Text description provided by the architects. Walking down Strandgatan in the heart of Visby, the medieval World Heritage City of Gotland, you will soon stumble upon a shiny copper-clayed "box", shimmering onto the street. This copper-clayd box is the most prominent part of the newly completed expantion of The Clarion Hotel Wisby. Through the acquisition of an adjacent property along Strandgatan the hotel has been extended by a further 77 rooms. The new link has been added to connect the original hotel with the recently aquired buildings.
The infill provides Strandgatan with a continuous streetfacade and enhances the east side of the streetscape. Seated on a steady base of concrete, the copper-clad box creates an intriguing entrance from Strandgatan and procession onto the garden. The facade follows Visbys traditional idiom of "a hole in the wall", while it simultaneously represents a contemporary design. The main materials are copper, glass and concrete. Other notable charateristics of the copper-clad box is the black steel wall facing the street and the grass covered roof. Internally, the new building provides accessibility to the hotel garden.
In addition to being a link between the existing and new parts of the hotel, the copper-clad box, dubbed The Copper hall, also serves as dining room, bar and lounge. The interior of each part of the hotel now reflects various periods in its history and offers a journey through time, from the middle ages to present day.
