Detail door 2025

At Feuer und Flamme, everything comes in pairs: sofas, tables, pots – and the striking mobile kitchen trolleys, which add a lively splash of colour to the spacious eat-in kitchen. With their metal buckets, frames and castors, they are reminiscent of improvised emergency vehicles and refer to the house’s former use as a fire station. Guests are invited to use the room playfully as a stage – perhaps for a spontaneous cooking competition.

Rhythmically folded wooden lattice screens envelop the breakfast and conference area of the Biohotel Sturm without affecting the existing structure from the 1980s. The structure in front of the building forms an independent layer, giving it a new appearance. Its regular openings provide both privacy and transparency, lending the building a striking, almost sculptural presence.

The historical stone paving in the Dortmannhof covers the floor with an almost landscape-like texture. The irregularly broken, dark natural stones lie close together; their surface is shiny in some places, matt and rough in others – traces of decades of use. Built in 1791 as a hall house, the Dortmannhof is now the home of a family of musicians and houses a small guest house in the former barn.

At Gasthof zum Riesen, once an important pilgrimage site in Vinschgau, a baroque ceiling fresco impressively reveals the history of the building. The painting is located directly above the stair landing, so that visitors automatically look up as they climb the stairs and experience it as a spatial highlight. Enclosed in a curved stucco frame, a theatrically staged Annunciation scene unfolds.

A glass pavilion crowns Project Ö on the Finnish archipelago island of Skjulskäret. The light wood and glass construction opens up to the sea and the rugged rocky landscape, so that the interior and exterior almost merge into one another. With a view of the archipelago, guests can cook and eat here at long tables that seem to extend into nature. At sunset, warm light floods the room.

A wooden staircase leads to the impressive attic of the Glashaus in the Uckermark. A filigree structure made of wood and steel spans the room; the western roof surface is completely made of glass, opening up a wide view of the landscape. To the east, the polycarbonate surface creates a delicate interplay of light, shadow and changing colours. As the sun moves across the house, guests can experience a different atmosphere here every day.

A House for Essex rises like a colourful, almost fairy-tale work of art at the mouth of the River Stour, surrounded by fields, meadows and woods. Like a pilgrim’s chapel, it is dedicated to a saint – Julie, a fictional ‘everywoman’ from Essex. Around two thousand handmade ceramic tiles, a golden brass roof and filigree roof sculptures celebrate the life of this figure while reflecting the landscape and special character of Essex.

In the historical stairwell of the Wilmina, an installation consisting of dozens of pendant lights extends across all storeys. Fine cables stretch across the stairwell, luminous glass elements at different heights float like soap bubbles in the air and emphasize its height. This transforms the journey through the former women’s prison and current hotel into an atmospheric experience.

In the eat-in kitchen at Ca’ dei Mongi, the solid natural stone worktop looks like a sculptural work of art. With its roughly hewn edge, it resembles a secure fragment of a rock face and forms the centrepiece of the otherwise calm, minimalist interior. Placed off-centre on the free-standing steel block, the stone brings an archaic presence to the room and almost appears to be floating.

In one of the JAP Retreat Apartments, you can step straight out of bed into the freestanding bathtub – the wall behind it as blue as the nearby sea. The bold use of colour transforms the bedroom into an almost stage-like wellness zone. Those who can persuade themselves to get out of the tub will experience an entire brick ensemble with living and working units, in one of which the JAP architectural firm responsible for the design is located.

The large-format work EPIC / FAIL by graphic designer Eike König forms the visual centrepiece of the room; the black metal arrow above it adds a striking, almost ironic accent. In the music room of El Paso – a former music school, now a small hotel owned by Tim Renner on La Palma – his private vinyl collection, including turntables and audio equipment, is available to all guests for their own sound checks.

The bedrooms at La Colline du Colombier resemble cocoons, their walls and ceilings lined with a dense network of fabric panels. Between them, a round window opens onto the landscape – a small glimpse of the outside world that breaks through the almost cave-like interior. The bedrooms are located in so-called cadoles, wooden and steel huts on stilts, inspired by the stone huts of the winegrowers in Beaujolais.

A filigree red steel railing runs through the stairwell of the Pirach water tower. Raw concrete stairs meet white plastered walls, and the narrow, elongated loops of the railing give the staircase a rhythmic structure. After the industrial monument had outlived its function, the interior was completely gutted. Today, the staircase connects the living and exhibition areas as well as a holiday apartment on the second floor.

A soapstone stove dating from 1576 heats the ground floor apartment in Hüs üf der Flüe [Swiss German for House on the rock]. Stoves made of soapstone sourced from regional quarries, are part of the Wallis building tradition and made smoke-free living spaces possible for the first time. The stove is fuelled from the old farmhouse parlour; in the bedroom, its rear side is visible as a solid stone element, keeping the original building fabric present in the room.

In the former stables and adjoining barn at Haus Nothweiler, the historical half-timbered construction of the gable is particularly impressive. The framework of woven willow rods and centuries-old clay adds a warm, earthy accent to the white plastered sloping roofs. Old oak beams run through the room; skylights, which were possible despite heritage preservation requirements, bring in plenty of daylight.

A solid concrete slab extends over the slope, resembling an oversized canopy. Small floral elements break up the austerity and anchor the building in its surroundings. Beneath it, brushed spruce wood wraps around the façade in gentle waves. The Anders Mountain Suites are located at an altitude of 1,850 metres, offering sweeping views of the striking Geisler peaks of South Tyrol.