Credit: Space Copenhagen

The design aesthetic does not seek to mimic or filter the magnificence of the Norwegian landscape, but to be a humble backdrop to it
– Peter Bundgaard

Svart, the world’s first energy-positive hotel, has appointed award-winning Danish designers Space Copenhagen to lead the property’s interior design.

Designed by the Norwegian architect firm Snøhetta, Svart will be located in Arctic Norway at the base of the Svartisen glacier and will house an indoor-outdoor spa – designed by spa and wellness consultant Felicity Leahy, as well as four restaurants, an education centre and a design laboratory.

The glass-fronted, circular property will float on stilts above the Holandsfjorden fjord and is scheduled to open in late 2022. It aims to be fully off-grid, carbon-neutral and zero waste within the first five years of operation.

The Denmark-based design studio Space Copenhagen, founded by Peter Bundgaard and Signe Bindslev Henriken in 2005, has been charged with masterminding the entire interior vision for Svart.

The duo will draw on their years of creative collaboration to create an aesthetic which will reflect the project’s core values of sustainability, innovation and holism.

Providing an insight into their vision, Space Copenhagen founders, Bundgaard and Bindslev Henrikson said: ‘The four elements’ intrinsic connection to Norse mythology has provided the design aesthetic, poetically and holistically bringing together the tactile materials of stone and wood from the earth, the transparency and fluidity of water, the magic warmth of fire and the ephemeral intangible qualities of air.

“The design aesthetic does not seek to mimic or filter the magnificence of the Norwegian landscape, but to be a humble backdrop to it. The building itself - an unbroken, seamless circle - will become a portal dedicated to enhancing human connection to nature, the seasons, and to time itself.’

Space Copenhagen is responsible for creating award-winning design projects over recent years, with previous work including the 11 Howard Hotel in New York, The Stratford in London and the original Noma restaurant in Copenhagen.

With an approach they call ‘Poetic Modernism’, Space Copenhagen seeks to forge new paths by balancing opposites within their work.

For the team, curiosity is a fundamental human condition and it is this transformative curiosity they will bring to Svart.

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