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Inspired in part by his time running the W in New York City’ s Union Square, Marc began looking at custom design, authenticity, and individuality, and together they conceived a hotel that would exhibit these qualities in a way that felt organically Finnish and true to its environment. The result is a hotel themed on the Kalevala, an 18th-century literary work regarded as Finland’ s national epic.
Embracing the mantra“ style and story,” the Skvorcs, together with renowned Finnish architects SARC Group and interior design firm Stylt Trampoli, weaved Finnish folklore into nearly every fold of Klaus K’ s aesthetic fabric. At Ilmatar, Klaus K’ s popular Finnish restaurant, guests enjoy uncomplicated, modern takes on regional specialties under a large pike-perch mosaic, a tribute to the pike perch jaw bone instrument of the epic’ s protagonist, while the hotel’ s eggshaped front desk is a play on the creation egg of the story. The four themes of the Kalevala epic – passion, mysticism, desire, and envy – make up Klaus K’ s four room categories, from the burnt orange hues and reindeer motif of the“ mystical” rooms to the decadent chocolate and Bordeaux tones of the high-end“ envy” rooms. A fifth theme – the art suite – was added in 2009 with visiting artists creating their own captivating spaces.
“ We wanted to have a little fun with it,” explains Marc,“ to create some kind of reason to talk about our story with our staff and our guests – such as, what is an envy room?”
The art suites are just the newest manifestation of one of the Skvorc’ s guiding principles: to“ take the hotel out of the hotel.” The hotel’ s other rooms, while stylish, are devoid of bells and whistles. Large closets were replaced with small spaces behind mirrors, and small rolling tables replaced large upright desks.
“ Nobody really sits at that big desk anymore,” says Mia.“ You
can kind of create your own living space. It’ s almost like we took a blank piece of paper and said,’ Okay, what does a hotel room really need to have?’”
The Skvorcs accordingly made the decision not to hang any art on the walls of the hotel, and they often exhibit a kind of minimalist durability in their design choices. The bathrooms, for instance, are paneled with slabs of wood siding typically used on the exterior of Finnish buildings. For Marc, these choices are a gesture toward what he sees as the highest attribute of good design: timelessness.
“ I actually think that it’ s kind of easy to build a beautiful place,” says Marc.“ But can you build a beautiful place that has more of a background or deeper meaning and also has longevity, the ability to last, not just from a material perspective, but also to last in our guests’ eyes? The word‘ timeless’ is really key, both when it comes to atmosphere, what we want to create for guests, and also when it comes to investment, thinking about what’ s going to last.”
The concept of sustainability – from a stylistic, structural, and environmental perspective – is crucial to understanding the Skvorcs’ ethos and aesthetic.
“ We have a family business,” says Marc.“ Now it’ s the fifth generation with our kids, and there’ s a really cool phrase that Mia’ s brother used once. He said we’ re only borrowing this business from our children. I think that that fits very much with our philosophy in pretty much everything we do. We think about sustainability, whether it’ s the wooden paneling in the bathroom or picking out the silverware. Whatever it is, we think about the next generation.”
This story originally ran in Design Hotels’ Made by Originals book. www. designhotels. com www. jetsetter. hk