Slap in the centre of Bergen, beside the Torgalmenningen – the main city square – stands a rather imposing neo-renaissance structure clad in red clay tile and soapstone. This was once the Børshuset, the city’s stock exchange and the commercial heart of Bergen. Today it is very different. Swedish architecture and design firm Claesson Koivisto Rune has transformed the landmark building – and two of its neighbours – into a new 127-bedroom hotel, where quietly luxurious contemporary design commingles with remnants of the building’s prestigious past. The original stock exchange was completed in 1862 and redeveloped in the 1890s. Its neighbouring building, a former bank, dates from several decades later, while the third component was purpose-built for Norway’s DNB banking group in 1967. Together, they occupy an entire city block. The task faced by Claesson Koivisto Rune was to harmoniously combine three buildings, from three distinct architectural periods, into a coherent whole with a clear and consistent design language, without sacrificing the character gifted to them by history. Against an understated palette of colours and materials (occasionally accented with an arresting pop of colour and pattern), a number of the børshuset’s original features tell snippets of its story. Designed to be as appealing to the business traveller of today.