It was originally built as a warehouse in 1787 by Danish companies that were involved in the slave trade in Ghana. The building was on the front line during the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801. It also housed the dead and provided shelter for the wounded and the desperate people of Copenhagen when the British bombed the Danish capital in 1807.
It’s a far less dramatic place today. The historic warehouse on Toldbodgade houses the 4-star Copenhagen Admiral Hotel, which welcomes guests from all over the world. The hotel has recently undergone renovation spanning several years, in which we have played an important role.
“The renovation has taken several years. When a building as old as this one is to be renovated, there is no such thing as standard solutions. All solutions have to be adapted to the building,” explains Lasse Lyck, our technical manager.
Advice prevents water damage
“Unidrain has assisted the hotel with the renovation of 366 bathrooms.
And that was no mean feat! Renovating bathrooms in a centuries-old building can have disastrous consequences if incorrect solutions are chosen or the drains are installed incorrectly. We have therefore advised the hotel on its options and limitations regarding the bathroom renovation from early on in the process,” explains our architectural adviser Dennis Bagge.
“Water damage is very hard to put right in a building of this age, so it’s important to choose the right solution from the start. At Unidrain, we advise on both the technical aspects and the design, and we are also more than happy to give a physical demonstration of how our various products are to be installed if needed,” he explains.
Special design solution makes shower screens invisible
Our products are normally manufactured to standard measurements, but when the need arises, we are able to customise the products to the customer’s special wishes. This was the case with the bathrooms at the Admiral Hotel.
“To achieve the best results, both the shower screens and drains differ by a few centimetres from the standard measurements. It might not sound like a lot, but it makes a big difference to the project and to the customer,” says Lasse Lyck.
And it’s not just in their measurements that our linear drains and shower screens for the historic hotel diverge from the standard. Working closely together with the hotel, we have also developed completely new design solutions.
“The hotel bathrooms are relatively small, so it was important to install shower screens which could barely be seen. And we’ve actually managed to do that,” says Lyck.
He explains that Unidrain’s shower screen, which is usually fastened to the floor and the tiled wall using a visible U-profile, is now mounted directly in the tiled floor and in the tiled wall, without any visible fittings.
“The shower screens and the rail render the screens pretty much invisible. This makes a small bathroom feel more roomy, and it’s the perfect solution,” explains Lyck.