Hotel At Six, Stockholm – the art hotel in the 1970s bank

A Jaume Plensa on the staircase, Olafur Eliasson in the corridors and a 1,200-square-metre roof terrace. Hotel At Six on Brunkebergstorg has turned a brutalist bank into Stockholm's most artistic grand hotel.

The first thing you see when you step into Hotel At Six on Brunkebergstorg in Stockholm is a white marble sculpture. Called Mar Whispering, it was made by the Catalan artist Jaume Plensa in 2017 and dominates the lobby staircase like a silent host. Behind the reception, more discreetly, hangs a photogravure by Tacita Dean. It sets the tone: At Six is a hotel where the art is not decoration but the whole point.

The hotel opened in 2017 in a building few would have earmarked for a luxury hotel: a brutalist former bank from the 1970s.

01The building: the savings banks' bank

The building – the Trollhättan 33 property – was built between 1973 and 1977 as the head office of Sparbankernas Bank and later became Swedbank's head office. It was designed by the architects Boijsen & Efvergren and is 135 metres long. Facing the square, the ground floor opens into an arcade clad in polished black stone, the entrances are framed in gold-coloured anodised aluminium, and the facade is made of brown anodised aluminium cassettes – according to Wikipedia, a typical and unusually well-designed example of the period's sheet-metal architecture. Stockholm City Museum has given the building a green rating, meaning it is considered of special value.

The site has a long history as a hotel address. In the 19th century Brunkebergstorg was lined with fashionable houses and hotels – the city architect Axel Nyström designed the distinguished Brunkebergs hotell, which took up the entire north side of the square, and in 1844 Hotel de la Croix opened in a building by Fredrik Blom. During the redevelopment of the Klara district in the 1960s almost everything was demolished. A 1967 plan for a large hotel on this very spot came to nothing when the American and Swedish backers pulled out, and the bank was built instead.

When the bank moved out in 2014, the building was converted into a hotel, shops and offices. On the north side of the square rises Peter Celsing's Riksbank building, and together they make Brunkebergstorg one of the best places in Stockholm to see modernism on a grand scale.

02The art: Plensa, Eliasson, LeWitt

At Six's art collection is curated by Sune Nordgren. Besides Plensa and Dean, original works by Olafur Eliasson, Julian Opie, Sol LeWitt, Spencer Finch, Richard Long, Marijke van Warmerdam and Kristina Matousch are placed throughout the corridors and suites, and photographs by the Swedish photographer Dawid hang in the public areas. The interiors are by the London-based Universal Design Studio, which has softened the concrete with polished marble, warm oak, hand-stitched leather and blackened steel.

Insider tip

Take the lift to the roof terrace on a summer evening.

03The rooms

According to Preferred Hotels & Resorts, the hotel has 343 rooms, 41 of them suites. Standard rooms are 22–25 square metres and suites 32–115 square metres, and from the upper floors you look out over the city's rooftops. The largest suite has its own roof terrace. At Six describes the mood as dark elegance – and the beds as made for deep sleep.

04Brasserie, wine bar and roof terrace

At Six has a restaurant, a wine bar, a cocktail bar and a roof terrace. Brasserie At Six describes itself as a modern brasserie where European tradition meets Nordic soul. Blanche & Hierta is the wine bar, known for its list, and Cocktail Bar is, according to the hotel, aimed at cocktail enthusiasts and bourbon collectors.

At the very top is Stockholm Under Stjärnorna – Stockholm Under the Stars – a 1,200-square-metre roof terrace with concerts, DJs and an outdoor cinema. For meetings and parties there are 3,000 square metres of flexible event space.

05Who is behind it

At Six is run by Nordic Hotels & Resorts, alongside hotels such as Amerikalinjen and The Thief in Oslo, Villa Copenhagen and Kämp in Helsinki. The hotel is affiliated with Preferred Hotels & Resorts, where it holds L.V.X. status, and it holds the Nordic Swan Ecolabel.

06Who it suits

At Six is for those who want the resources of a large hotel – several bars, a roof terrace, a gym and rooms with space to spread out – but with a more distinct aesthetic than the classic palace hotels. It's a hotel for art lovers, for admirers of modernist architecture and for anyone who likes to end the evening with a cocktail in the building where they sleep. If you want water and 19th-century facades outside the window, choose Blasieholmen or Strandvägen instead.

07Around Brunkebergstorg

From here it is a few minutes' walk to Kungsträdgården, Drottninggatan and Gamla Stan. See the square in VERA PI's street guide to Brunkebergstorg, explore Norrmalm and plan your walk with Metro Mode's Stockholm map. Point your phone at the Riksbank building with Metro Mode Camera – it will tell you who designed it and when.

For a weekend. For a lifetime.