Geely's new hotel is located in the heart of the innovation centre

Geely searched for a strong hotel operator to be represented in the new innovation campus "Uni3 by Geely" and in the end the decision fell on Nordic Choice Hotel. The hotel will become an international meeting place that will develop over time together with the innovation centre. Likewise, it should attract both international and local visitors to the hotel. With the help of Staticus UAB, WICONA has delivered WICTEC EL evo for the beautifully dazzling rust-red façade.

Located at the Lindholmen shipyard in Gothenburg, a new history is being written at Geely's first innovation centre outside of China. The "Uni3 by Geely" campus stands for innovation and openness where East and West meet to develop the future. Each house on campus corresponds to one of the five basic Chinese elements, wood, earth, metal, fire and water. The buildings then have different colors on their glass façades, which, thanks to the nearby water, beautifully dazzles against the shipyard area. Right in the heart of the campus, a new Nordic Chois Hotels has been built and aims to become a new international meeting place. The hotel represents the element "Fire", which is clearly visible in its rust-red glass façade. With the help of Staticus UAB, WICONA has delivered a total of 5,200 m2 of aluminium façades to the hotel.

- They installed the façade (got dense housing) in 41 working days, we could have done it a week faster if the weather had been better. At most, we have assembled 19 element façades per team in one working day. Some of the façade elements were extra-large that we mounted on the building, they were a total of 18.18m2 straight elements / 21.85m2 corner elements, says Giedrius Kazakauskas project manager at Staticus.

A hotel that wants to be among the "innovation hubs"

The hotel has a total area of 13,500 square meters and consists of eleven floors, with 254 hotel rooms, conference rooms and wellness departments.

- I said a few years ago that Nordic Choice would double the capacity in Gothenburg. It is a promise to the people of Gothenburg that we have delivered on and exceeded with flying colours. Lindholmen is perhaps one of the world's most interesting innovation hubs right now in traffic safety and green development, and which is now gaining further strength through Geely's investment in a campus that will offer both technology development and event experiences. What is emerging is extremely exciting and Nordic Choice Hotels wants to be part of it and contribute to developing the place, so it lives year-round and around the clock, says Petter Stordalen, owner of Nordic Choice Hotels.

The hotel's property owner is Geely and wants to expand the innovation campus even more coming year. However, in order to succeed, they needed a strong hotel operator that is strong in the market.

- Lindholmen and Gothenburg are extremely important to us and therefore we want a strong hotel operator who knows the market and who has proven over the years that you can successfully run a valued business that enhances the area and creates popular meeting places. Uni3 by Geely will continue to develop in the coming years and the campus will year by year become an increasingly important place for innovation than we can even imagine today. If we are to succeed in this, we need to make the location attractive to entrepreneurs from all over the world. In that work, the hotel becomes extremely important, says Gang Wei, CEO of Geely's property company GIC Management AB.

Big ambitions

The ambition for the hotel is, as earlier described, wanting to become an international meeting place, which can be seen in the two bars and two restaurants, where one of them are on the roof terrace. Once again, East and West meet in an authentic Chinese a la carte restaurant.

- The property owner was very clear that they were looking for a hotel operator who would have the knowledge and power to establish a restaurant business in the building that would maintain an internationally high standard. We have accepted that challenge and will be able to give the city its absolute best and most authentic Chinese a la carte restaurant. The restaurant alone will be a reason to visit Gothenburg and the hotel, says Stordalen.

Facts:

WICONA-Partner: Staticus UAB

WICONA-products: WICTEC EL evo

Architects: Arkitektbyrån Design Göteborg AB

Interior architect: MOD Stockholm arkitekter AB

Builder: Geely Innovation Center 2 AB

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WICONA delivers intelligent high-tech aluminium building systems, technical expertise for international building projects and all-around service for the creativity of architects and fabricators. WICONA is a part of the Norwegian Hydro group, which also owns the Technal, Domal, SAPA and Askey brands.

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