PROJECT REPORT: HOTELS, RESTAURANTS & BARS
creating “not a building, but more a backdrop or scenery, more like a fence in a field.” However this belies the complexity of addressing an existing site with various underground areas, and the resulting level changes and other structural challenges.
Super-fast construction For the new guest building, timber’s chief practical benefit was the speed facilitated by its offsite construction, meeting the client’s stringent programme requirements. The offsite timber industry is highly developed in Switzerland, and construction was very swift, with each floor taking two days to erect, and the roof structure being completed within two weeks. The timber frame was under construction before the concrete basement slab for the podium level was dry. Structurally speaking, the building is all-timber, including lift cores, although the frame has been concealed internally, a “practical choice” of the client, says Macullo.
The architects put together a ‘preconcept’ scheme for a tight, 14 month construction programme, and this resulted in the building being handed over on time in January 2020, opening in June. The offsite method, while bringing considerable efficiencies, also meant a different set of challenges, reports the architect. “There was an extremely unusual amount of co-ordination and pre-planning, we’ve never seen that level before.” He adds: “There were 12 site supervisors, and on a project where you have to work so efficiently and fast, the first thing you do is to work on trust.”
He says that part of successfully meeting the demanding challenges was having “one of the best contractors.” A large family firm who were new to the architects, Anliker AG impressed with the degree to which “all of their staff were highly professional, serious, and engaged.”
This high-profile project for the local area was the source of a lot of pride for, but also scrutiny from, the community. One of the main objectives for the contractors was to minimise disruption to this affluent locality during the construction programme. Davide Macullo says that it’s “amazing that in this expensive area, with small streets and many villas, that all the work over about a year didn’t disturb anybody.”
Arrival & spa level Working closely with the landscape architect Christoph Fahrni, the architects focused on tree planting around the new
ADF APRIL 2021 © Roberto Pellegrini
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entrance, “so that when you arrive you are suddenly in a kind of village square which all the buildings face into, and you don’t really perceive the size of the building.” He says that guests are helped to feel they are going to “their own villa” after entering under the new canopy. “You never have the feeling you are in a huge structure, rather a cosy environment.”
There is a very short distance to walk to any of the rooms in the new or existing building, thanks to moving the entrance to the centre of the new group of buildings, adjacent to the spa’s curved frontage. Guests can walk to the private beach and spa via underground routes, without ever needing to pass the hotel reception. The substantial spa level is daylit using beautifully landscaped sunken courtyards, with a Bonsai feel that complements the landscaping of the spa’s grass-covered roof which is punctured by these spaces. “From the spa, you see the Japanese garden, then the mountains behind,” says Macullo.
Connection challenges Macullo says that the “most difficult work” in this project in terms of design, was not the refurbishment of the old hotel, or the new buildings, but “connecting the old to the new,” as well as the groundworks required for the existing and
© Fabrice Fouillet
© Fabrice Fouillet
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