by Stephen Todd

When the SAS Royal Hotel opened in Copenhagen in 1960 it was, at 69.6 metres tall, the city's first skyscraper.

Entirely designed by Arne Jacobsen, from the blocky reinforced concrete structure to the furniture, fixtures and flatware, it was a perfectly formed mid-century modern gesamtkunstwerk, or total art work.

This month it is reborn as a future classic, in a project orchestrated by local design studio Space Copenhagen. The lobby, reception, restaurant and meeting rooms are already finished while guest rooms are opening in increments.

Originally used as the in-town terminal for Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS), the lobby once buzzed with jetsetters swivelling on Jacobsen's curvaceous Egg and Swan chairs, designed especially for the space. The marble spiral staircase was perfect for making a grand entrance wearing something appropriately space-agey. (Stanley Kubric used Jacobsen's futuristic cutlery in 2001: A Space Odyssey.)

In the rooms, a waist-high timber baseline running around the periphery featured inbuilt desks and mirrors, bedside consoles and bedheads. Adjustable reading lamps slid along an inset rail. In effect, each of the 260 suites was a mini machine for living in, at least for the duration of a stay.

As air travel mutated into mass tourism the Royal gradually devolved into an anonymous business hotel. Jacobsen's grand plan became scrambled, the modular fittings deteriorated and the lobby became what French theorist Marc Augé calls a "non-place", a faceless space of transience.

Now the home of the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, when new management decided it was time to reinvent a mid-century icon they called upon the services of Space Copenhagen.

"Our intention was to preserve the hotel's extraordinary character but we didn't want to turn it into a museum," says Peter Bundgaard Rützou, who along with Signe Bindslev Henriksen founded Space Copenhagen in 2005. "We want to bring it to life for a new generation."

That meant reconfiguring the lobby, removing a redundant retail operation to create a vast space. This they punctuate with openwork timber screens to create niches in which guests can lounge or work. The helical marble staircase – a feat of engineering – has been restored to its former glory, the handrails encased in fine hide according to Jacobsen's original intent. (Rützou and Henriksen used the maestro's drawings, buried in the hotel's archive.)

A new dining room on the ground floor – the Café Royal – features little-known Jacobsen pieces like the Giraffe dining table and Mayor sofa, reproduced from originals found in the basement.

In the rooms, Space Copenhagen has devised a central timber module to anchor the open floorplan and divide its sleeping and entertaining zones. The rich timber of the joinery segues into parquet floors, creating visual unity and warmth. A new, deep marble window sill leads the gaze out to a cloud-chased northern sky, the pewter hues echoed in silky grey soft furnishings and carpets.

"We were fascinated by the light both outside the building and inside the rooms," explains Henriksen. "Seeing the constant shift of reflections from the facade is truly distinctive to the hotel." So the pair designed a set of three tall, bronze-framed pivoting wall mirrors in varying widths in the rooms, to relay the cityscape to the interior. Called Amore, they are manufactured by young Danish brand &tradition;.

Awarding the hotel Best Restoration in its annual design awards issue last month, Wallpaper* magazine's judges commented: "We think the revival of a landmark Copenhagen hotel has staying power."

The rebirth of the SAS Royal is emblematic of a new era in Danish design. Rützou and Henriksen's intervention is nuanced, gently coaxing the Space Age treasure into a new millennium.

"Danish design cannot rest on its laurels," says Jens Martin Skibsted, chairman of the Danish Design Council.

A designer himself, Skibsted reckons "it's something in our DNA that makes Danish design a certain way" and, by definition, DNA must evolve to ensure the survival of the species. In Denmark, brands like &tradition; – which launched in 2010 and merged with fellow newcomer Hay in 2016 – and Muuto (which was acquired by American interiors behemoth Knoll last year for $300 million) are signs of a healthy new breed.

Working with designers of Henriksen and Rützou's ilk, both graduates of the Danish Academy of Art and therefore steeped in the history of national practice, these new brands are forging a renaissance.

True to tradition, they revel in a certain nonchalance of silhouette, privileging simplicity of material and finish. As Skibsted puts it, Danish design "doesn't try too hard. There's not too many details. It's not forced." At the same time, he says, "we like to add a bit of fun to the design. It's never pompous."

Fresh perspectives

"Mid-century modernism casts a long shadow over Danish design," says Maria Foerlev, owner of Copenhagen's edgy contemporary design gallery Etage Projects. "The creatives we work with have tremendous respect for the mid-century modernists. Who doesn't? But they are a young, internationally schooled crowd and are therefore more free to operate without the heavy legacy of the old Danish masters."

A great-niece of Arne Jacobsen – whom, like most Danes, she reveres – Foerlev is interested in work that operates at the intersection of design, architecture and art. Work by the likes of Thomas Poulsen who juxtaposes apparently incompatible elements as a means of provoking emotion: lamps made of coconut shells and brass sheeting anchored in mounds of raw concrete, for instance. He also makes tables from massive slabs of quarried rock and creates monumental terracotta planters that appear hewn from the earth.

Working under the anonymous (and meaningless) moniker, FOS, Poulsen has designed boutiques and runway scenography for cult French fashion brand Céline.

Another designer, Fredrik Paulsen, creates hard-edged sculptural chairs and tables from quarried stone, anodised aluminium and glass as commentary upon consumerism, artificiality and counter-culture.

A regular presence on the international design circuit (Miami, Basel, New York...), Foerlev insists: "We need to move on, design-wise, and reflect contemporary culture. Not disrespecting past masters but keeping design relevant. At Etage Project we are interested in work that translates conceptual visions into the realm of functionality and everyday objects."

Foerlev grew up in a house designed by Jacobsen. She studied art and design history at Sotheby's Institute in London, then architecture at the Danish Royal Academy. Suffice to say, she knows her classics. But it's the frisson that derives from the ambiguity of an object that most excites her.

NEED TO KNOW

• Radisson Blu Royal Hotel Hammerichsgade 1, Copenhagen. Tel +45 3342 6000. Rates from $220 a night. Room 606 of the hotel is the one room preserved in the original design by Jacobsen. You can see it by appointment.
• Etage Projects Borgergade 15E, Copenhagen. See etageprojects.com