Foxy Little Number

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Room 117 is a Pop Art pastiche of a murder scene. Room 105 has a mock surveillance camera tracking visitors to the bathroom. And Room 409 is a shrine to Swiss maiden Heidi.

This is Copenhagen's Hotel Fox, tel: (45) 3313 3000, an establishment that comprises the work of 21 designers from four continents. They were brought together as part of a marketing exercise by Volkswagen, which asked the group to transform the former Park Hotel — a 61-room property in the center of the Danish capital — into a venue for the three-week launch of the automaker's latest runabout, the Fox.

The event concluded last month, but — happily for design fans — the hotel is contractually obliged to keep the new name and look for another five years.

Don't expect to see VW motifs scattered around, however. The artists were given free rein to style the hotel as they saw fit. In the case of Australian designer Rilla Alexander, that meant placing a tent in Room 121. As for Room 414, the whimsicality begins with the inscription on the door, showing a pseudo-scientific claim: 92% OF ALL HOTEL GUESTS EXPECT NO SURPRISES WHEN ENTERING THEIR ROOM. That may be true of most hotels, but Hotel Fox is a delightful exception to the rule.