Even before its eyebrow-lifting, ultra-slim hotel tower extension conceptualized by American architect Thom Mayne of Morphosis has taken root, 7132 Hotel in Vals, Switzerland, has metamorphosed into a new luxury product to attract Swiss and jetsetters with rooms and suites designed by starchitects Kengo Kuma and Tadao Ando.
Formerly known as Therme Hotel & Spa, the resort was renamed 7132 Hotel (a sign of audacity to come as 7132 is the postal code of Vals no less) by its new owning company, 7132 Ltd., led by Remo Stoffel, an entrepreneur who was born in Vals and bought the property from the local community three years ago.
For 7132 Ltd., the task at hand now is all about wooing: on the one hand cajoling the small local community of Vals to vote favorably for Mayne’s iPhone-slim hotel tower extension and, on the other, getting today’s luxury guests to understand that the current hotel is itself an architecture marvel following renovations completed last month.
If all goes well, Mayne’s slender 381-meter (1,250 feet) tall building with 107 rooms – virtually one room per floor – with a transparent exterior sheen that will mirror the mountains, will open in 2019. A gallery with large-scale models and full details is being set up at the hotel and will be open for local community viewing in October, according Sonia Dietrich, managing director of 7132 Hotel.
But media attention on the slender tower overshadows the massive changes that have already occurred at 7132 Hotel. The hotel’s wing, Selva House, renamed House of Architects, now fields 13 new rooms designed by Kengo Kuma and 18 new rooms by Tadao Ando, both highly-skilled at deflecting a 20 square meter (66 square feet) space with their eye-popping minimalist design and unique effects.
Kuma, for instance, uses warm, curved wooden panels to create a soft cocoon of a room, while Ando sliced a triangle off a rectangular space for the bathroom.
Morphosis’ Mayne is also designing another 20 rooms, which will be ready by summer 2016.
These new rooms join 20 retro-chic rooms designed by Peter Zumthor, the Swiss architect behind the hotel and its famous thermal springs spa, completing the concept to offer designer rooms in the House of Architects.
In the main building, three new 90 square meter (295 square feet) suites designed by Kuma have opened. Each suite booking comes with a helicopter or a limousine at guests disposal in case they spontaneously want to lunch in Geneva, shop in Zurich, whatever takes their fancy, included in the rate of CHF2,480 per night (US$2,618).
The 35 Zumthor rooms in the main building – larger at 24-30 square meters (79-98 square feet) compared with those in the House of Architects and more luxuriously furnished – have also been spruced up, with new bathrooms designed by Kuma.
A new meditation park, Valser Path, to be opened to hotel guests and the public, is also being designed by Ando and scheduled for completion in 2017. Both the park and the new tower are within the hotel complex, which sits above the town center and blends quietly into the natural surroundings.
“For the first time since 30 years, we have the vision, plans and money to invest,” Dietrich said of the new ownership group. Yet, these same attributes have become the points of contention played up by the Swiss media, who’s had a field day with stories on whether Stoffel would be able to pay back the investment, whether the vision was not foolishly grand for a village whose favorite saying is, ‘1,000 residents, 1,000 sheep, 1,000 hotel beds and 150 steinbocks,’ and whether the tower design would not change the idyllic mountain landscape.
“It is as if there’s a war with the local community. This is not true,” Dietrich said. “It is political, yes, but it is not a fight. We know each other.”
Dietrich herself was born in Vals, joined the hotel 30 years ago and, from humble beginnings worked her way up through various departments from human resource to her current position in managing the hotel. She said the hotel provides jobs and Vals – whose fame to claim aside from the thermal springs spa is bottled Valser mineral water – needs it.
“Sometimes, the critics in the big cities don’t see that,” Dietrich added. “They want us to keep the place picturesque, as they know it in their childhood. But they don’t see we have to earn money as well.
“It is now difficult for Switzerland to get good guests because the Swiss franc is strong. You can’t build a 3-star hotel; you need something unique to compete. We have to go this way.”
Dietrich recalled years ago when the local community was also scared to invest in the thermal springs spa by Zumthor, who was a “nobody” at the time. “Of course, there would always be reservations when millions of dollars are involved,” she said. “Now we are proud of the therme, which is successful.”
Dietrich believes the changes at 7132 Hotel will draw more top-paying guests who love architecture and design, thermal springs, top-notch service and F&B (one of the restaurants is helmed by Sven Wassmer who previously worked for Michelin star chef Nenad Mlinarevic) and a destination that does not attract mass tourism.
Prices have increased following the renovations and rates have been simplified: CHF390 (US$412) for rooms in the House of Architects, CHF590 (US$623) for rooms in the main building and CHF2,480 (US$2,618) for the suites.
“We’ve had the bad press but people have not yet seen this new product,” Dietrich said. “So, the only possibility (to prove ourselves) is for us to show the guest who is staying with us that we are a great hotel. We’re really looking forward to having more people come and stay with us, and see it for themselves.”
Contributed by Raini Hamdi