After
restoration, conversion and extension by Arkitema, beautiful Nørre Vosborg
manor is now an up-to-date hotel, cultural venue and conference
centre, with a newly-built hotel wing and new design solutions for all of the
manor's many different buildings. The architectural practice of Erik Einar Holm was
responsible for the restoration and conversion of the manor house.
The new
hotel wing, designed by Arkitema, matches the largest of the complex's
buildings in terms of volume. Despite its size and location, however, it does
not compete for attention with the historical courtyard area and the main axis
of the complex. To lower the impact of the hotel wing and avoid an imbalance in
the historical structure, we sought to use alternative materials in relation to
the stud buildings' dominant red brick and thatched roofs. We used wood, which
satisfied the relevant criteria, and which is an unpretentious material
alongside the frugal red-brick buildings. Wood pervades the entire building,
even the roof, which is clad with planks of radial-sawn Siberian larch, laid in
a clapboard pattern.
The hotel
is characterised by a roof without dormer windows. We have lifted and opened
the clapboard pattern, and thereby enabled the creation of a belt in the roof
surface which integrates the openings necessary for habitation in the roof
storey. By locating the openings to the terraces in this half-open belt, we
reduce and dissolve the visual impression of 'holes' in the otherwise
homogenous roof surface.