The bustle of the cycle paths, the hubbub of the traffic and the whine from the 63-metre tower in Tivoli, which carries visitors up and down in a never-ending cycle. Central Copenhagen at its best and most hectic.
In the midst of the confusion sits a 114-year-old National Romantic building at the corner of H.C. Andersens Boulevard and Niels Brocks Gade. Sculptural forms and a mass of detail adorn the yellow frontage facing the mass of humanity. The interior boasts a marble-clad main staircase, reliefs and stucco as far as the eye can see.
The building was originally built for the Gjensidige insurance company, but has been empty since the Royal Danish Academy of Music moved out in 2008. Now life and joy have returned to the 5,500 m2 building, which goes by the name Nobis Hotel Copenhagen.
Marble and extra-long drains
The historic building has undergone extensive renovation both inside and out. Over 100 new hotel rooms, lifts and a wellness centre are among the facilities of the ultra-modern luxury hotel. Everything has been preserved in the grandiose style of the 1900s, including the bathrooms.
“Like the rest of the hotel, the bathrooms are incredibly luxurious. Large bathtubs, wide marble tiles and Scandinavian elegance. The architects wanted the style to be carried down to the smallest detail, and this requires special solutions,” says Lasse Lyck, technical manager for Unidrain, which supplied specially designed drains for the hotel’s shower cubicles.
“80 of the bathrooms have the familiar Unidrain linear drain, but with a slightly unusual connection on the top, the so-called custom solution. The ordinary Unidrain grating in steel has been replaced by the fine marble tiles from the floor, with the drain concealed by the splendid marble which is all over the bathroom. The remaining 20 or so bathrooms in the hotel are particularly large and require extra long drains of more than two metres. We are the only company on the market able to supply such long drains with marble tiles,” he continues.
Modern special solutions preserve the elegance of the past
The renovation has been carried out with Arpe & Kjeldsholm as a principal contractor. The renovation has taken account of the elegance of the past, and the main staircase and the high ceilings with embedded concrete beams have been preserved. However, this also posed some challenges.
“You cannot drill into the old beams that criss-cross all the ceilings in the building. We naturally have to take this into account in the design of the long floor drains. We have therefore designed them so that the drain is slightly displaced and fits the individual room,” says Lasse Lyck.
The Nobis Hotel is by no means the first hotel that Unidrain has provided solutions for. So the company has extensive experience of consulting in this area.
“Throughout the renovation we have provided advice as part of the ‘package’. Among other things, we advised the client to install a so-called P-trap in the shower cubicle. The trap has a particularly large capacity, which means that it can handle the many hotel guests and maintenance is kept to a minimum. This is advantageous for the hotel, which saves thousands of kroner in the longer run,” Lasse Lyck concludes.
Read more about our bespoke drains here