Local saga inspires new hotel in Iceland

Posted in News on 26 October, 2017

A new 150 room luxury hotel & spa with a 1000m2 geothermal lagoon will soon stand by the beautiful Snæfellsjökull Glacier in Iceland just two hours from the Icelandic capital Reykjavik. Inspired by a local saga Danish designer Johannes Torpe has proposed a concept that uses architecture and design as means to bring guests closer to nature and ultimately themselves.

The travel industry is experiencing a boom in clients searching for authentic and untouched destinations. This combined with a rise in wellness tourism and still more people searching for escapes into nature away from the fast pace of everyday life makes Iceland the perfect location for a new kind of luxury retreat.

Danish design company Johannes Torpe Studios are now releasing the first visuals of their vision for the grand resort they have called ‘The Red Mountain Resort’. The concept combines the interest for slow paced solitude with a spiritual dimension delivered by the mysticism already present in the surrounding landscape, where, according to local mythology, ‘invisible people’, trolls and elves are believed to roam.

The area is furthermore home to the Icelandic saga about Bárður Snæfellsás, who is said to have left the chaotic world of men behind to live in solitude in the nearby mountains. Johannes Torpe Studios has interpreted the saga into a poetic journey through the building, accentuated in the resort’s spa experience.

“The idea is to invite the guest on their own personal journey in an environment where the extremes of Icelandic nature are accentuated. Personally I can’t think of a better place to find some inner peace than on top of a geothermal well – a direct line to the center of the earth”, says Creative Director Johannes Torpe about the design.

Johannes Torpe Studios developed the project for Icelandic property development company Festir ehf. in an invited competition. The work is in an early stage and geological tests of the underground and the capacity of the nearby natural well are currently being undertaken.

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