Located in a brutalist former bank headquarters in Stockholm, Universal Design Studio’s project, the At Six hotel, is home to one of Europe’s most ambitious contemporary art collections within a hotel. The London-based studio carried out a complete interior renovation to create the 343-room luxury hotel in the Swedish capital’s Brunkebergstorg Square. The brief was to create a desirable, fashionable destination that would appeal to both locals as well as international guests, and become the premier luxury hotel in Stockholm. 

Working on the immediate architectural landscape of the square through to the extensive interior renovation and new facade, the scheme includes ten floors of guest rooms, comprising 343 rooms, 38 suites, a ’Masterpiece suite’ with a private rooftop terrace and panoramic windows in three directions, a 100 cover restaurant, a wine bar, cocktail bar and a 2000 sqm events and flexible work space. The Listening Lounge is the hotel’s social living room with focus on sound and music quality, featuring world-class collectors, local and international DJs, lectures and album sessions.

Swedish architects Boijsen & Efervgren originally designed the building, a brutalist high-rise structure, in the 1970s. Moving away from the uncompromising and unforgiving aesthetic often associated with brutalism – Universal’s brief was to create a desirable destination. The design is focused on humanising the architecture, bringing a sense of desirability and luxury and turning it into a contemporary version of a metropolitan grand hotel. A palette of sawn stone, blackened steel, fine timber and polished granite is combined with warm greys, natural materials, soft furnishings and classic furniture editions. Light against dark, fineness against mass.