Quality Hotel RamsaltRealized

Today’s visitor to Bodø is often drawn by the varied and wild nature that is a feature of this area of Norway. The hotel and its key ancillary functions of bar, restaurant and conference centre heighten these experiences by emphasising the close relationship to the landscape through dramatic openings in the façade. This contact with nature is continued in the hotel rooms themselves, featuring full-height picture windows.

The materiality of the façade continues the theme, preferring warm, textured metals and substantial, rich stone in contrast to the anonymity that define many urban projects today. The support for these choices also demonstrates the client’s desire to deliver an individual building of quality that will be a lasting contribution to the evolving Bodø streetscape.

In addition to 250 rooms, the project features a conference facility including ballroom for up to 800 people, a restaurant for 300, and all the associated kitchen and service functions that enable these to run smoothly on a compact urban site. All these challenges have been met through a combination of intelligent spatial planning, careful material selections and challenging the consultant team to devise creative solutions.

Against solving the relationship between these functions was the desire for openness and transparency both in to and out from the building. The technical demands that a tall building places on a project in addition to the fire safety demands from an 800-person auditorium had to be combined with the desire for openness, and the requirement from the local council for an active façade towards Sjøgata. Besides this, with sustainability in mind it is envisaged that the nearby water will act as both a heat source and sink to assist with both heating and cooling.

From an early point in the project there has been a desire to disrupt and blur the boundaries between the typical elements of a hotel and the local population – what is a typical hotel lobby, how do we challenge that preconception and how do we encourage the use of the bar and restaurant by non-guests? The response has been entrance and spatial sequence from Sjøgata that immediately orients visitors to the waterfront below, with the bar and restaurant easily accessible for vantage points of the waterfront. The façade at quay level is fully glazed, enabling views into the restaurant and open kitchen, welcoming passers-by into a seaside dining experience.