Finding a good hotel in Copenhagen is not an easy task. The fact that the hotel has 5 stars, and the Danes say that Paris Hilton stayed in it, does not mean anything: five stars here are comparable to a solid "three", for example, in Munich. The interiors of such hotels are striking in their minimalism, but what can you do: this is the Danish design. But if in Radisson, which actually became a monument to Arne Jacobsen, this seems more than justified and interesting, in most modern luxury hotels it just looks sad. And even if they tell you that in a sparsely furnished room there is an 18th century wardrobe and a TV costing a domestic car, and the bed is covered with sheets from the oldest Danish manufacture, this does not save you from a feeling of deep melancholy caused by the design of this room. There is a feeling that this was all done on purpose: so that you would like to quickly escape from the hotel to enjoy the beauty of Copenhagen. But there really is something to see, and not the last "attraction" - it is modern architecture.
Bella Sky Hotel is a four-star hotel. The customer, the owner of the nearby Bella Center, reasoned that adding a hotel to it was a good idea. Bella Sky is a fine example of early 21st century Danish architecture, the work of the renowned architecture firm 3XN. The hotel is made up of two towers curved in the opposite direction from each other. There is an airport nearby, so when designing it was necessary to take into account height restrictions: a maximum of 23 floors, so the required number of square meters was obtained by expanding the buildings horizontally. A bridge is thrown between the towers: during its design, strong wind loads were taken into account - to ensure the stability of its structure, special flexible elements were made at the corners of the bridge.
Bella Sky is located in
the new metropolitan area of Erestad. There are already housing, shopping centers, a school, a metro, a concert hall, and also beautiful forest parks, while earlier there was a training base for Danish troops. However, the Danes themselves are not enthusiastic about Estad: despite the fact that it is perhaps the most famous Danish "testing ground" for national and foreign modern architecture, the indigenous population does not really want to live here. The Danes are used to narrow streets, small shops and "mysterious" candle-lit cafes. For example, the school located here, also built according to the 3XN project, is very attractive and convenient. But at the same time it is terribly innovative: the training is conducted exclusively on computers and is sponsored by Apple. So conservative Danes are in no hurry to move here.
But back to Bella Sky. When entering the hotel, the first thing that catches your eye is a large, spectacular chandelier made up of LED tubes. This is the work of Kasper Jørgensen, partner at 3XN and head of his GXN department, which focuses on materials innovation and technology development (
Archi.ru published an interview with him). All interiors of the hotel, except for the Sky Bar, located on the top floor of one of the towers, are also made by 3XN. A staircase leads from the cozy lobby to the second level, which is made in such a way that two guests who meet on it could have a comfortable conversation. Stairs are a kind of "fetish" of 3XN architects: in their buildings, they curl, twist and even float in space. Therefore, even the evacuation stairs in Bella Sky are not like their completely unattractive counterparts in other high-rise buildings: they are beautiful and comfortable.
The hotel has everything a guest needs: rooms of various levels of comfort, fitness center, spa, bar and restaurant. But there is also a "zest" - the floor is only for ladies. It is pink, and there, in each room, special attention is paid to shower gels, the size of the hair dryer, the smoothness of the towels. Men are strictly forbidden to enter here, so in democratic Denmark debate immediately flared up over the inequality that such an architectural decision provokes. But after a while everyone came to the conclusion that it was just funny, and the question was removed by itself.
Bella Sky's room décor is Danish design at its best, and not at all in the spirit of five-star Copenhagen hotels. This is his modern turn of development: there is something from the art of new Danish cuisine, the influence of the NOMA restaurant and installations by Olafur Eliasson.
In the interior, the solution of the exterior is continued: from the color of upholstered furniture and the production of carpet to the bedspread with a pattern of "triangles" - everything reminds of the design of the facades of the building.
It is clear that the key advantage of every hotel room is the view from it. That is why Bella Sky has floor-to-ceiling windows. The view can be enjoyed even from the shower, and the spraying on the enclosing panel is made in such a way that from the cabin you can see everything that happens in the room and outside the window, but you cannot see the one who is washing in the shower from the outside.
Each room has wooden panels with small buttons that allow the visitor to call staff, leave a signal to clean the room, or turn on the Do Not Disturb indicator.
Bella Sky is not just a hotel, it is the quintessence of modern Danish architecture and design - just as the Radisson Arne Jacobsen became their manifesto half a century ago.
