Each door, a different woman

By Flavia Tomaello, https://flaviatomaello.blog/, Instagram @flavia.tomaello

In 1936, Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann published a study that forever changed the way we understand the planet, demonstrating that the Earth has a solid inner core, surrounded by a liquid outer core, a finding that is still taught today in any basic geophysics course. Almost ninety years later, her name appeared again in Copenhagen, this time on the door of a meeting room, in a hotel on Vesterbrogade that decided to name each of its corporate spaces with the name of a key woman in Danish history, far from the generic names or room numbers common in any other business hotel. That hotel is called Grand Joanne, and that naming decision pretty much sums up the logic that runs through the entire project.

Next to the Inge Lehmann room there are others that honor Tove Ditlevsen, the poet and writer who grew up a few blocks away and became one of Denmark’s most influential literary voices in the twentieth century, and Asta Nielsen, the silent film actress who built complex female characters decades before that was commonplace on the screen. The choice is not intended to be a simple symbolic gesture within the hotel’s corporate offering, but rather a way to ensure that, even in the least glamorous space of any accommodation, the meeting room, there is something of that history floating in the air while someone presents a powerpoint and waits for the rest of the team to arrive.

The name of the hotel follows the same logic, applied this time to the façade of the building itself. Grand Joanne pays tribute to Johanne Sophie Frederikke von Bothmer, mother of the Danish statesman Christian Reventlow, one of the great social reformers of the 18th century, remembered for improving the living conditions of the peasantry. Behind that man who occupies several pages in the history books was a woman almost invisible to official accounts, and the hotel decided, from the name itself, to begin to correct that omission.

A building almost a century old that completely changed its destination

The building that Grand Joanne occupies today first opened as a hotel in 1928, on the same Vesterbrogade that connects Copenhagen Central Station with the Vesterbro neighborhood, and for decades it served as a routine stop for traveling salesmen and businessmen. In April 2023, after a comprehensive renovation, it reopened with a completely different identity, run by the Swedish studio Spik Studios, which defined the objective of the project quite clearly, moving away from the traditional large European hotel to build a space with an openly feminine sensibility, with earth and pink tones, exposed brick, warm lighting and furniture with curved lines.

That same sensitivity is displayed in the one hundred and sixty-two rooms spread over six floors, from the most compact Cozy Room to the Penthouse Suite on the highest floors, all with curated art, high ceilings and blinds capable of completely blocking the light, an especially useful detail during the endless days of the Scandinavian summer. On the ground floor is Joanne’s, the contemporary Italian cuisine restaurant led by chef Ricardo Oteiza, who usually describes his kitchen as a space without rigid hierarchies or shouting, where the team can discuss and propose freely, a philosophy that is reflected in dishes such as a blue oyster mushroom risotto or a tiramisu with Sicilian marsala wine, accompanied by coffee from Prolog Coffee, Vesterbro’s own local roaster.

As evening falls, the life of the hotel rises to the sixth floor, where a rooftop bar serves seasonal cocktails and small plates, with resident DJs playing the sunset over a sky that is usually tinted a pink very similar to the one that dominates the interior decoration. This combination of art, history and gastronomy also has a very specific geographical correlation: a few blocks from the hotel, in the Vesterbro neighborhood, the Second International Conference of Working Women was held in 1910, a meeting that gave rise to the idea that is known today as International Women’s Day.

Between rooms named after scientists, a converted century-old building and a terrace that fills up at dusk, Grand Joanne built a fairly concrete way of sustaining that memory over time, without extra speeches, barely insisting, room by room, on putting the name of a woman where for almost a century there was only a room number.

The rest of the hotel completes that narrative with details that are not always obvious on a first tour. Much of the art that decorates the hallways and main room is signed by local women artists, including the Copenhagen-based Lithuanian painter Lolita Pelegrime, whose intimate portraits of women around her were displayed next to the restaurant’s bar during different seasons. This rotating curatorship turns Grand Joanne into something more like a small gallery with beds than a conventional chain hotel, although it is precisely part of an international chain like NH Hotels.

This double condition, that of belonging to a global hotel group and maintaining, at the same time, such a local and marked identity, is perhaps what best explains why Grand Joanne quickly became a regular recommendation within the circuit of travelers who visit Copenhagen, both for work and pleasure. The hotel defines itself as a space designed so that no one feels like just another guest, but part of a broader community, regardless of the nationality, profession or budget of whoever walks through the door, a coexistence that is noticeable both in the lobby in the morning and on the rooftop as night falls.

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