"Cold-bath House" hotel met by scepticism

Stockholm,

As one of the hottest and debated themes in Stockholm at the moment, a giant, floating hotel to be built in Stockholm's narrow coastal inlet in the middle of the city, people either hate or love the idea.

 The hotel is described as an outdoor "cold-bath house", sizing up to 130 meters in diameter and 9-12 meters in height, with a public wakling deck on the roof. It includes a restaurant and meeting facilities, and the 70 rooms are all equipped with their own access to the water. As temperatures can drop to 7 degrees Celsius, a warm-water pool will be built inside the "bath ring", for the more frozen clients.

One of the initiators, Ejnar Söder explains the idea:

"- Water is the signature of Stockholm, but the Venice of the North needs to be emphazised much more than what is done as of today."

But as initiators by definition are satisfied and hopeful, protesters have been raging the idea, claiming it will be a disturbance of the clean silhouette of the coastal inlet. The Office for City Constructions received over 100 letters per day during one period. Skönhetsrådet - The Beauty Council, preserving the natural look of the city's silhouette - with their great influence, has commended the hotel, but only for its architecture but has at the same time categorically advised against the placement of the hotel.

If the $35 million project will be finished in 2009 at its present location remains to be seen, but definitive is the fact that the debate will be a hot topic, whether it will remain at the project stage, built at its planned location, or moved somewhere else.

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