Royal Hotel - Copenhagen, Denmark

When it opened in 1960, the Radisson Collection Hotel, Royal Copenhagen, as it is now called, was the talk of town as much for being the city’s first skyscraper, as for its top-to-toe design – which included everything from the exterior of the façade to the furnishings and cutlery – by Danish architect Arne Jacobsen. 

Since then a series of unenthusiastic updates left the hotel looking like it had seen better days, with much of its original attributes sadly lost or put in storage. 

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.