Room 606 by Arne Jacobsen

During our recent trip to Copenhagen, we were shown the entire SAS Royal Hotel, made possible by the wonderful hotel management team. This building (SAS House) was the masterwork of the great Danish architect and designer, Arne Jacobsen (1902 – 1971), and is the first design hotel ever built. It also included an airline terminal when it was completed in July 1960 and was also the first hotel built by the Scandinavian Airlines System. The exterior of the SAS Royal Hotel remains the same, but the interiors have been altered tremendously and it’s fixtures thrown out the door or sold. Though a shell of the glorious 60’s gone too soon, The SAS Royal Hotel (Radisson Collection Royal Hotel), with a total of 260 guest rooms today, has one room, Room 606 – the only original interior of the SAS House that has been preserved which showcases the woodwork and various furnishings that Arne Jacobsen originally created for all the guest rooms.

Here’s sharing with you some images we collected of Room 606.

“You can imagine Arne Jacobsen sitting here with his pipe.” Michael Demorit merrily quipped as we entered room 606. Pictured here is the Swan “Svane” chair (1958 – the first chair designed for the SAS House and originally intended for the air terminal and eventually installed throughout the Royal Hotel),  FH 3515 low table and the two-seater 3300 series sofa (1956 – originally designed for the air terminal) were all designed by Arne Jacobsen specifically for the SAS House.

The outermost wall in Room 606 has a full glass panel that offers delightful views of the magical Tivoli Gardens and the central rail station and also allows natural light to pour into the room. The curtains and blinds allow for privacy and different levels of light.

The Egg “Ægget” chair (1958) was originally designed for the hotel lobby and subsequently installed in the guest rooms.

The two-seater 3300 series sofa, the Egg, and the Swan apart from the Drop “Dråben” chair (recently relaunched by Fritz Hansen after more than 50 years in hibernation) on the extreme right are of recent production. The Drop chair was designed for the hotel snack bar and also used in guest rooms. The Drop chair in the snack bar was upholstered in brown leather with copper-plated legs and to our knowledge, only 40 pieces of this special model were produced. All the pieces in Room 606 have been upholstered in a bright fabric that contrasts with Jacobsen’s original muted colors. On the far right corner stands the Royal floor lamp. The vintage ashtray together with the Royal floor lamp was also used at the Vestibule seating area on the second floor.

A pair of vintage reading lamps sits in a slot above the wenge paneling that allows them to be positioned anywhere across the entire wall. Bedside tables with a single pull out drawer supported by metal brackets that fit into the slots between the wenge panels can be positioned at two different heights. In the middle of the room is a wool curtain hanging from a track on the ceiling which allows the sleeping and sitting areas to be divided.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank Boline Andersen and Michael Demorit for their kindness and hospitality who allowed us all the time we needed in Room 606, Room 506 and every other room and space we requested to see. We also enjoyed tremendously the time spent at the current crown of the hotel, the elegant Alberto K Restaurant (named after the hotel’s first General Manager, Alberto Kappenberger), discussing the history of the hotel, Arne Jacobsen’s legacy and the design scene in Singapore over an unbelievable view of Copenhagen. We had a wonderful time.

Room 606 is available for booking.