Combining student housing and a hotel

The Arctic Student Welfare Organization is seeking to build a housing facility of up to five stories Elvesletta. They also want to operate it as a hotel when there are few students.

The Arctic Student Welfare Organization is hoping to move students from student housing in Nybyen. Buildings A and B can be built on empty sites just beneath Næringsbygget and Kulturhuset at Elvesletta. Building C can be built if they reach an agreement with Svalbard Utbygging, which has a plot there.

Line Nagell Ylvisåker

Publisert torsdag 12. oktober 2017 - 08:43

The student organization wants to build 200 to 300 new rooms in Longyearbyen for students at The University Centre in Svalbard. The dorms will replace housing in Nybyen that are in a high-risk avalanche zone as well as address future capacity needs.

A proposal for operating the student residences at Elvesletta as a seasonal hotel as well will be presented to the city government's Technical Committee on Tuesday.

""The starting point is the idea of how to use the building when there are no students there" said Hans Petter Kvaal, administrate director of the student union. "A seasonal hotel would be the best for the students financially since it would help reduce rental prices for them."