The Schlosshotel in Zermatt, Switzerland is a world of great charm and prestige, the result of many different worlds that coexist and together create a unique and original comfort for customers who appreciate the quality of the hospitality offer. With the new interventions of SchlossSpa - CBDSpa, Schlosssport and Schlosshouse, the Schlosshotel has strengthened its identity expressed through particular moods and offering unique, different and complementary emotions.

The Schlosshotel project has been signed by aledolci & co. studio of architect Alessandro Dolci, based in Egna (BZ). The interior contractor is Concreta, a Valtellina company based in Postalesio (Sondrio), which expresses its excellence in the creation of hotel furniture and, more generally, in contract solutions. Here, Concreta's intervention finds major expression in the supply and installation of custom and standard furnishings. Active in the sector for over twenty years, Concreta defines its own conception of furnishing "as an idea of seriousness, solidity, implementation of projects / abstractions; realized theories, reality and efficiency in terms of expression and the content of the experience seen as a real object or applicable to the real."

A special privacy
The Schlosshouse is the new way of experiencing the Schlosshotel in Zermatt. It’s a duplex villa connected to the hotel services such as lounge, SchlossSpa - CBDSpa and Schlosssport, but featuring an extra level of privacy.

The design of the facades and interiors are the work of aledolci & co studio. The exteriors synthesize, in a contemporary composition, high-performance materials as required by the rigidity of the climate and traditional solutions, maintaining the dialogue with the main hotel building.

The distribution of interiors is flexible, allowing to create various space compositions according to the customers’ need: one apartment per floor consisting of living room, kitchen and three bedrooms that can be used by large families or groups of friends, kitchen and two bedrooms or single bedrooms.

The moodboard interiors, as required by the clients, is far from the typical alpine folklore that is very common in the nearby hotels. Ton sur ton, smooth surfaces and an urban spirit characterize the choices of colours and materials while maintaining the warmth of the hospitality. Outdoor spaces, balconies and loggias, are important while staying in the mountains, be it to dry the equipment, to relax by breathing in the crisp air and enjoying the sun and views after a tiring day of climbing. For this reason, part of the design of the facade is made up of wooden screens among the balconies to guarantee a greater privacy.

The connection with the hotel distribution takes place both through the lift, which at level -1 leads to the new SchlossSpa - CBDSpa and at level -2 to the Schlosssport, and through a Winter Garten connecting lounge and reception and hosting an area of reading, playing and relaxing open to the entire hotel. This space has its own soul and with its palette of bright colors it represents one of the moods of the location.

The world in a Spa
The new Spa of the Schlosshotel, the first CBDSpa in Switzerland, was also built by studio aledolci & co. This little paradise uses natural products based on hemp derivatives for the treatments reserved for guests.

In a generous and elegant space with a large area of 350 square meters, you can enjoy unique moments of privacy and comfort. On the lower floor of the building there is also a new fitness area and a room reserved for training and yoga. The area is equipped with top products of high technological level both in the hot baths and the ice room and in the reaction paths.

"The owners, managers of the hotel, requested a space that could offer top equipment and an innovative concept for customers" - says Alessandro Dolci - "and also asked, differently from the Spas built in the surrounding structures, to create spaces with a more urban and linear language with refined surfaces, without the hints of mountain roughness, which have been trendy in recent decades ".

The challenge of lighting
The project had to optimize the available space and its peculiarities. An underground space owns positive characteristics (greater distribution potential in absence of window openings to be respected) but also focuses on a fundamental theme, that of lighting. A cavity that partially opened on one side of the volume could be an interesting design starting point.

“Generally we tend to favor relaxing environments when looking out towards the windows and taking in natural light" - explains Alessandro Dolci - "In the relax areas the stay is longer than in other spaces: here you can read and enjoy the view when available. Another environment where we favor the view is the sauna, an excellent observatory towards the outside. And, again, we try to give the user access to the outside after the sauna so that, especially in the mountains, the plain air can serve for cooling as well as for oxygenation. For all these activities we used the cavity. We were willing to give a connotation to the concrete wall that surrounded the cavity but it could be cramped and here the graphics were a possible way to go, when we still didn't know if it would be feasible. But the project had already taken its first steps “.

The cavity is a key point
The cavity has become a key point of the project: the main relax area overlooks it and can be perceived from the entrance, through a filter of glass and wood walls. The Finnish sauna, the largest and hottest, and the ice room, technological peak of this Spa, also overlook the cavity, which acts as a vestibule for the exit to the outside.

“To us" - concludes Alessandro Dolci - "it is important to differentiate the type of lighting in the underground floors and here the direct light is combined with the indirect one. Indirect light diffuses closer to the natural one within the project. The main choice of this project was, in fact, to connote all the wings illuminated in an indirect / natural way with wallpaper graphics.”

The graphics and the bathyscaphe
In this way the Spa becomes a kind of bathyscaphe that allows to look out on an original and intriguing external world described by the printed images on the paper. The chosen graphics represent a submerged way and for shapes, sizes, colours and directionality of the drawings, they immediately appeared to be a fundamental element of the project. Actually, it has never been changed. In addition to the cavity, they can also be found in the reaction paths, in the emotional showers, as a backsplash in the herbal tea room and in the treatment rooms.

All these spaces, although very different from each other for basic idea and type of use, have the same clear principle: the decorated walls resemble to overlook an outside world and the Spa is a bathyscaphe that magically leads to visit it.

Architect: Alessandro Dolci
Interior contractor: Concreta Srl
Credits: Gianni Baumann @giannibaumann

ABOUT CONCRETA
Concreta is an interior contractor based in Postalesio (Sondrio) in Valtellina that expresses its excellence in the creation of customized furniture for hotels and accommodation facilities, and more generally, in contract solutions at national and international level. The company carries out each project with a global approach, managing each phase, from concept to delivery. A single Project manager maintains the relation with the client, choosing all the areas of intervention in collaboration with the best architects and designers. Specialized in the hospitality, retail and residential industry, Concreta developed a portfolio of realizations that are the best evidence of its wide and diverse expertise, flexibility and innovation in describing the different furnishing solutions without neglecting their contextualization.