This might just be the most intriguing hotel that’s currently in the pipeline…
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Six Senses opening Norwegian glacier hotel
Nature-focused luxury hotel brand Six Senses, which is owned by IHG, is planning on opening a hotel in a pretty spectacular setting. The 94-room Six Senses Svart is expected to open in 2024 in Norway, in the Arctic Circle. This property has been under development for a while, but it has just been announced that it will be branded as a Six Senses.
The word “Svart” means black and blue in old Norse, and is a reference to the natural heritage of the ancient Svartisen glacier. The hotel will be located in the Holandsfjorden fjord, right by the Svartisen glacier. Since the property is being built in the Arctic Circle, you can expect lots of sunlight in summer, and lots of darkness (and hopefully Northern Lights) in winter.
Sustainability is a focus for Six Senses, and given the fragile environment the property is being built in, even more effort has gone into that than usual. As Neil Jacobs, Six Senses CEO, describes this property:
“Sustainable properties call for extraordinary creativity, and Six Senses Svart takes us to a whole new level in terms of pushing boundaries. The concept has become bigger than the project itself, as it will provide a futuristic showcase for what can be achieved in terms of sustainability and energy solutions, and therefore a blueprint within our hospitality industry and the development sector in general.”
It’s stated that the property will be off-grid and carbon neurtal:
- It’s allegedly the first building in the Northern Hemisphere to be designed and built after the highest energy-efficiency standards
- The property will harvest enough solar energy to go back into the system, covering the hotel, adjacent operations, boat shuttle, and the energy needed to construct the building, rendering it independent from the power grid
- The property will be self-sustaining, complete with its own waste and water management, recycling, and renewable infrastructure
- Six Senses Svart is the northernmost implementation of the Paris Agreement, “demonstrating that carbon neutrality can be not only feasible in a sophisticated development at an eco-sensitive site, but can also be profitable”
This property looks amazing, and will be part of IHG
First of all, this is probably the most amazing-looking hotel I’ve ever seen. If it’s half as spectacular as it looks in renderings, it’ll be awesome. I had such a good time visiting Longyearbyen, Norway, several years back, which is the world’s northernmost settlement. However, it was far from luxurious.
To see a luxury hotel open in a setting like this seems so cool. This would of course be fun in summer, when there’s constant daylight, though it would also be special in winter, for the coziness and to hopefully get to see the Northern Lights.
The other cool angle here is that IHG now owns Six Senses. Six Senses properties are slowly being integrated into IHG’s loyalty program, so hopefully that process continues.
Suffice it to say that being able to redeem IHG points here would be incredible. And even if there isn’t any award availability, at least being able to earn points for stays here would be a useful opportunity.
Bottom line
Six Senses Svart is expected to open in 2024, and will be located right next to a glacier in Norway. Six Senses has some special properties that are off the beaten track, though this might be the coolest addition yet.
Personally I kind of view Six Senses as being the new Aman — Aman used to open hotels in remote locations, but since being sold, Aman is simply cashing in, and opening hotels in places like Los Cabos, Miami, and New York.
Anyone else super intrigued by the Six Senses Svart?
Too bad glaciers are
Hate to break it to you, but there was a piece in the Norwegian news recently that the builder of the property is bankrupt.
Not sure whether it will by run by someone else though.
The problem with how non-Norwegian media outlets report on this hotel, is that they leave out some key details:
1. The project has been stuck in development limbo for nearly a decade now
2. IHG will only run the property; IHG is neither building this project nor in any other way investing money into the hotel to secure its completion, that is still up to original property developer, Svart Eiendom
Or more so that the developer behind is actually bankrupt, and in court for fraud proceedings…
If it was up to the so called environmentalists everyone would live in NYC or SF. They want to turn the rest of the world into a National Park with no thoughts on how that effects the rest of us who need to make a living. I live in Alaska and we are constantly battling this in regards to our fishing, mining, timber and energy production industries. I like seeing responsible developments that are environmentally conscious but some people are never satisfied!
I live in NYC, and believe me, I want no more people here haha.
I don't have a problem with necessary industry so people can make a living. I actually think Alaska has done a good job of this. Alaskans are proud of their industry, but are equally proud of their natural beauty and want to protect the land.
My concern is less with the industry and tourism and keeping places "untouched," but with...
I live in NYC, and believe me, I want no more people here haha.
I don't have a problem with necessary industry so people can make a living. I actually think Alaska has done a good job of this. Alaskans are proud of their industry, but are equally proud of their natural beauty and want to protect the land.
My concern is less with the industry and tourism and keeping places "untouched," but with the way that beautiful remote places have a tendency to get turned into generic luxury experiences for people to consume, driving up costs of living, costs of visiting, and ultimately making certain places unaffordable and inaccessible to large swaths of people. I hope this doesn't happen in Norway.
