Hotel Kämp, Reborn: Finland's Grand Hotel Completes a Historic Three-Year Renovation

A storied icon, reborn. Hotel Kämp, Helsinki’s grand dame, enters a new era today as it completes a three-year transformation. The renewed Hotel Kämp honors its rich heritage while embracing a new generation of dining, well-being, design, and hospitality.

Since opening its doors on Helsinki’s Esplanadi Park in 1887, Hotel Kämp has been a meeting place at the heart of Finnish cultural, political, and social life. For well over a century, artists have gathered here, ideas have been traded, milestones have been celebrated, and guests have arrived from all over the world. Now, on November 5, 2026, the hotel marks the completion of the most extensive renovation in its modern history.

The renovation—which began in late 2023—spans the new restaurant concept À La Kämp, the reimagined Kämp Bar, the transformed Kämp Spa, and the hotel’s suites and guest spaces, along with the new addition Kämp Delicatessen. Together, these spaces make up a Kämp that is unmistakably itself, but designed around the way people live and travel now.

– Restoring a hotel like Kämp while keeping its doors open takes patience and a great deal of craftsmanship. I am incredibly proud of the Kämp team, who have welcomed guests through one of the building’s biggest developments, all while delivering exceptional service every single day. Today, we celebrate a Hotel Kämp that stands proudly among the great hotels of Europe. This is what Nordic luxury hospitality is like at its best, says Henrik Berghult, Chief Operating Officer of Nordic Hotels & Resorts’ Luxury & Lifestyle Division.

A New Chapter 

The work has been carried out in phases over the past three years, and the hotel has remained open throughout. The main entrance has been returned to its original position facing the Esplanade, and the integration of the adjacent Helander House has added approximately 3,100 square meters. No space has been left untouched; from the reception and public spaces to the restaurant, bar, suites, and spa, what greets guests today is a modern luxury hotel with its soul intact.

– Kämp has always evolved with Helsinki. It has never been a static institution – it has been a place where new ideas, people and experiences come together. The rebirth of Hotel Kämp is a continuation of that story. We have taken the opportunity to look at the hotel as a whole and create a more complete Kämp experience, while protecting the character and heritage that make this place unique, says Tuomas Liewendahl, General Manager of Hotel Kämp.

In the first phase of the renovation, design agency Fyra was entrusted with a refined update of the interior design of the hotel’s rooms and corridors, both within the original building and the adjacent Helander House. The extension adds 22 new guest rooms, 15 of which are suites. The renewed suites offer a quieter, contemporary interpretation of luxury—a richness that reveals itself gradually through materials and details. 

At 258 square metres, the Mannerheim Suite is the largest and most luxurious suite in Finland. Named after Gustaf Mannerheim, who resided at Hotel Kämp in 1919 before becoming Finland’s Marshal and later its President, the suite is one of the hotel’s most historically significant spaces. It is a suite shaped by history, but designed for today’s most discerning guests.

In a subsequent phase, the design vision was developed in collaboration with London-based architecture firm Archer Humphryes, whose portfolio includes Chiltern Firehouse, The Standard London, Ronnie Scott’s, and more. Hotel Kämp marks the practice’s first project in the Nordic region. The approach has been to let the hotel’s history guide its future rather than recreate the past.

As part of the rebirth, Archer Humphryes brought a renewed energy to Kämp Bar and the new restaurant concept À La Kämp, alongside public spaces, lobbies, receptions, and suites. Throughout its history, Hotel Kämp has been a place to see and be seen at, from the ground-floor restaurant where composer Jean Sibelius, painter Axel Gallén, and conductor Robert Kajanus once held court to the celebrated Kämp Bar and Mirror Room. The new restaurant, bar, and social spaces carry that tradition forward, with settings for dining, cocktails, celebrations, business, and conversation.

A Place to Come Together

Throughout the project, the ambition has been clear: to continue Kämp’s legacy as the place where Helsinki gathers. Being a hotel in a long tradition of European grand hotels means being a place that belongs as much to the city as it does to its guests. This philosophy has been the guiding light when conceptualizing every new space—regardless if that space has been designed for treats or for treatments.

This is true for the reimagined Kämp Spa, the defining new addition of a 1,200-square-metre destination for modern wellbeing. Rooted in Finnish heritage and shaped by contemporary, purpose-driven practices, the spa takes a holistic approach to recovery, vitality, and long-term health.

Traditional Finnish saunas, steam rooms, and infrared saunas sit alongside a pool and cold plunge pool, while signature treatments are complemented by personalized wellness experiences and a Technogym-equipped gym. Catering to the metropolitan human of today, the Kämp Spa Members’ Club is the hotel’s community for long-term wellness, designed to be an elevated part of daily life.

As a perfect finishing touch, Kämp Delicatessen is the last puzzle piece to see the light of day. The delicatessen is meant to be the new meeting-place for locals, shoppers, and office workers alike, opening up directly onto Helsinki’s main pedestrian shopping street. Inspired by the hotel’s original café, which occupied the same address in the 1930s, it brings the spirit of Kämp into the everyday life of the city.

Eyes on the Future

The rebirth also extends beyond the building itself. Alongside the renovation, Hotel Kämp has introduced a new visual identity. The storied logo remains, but around it is an entirely new visual world, designed to feel as natural on a screen as it does on a menu card, a key folder, or the door of the spa.

At its center is Kämp Green, the deep, historic shade long associated with the hotel, now joined by a supporting palette of warm beiges and greens ranging from mint to viridian. Graphic details drawn from the building itself, from its façade to the proportions of its interiors, recur across print and digital channels, while a confident typographic system gives the identity structure. Within this system, each of the hotel’s venues—À La Kämp, Kämp Bar, Kämp Spa, and Kämp Delicatessen—has its own distinct identity while remaining clearly part of the same family.

With the renovation complete, the focus shifts from construction to settling in: filling the new house with the people, seasons, and occasions that have always defined Kämp.

– Hotel Kämp is so much more than a hotel. It is a historic institution, part of the soul of Helsinki! For me, this rebirth is about building on that legacy for the future. Our role is not simply to preserve a heritage, but to continue developing it. My vision is for Kämp to be just as relevant and inspiring to future generations as it has been to those before us. That is how you create an icon!, says Petter Stordalen, Founder and Owner of Strawberry.