With demand for adventurous and eco-conscious travel, Six Senses is heading to Norway where it will operate a sustainable, off-the-grid destination hotel. The 94-room Six Senses Svart—the brand’s first in Scandinavia—combines futuristic design with technological innovation; it takes its name from the ancient Svartisen glacier. Set to open in 2024, it will be an energy-positive project.
To minimize the on-site impact, Six Senses Svart is set on poles above the waters of the Holandsfjorden fjord, at the base of the glacier itself, ensuring minimal land impact and seabed disruption. The circular design is meant to create a feeling of openness; a side effect is its ability to collect energy from the roof and offer panoramic views and privacy with the expanded distance between rooms.
Pretty cool: Wellness and tech meet as each guest room will become a “wellness concierge” through the Svart Touch concept. Non-invasive touchless technology will adapt the room to the guest’s state of mind and health, providing intuitive options to evoke a deeper sense of well-being. In all, wellness at Six Senses Svart is intended to be “an integrated experience.” Beyond the spa, experts will guide guests on the path to well-being, whether that’s effective fixes from compression boots or vitamin IVs in the biohacking lounge to all-round fitness in the sensory treatment suites.
Sustainable Hospitality
Six Senses Svart is the first building to be designed and built with the highest energy-efficiency standard in the northern hemisphere. What does that mean? It will harvest enough solar energy to cover the hotel, adjacent operations and boat shuttle, as well as the energy needed to construct the building—rendering it independent from the power grid. Such energy-positive buildings could deliver 89 percent of the 45 percent decrease in emissions required to reach the scenario where global warming is limited to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. As such, 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.
The hotel will also be complete with its own waste and water management, recycling and renewable infrastructure. The team will work with existing sustainable fishing and farming operations and engage local suppliers for the restaurants and bars. The Marketplace will be the zero-waste dining venue (for instance, whatever isn’t eaten fresh from the farm may get pickled). Further, Six Senses filters and bottles its own drinking water throughout its properties as it aims to reach its plastic-free goals.
Guest Experiences
Guests can lounge in the Experience Center, while The Alchemy Bar will highlight the history of regional healing techniques by turning local flora and fauna into pampering scents and scrubs. The Earth Lab will serve as the sustainability outreach space, showcasing “lifecycle living” initiatives on and off the property. There will also be a Svart Design Lab, which will act as an incubator for innovation and education, for guests to understand how new technologies can bring the sector closer to carbon neutrality as part of a cradle-to-cradle hospitality offering.
Guests can also expect signature Six Senses offerings, such as Eat With Six Senses, Sleep With Six Senses and Grow With Six Senses.
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