoffmann.

The art collection is curated by Sune Nordgren, formerly of the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. Works by Jaume Plensa, Olafur Eliasson, Julian Opie, Sol Le Witt, Tacita Dean, Richard Long and Marijke van Warmerdam are displayed within the public spaces, while individual artworks by Kristina Matousch are showcased in the guest rooms. Works by Swedish photographer Dawid complete the hotel art collection.

The hotel’s lobby, reception and restaurant are built around a grand central staircase, clad in white granite, featuring a 2.5meter tall marble sculpture commissioned especially for the project. Made by Catalan sculptor Jaume Plensa and titled ‘Mar Whispering’, the arresting sculpture creates a dramatic entry statement, signalling a world class art experience throughout the rest of the property.

[Images courtesy of Maccarone, New York, Gió Marconi, Milan and David Risley Gallery, Copenhagen. Photography by Sophie Thun.]