Stockholm’s biggest hotel investment to date is electrified with EnstoNet.
At Six is currently the most fashionable hotel in all of Sweden, if not Scandinavia.
Background music is soft lounge with a touch of soul. Barmaids wear backless outfits of black, and the clientele sport full-sleeve tattoos and converse in English in a dozen different accents about the deals they’re making abroad. All of this set in an interior created by London’s Universal Design Studios. And behind the scenes, helping power all of this modernity, is EnstoNet.
Sweden’s largest hotel investment ever
At Six is 343 rooms, a restaurant, bars and gym, that opened in March 2017. Next door is its sister hotel, Hobo, 200 rooms with open living areas and work spaces. The two hotels constitute a 63-million-euro project, the largest hotel investment in Swedish history.
The hotels are part of a 130,000-square-meter project called Urban Escape. Developed by AMF Fastigheter, it’s an entire city block that includes four streets, two squares, five LEED-certified buildings, and a mall. The property boasts offices, hotels, restaurants, shopping, conference center, services, a fifth floor which joins all five properties, and a rooftop green environment with a 360-degree view of Stockholm.
EnstoNet makes the fashionable future-proof
Since no design is perfect on paper, a typical new structure will undergo alterations soon after it’s ready. “Perhaps more lights will be added in the bar, or maybe the owners will decide they want a giant chandelier in a ballroom,” says Lars Aronsson, Ensto Electrification’s Sales Manager, who convinced the consultants and installers to use EnstoNet in the project. EnstoNet’s plug-n-play qualities bring major flexibility, allowing the same cable sets to be used in any changes, leaving no need to open up a fixture.
Consultant Håkan Svensson at ÅF Infrastructure, who included EnstoNet in the specs for the office building, says a second, equally-appealing advantage is the savings in installation time. “The property owner sets the requirement, and the main advantages benefit the installer, who saves installation time.”
Typically, use of EnstoNet means shorter cabling time, resulting in 70 percent less construction time on a job, and a 30 percent savings on total electrification costs, when product purchase and installation costs and factored in. With At Six, the hotel’s specifications originally called for traditional installation products, but the installer Sallén Elektriska switched to EnstoNet for savings.
“It’s future-proof,” says Ensto’s Aronsson. “You can easily change room standards, it’s tidy, adaptable for layout changes and luminaire renovations. It’s just smart installation.”
A no-brainer?
If it’s so smart, why isn’t everyone doing it? Because not everyone is as forward-thinking as Håkan Svensson.
“EnstoNet’s biggest competitor is traditional installation. People are simply used to doing things the old way,” explains Aronsson. “Occasionally people look at EnstoNet cables and ask me, ‘Are we really allowed to use these?’ Sometimes I even show them the paperwork to prove EnstoNet is approved for use!”
Aronsson is a like a messenger from the future, out to convince owners, consultants, and installers that there is a better, faster, cheaper way of doing things.
Luckily, there are plenty ready to listen, and a few, like Urban Escape and At Six, are prepared to lead, showing that smart installation can enable both the fashionable and the future-proof.
Article: Scott Diel