The brief was to create an attractive holiday and leisure development to enhance the ski resort of Alpe Furx, with a new hospitality building replacing the old hotel, and twelve chalets offering tranquillity and intimacy: a project on a sloping site that demanded both flair and finesse.

Comprising a group of chalets and a main building, the key planning and design requirements for the new complex were careful treatment of the ground and the relationship between the structures, formal beauty and high amenity values. The result is a small development comprising three groups of four buildings arranged in a naturalistic manner around a central space. The chalets follow the same basic model, using reflection and layering to add variety according to position and access route.

Clear views of mountains and valley

The main building promise carefully framed views of the Rätikon and Alpstein mountain ranges, the Rhine valley and the nearby chapel – and in winter, of course, the ski slopes. Sited below the chalets, it preserves these views, ensuring clear vistas of the Alpine landscape. The restaurant and sun deck, on the other hand, are both clearly visible from the approach road and car park. 

The two-storey wooden chalets, clad from top to bottom in larch shingles, are set back into the hillside. The roof design is emphasised by a skylight that showcases the heavens, while a large picture window on each floor offers views of the surrounding countryside. Inside, the entire shell is clad in light silver fir, providing a warm contrast to the outer skin, as does the furniture, designed in black-stained ash, and maple.

The restaurant building echoes these materials with its silver-fir interior, solid concrete core with black, trowel-applied finish, maple and black-stained ash.
 

Spas in the chalets, sun deck in the main building

The chalets, which each comprise a bedroom, a generous living/dining space with kitchen and wood-burning stove, a sauna and an outdoor hot tub, offer premium spatial configuration on both floors. The two storeys of the main building face west in a welcoming gesture; the restaurant and terrace provide seating for 120 people.