The hotel looks cool, but I have to say it does look like a blemish/scar on a really beautiful pristine natural landscape. If you care deeply and foremost about cool luxury hotels, you'll like this. But I can't help but feel that this ruins this fjord.
I hope Norway doesn't transform into a place where the beauty, natural wonder, and remoteness are just commodified into luxury experiences like this. A huge part of the...
The hotel looks cool, but I have to say it does look like a blemish/scar on a really beautiful pristine natural landscape. If you care deeply and foremost about cool luxury hotels, you'll like this. But I can't help but feel that this ruins this fjord.
I hope Norway doesn't transform into a place where the beauty, natural wonder, and remoteness are just commodified into luxury experiences like this. A huge part of the charm, and the experience, of this part of Norway, is the quiet, the peacefulness, the non-resort, non-chain-hotel quality of it.
Agree 100%
It looks incredible! Definitely putting this on my watchlist!
There's going to be sufficient sunlight in the winter to run the hotel without outside power? I don't think that's likely. Looks pretty though.
No way this will be independent of the power grid in the winter. Not only will there be less sun to generate electricity but the hotel will need increased power for lighting and heating.
the harsh weather in northern Norway also generates energy... or it only needs to theoretically to be sufficient, you can't forbid a building to use grid power
Won’t they be able to store the energy they harvest during the summer, for use during winter?
How exactly do they plan on "harvesting solar energy" during the winter? Or at least, enough to run a whole hotel?
They don't; it's a marketing gimmick for suckers who don't want to feel bad about travelling first class across the globe to see the place. Within the Arctic circle, there will be days in the winter when the sun does not go up at all. Of course, all it takes for solar energy to fail is just a cloudy day.
They claim self-sustainability by planning to keep the net consumption negative, on average through the...
They don't; it's a marketing gimmick for suckers who don't want to feel bad about travelling first class across the globe to see the place. Within the Arctic circle, there will be days in the winter when the sun does not go up at all. Of course, all it takes for solar energy to fail is just a cloudy day.
They claim self-sustainability by planning to keep the net consumption negative, on average through the year. This means feeding power into the grid during summertime when the sun is shining. Obviously this does NOT make them "independent from the power grid" by any means. If they really were, they wouldn't hook up the property to the grid in the first place.
In any case, Norway relies mainly on hydropower, which is fairly sustainable compared to the alternatives.
Point of clarification:
Solar generates electricity on cloudy days. So “all it takes for solar energy to fail is just a cloudy day” is nonsense. Don’t you ever wear sunglasses on a bright overcast day?
Will there be solar energy when the sun doesn’t shine at that latitude? No. But saying clouds negate solar completely is silly.
When the sun is covered by clouds, solar panels produce only a small fraction of their normal power output. But you are right, it was incorrect of me to say that a single cloudy day will lead to failure.
The reason for this is that typically, solar panel systems are equipped with a battery backup. An appropriately sized system will produce enough power to recharge those batteries even if they work optimally for just a...
When the sun is covered by clouds, solar panels produce only a small fraction of their normal power output. But you are right, it was incorrect of me to say that a single cloudy day will lead to failure.
The reason for this is that typically, solar panel systems are equipped with a battery backup. An appropriately sized system will produce enough power to recharge those batteries even if they work optimally for just a few hours per day. However, without sunlight, a battery backup would last for days, but not the entire winter at that latitude.
Looks a lot like the new Apple headquarters.
This looks extremely cool but I can't ever read hotels' statements about their sustainability efforts without extreme irony. They are so focused on sustainability/eco-friendly/etc, but hey lets take this untouched area and put a hotel in where it requires waste management, water management, drainage, etc.
I do agree with this. Not to mention, the carbon output of people traveling to get there. It likely takes multiple flights and then a drive (or helicopter ride?) for anyone not living in Norway to get to, given how remote it is. And probably not a particularly short drive given how long it takes to drive anywhere in Norway with all the fjords and ferries.
This makes me think of the Arctic Bath Hotel (SLH) in Swedish Scandanavia... always nice to have high end hotels added to areas off the beaten path
No beaten path should be accessible only by backcountry. Such permanent structures do not belong in these settings. They ruin them.
This looks unbelievably cool. I spent a few weeks in Norway a couple of years ago and it was fantastic, especially the Lofoten Islands, which are even farther north of here. At the time, I wondered why there weren't more luxury hotel options in Norway, given how beautiful it is.
Granted, we camped almost the entire time (one of the many great things about Norway is you can camp just about anywhere) and if...
This looks unbelievably cool. I spent a few weeks in Norway a couple of years ago and it was fantastic, especially the Lofoten Islands, which are even farther north of here. At the time, I wondered why there weren't more luxury hotel options in Norway, given how beautiful it is.
Granted, we camped almost the entire time (one of the many great things about Norway is you can camp just about anywhere) and if I returned I feel strongly that it's the best way to go (at least in the summer), but a few nights in this hotel would definitely be a great break from sleeping in a tent!