On the road

Archi­tec­tural Cosmos Vals

The Graubünden mountain village has developed almost mythologically into a hotspot of outstanding architecture. A story between tradition and innovation, bold visions and happy vistas. A visit to Vals.

by Julia Hauch in May 2024

The finely layered quartzite glistens greenish-grey in the tur­quoise water. Every now and then a figure floats by, often as a duet. Aes­thetes and those seeking peace and quiet, moving rever­ently through the water and the sacred rooms. No clatter of flip-flops, no loud chatter. Just the occa­sional quiet splash, wet foot­prints on the dark stone.

With the Therme Vals [Thermal Baths], Swiss architect and Pritzker Prize winner Peter Zumthor has created a mono­lithic building of tim­eless beauty that is reduced to the essen­tials: stone, water, light. What counts here is the expe­rience with all the senses, the bathing ritual in its ori­ginal form. Opened in 1996 and listed as a his­to­rical monument two years later, the thermal baths have long been a place of pil­grimage for archi­tects.

The fact that the village of 1,000 inha­bi­tants in the Rhaeto-Romanic Val Lum­nezia has largely retained its authentic cha­racter and flair despite its bucket list status is a minor miracle.

A geo­gra­phical approach

Whether you arrive by heli­c­opter, car or train is entirely up to you. If you opt for the latter option, you can expe­rience spec­ta­cular natural archi­tecture on the journey through the Rhine Gorge. A touch of  the Wild West with a Caribbean feel, including small railway stops with ima­gi­native-sounding names. An atmo­spheric intro­duction before taking the Postbus [mail bus] further up into the Val­sertal valley. Bend after bend until the first houses, or rather retro high-rises, of the Therme Hotel open up at 1,250 metres.

Your gaze wanders exci­tedly to the right, where Zumthor’s archi­tec­tural icon blends into the rocky land­scape between tall trees as unob­tru­sively as if it had always been there. The next moment is one of quiet ama­zement: the small village seems to rest almost medi­ta­tively in the V‑shaped valley incision. Nestled between two steep slopes, right in the middle of the valley and of  the ele­ments. Right now the view is of green spring meadows, lined with toy-sized stables, behind which the alpine scenery draws snow-covered peaks into the postcard pan­orama.

As pic­turesque as the view is, the village’s location was not always so carefree. Whether it was muds­lides, floods or ava­lanches, Vals was repea­tedly overrun by natural dis­asters and was repea­tedly rescued. Even after the devas­tating floods of 1868, there were plans to emi­grate to America as a whole. But the people of Vals are stubborn, it is said. Just as well, because the per­spective has now changed. America & Co. come to Vals not only to visit the picture-book Swiss land­scape and all the archi­tec­tu­rally exciting places that the thermal baths have brought with it, but also to enjoy the very special hos­pi­tality of the people here.

Breakfast at Ruth’s

In the meantime, the Postbus has arrived at its final stop. It is just a few steps away from the village bridge, designed by Jürg Conzett and Peter Zumthor, which leads like a gateway over the enc­losed Vals Rhine. Directly opposite, a stately three-storey house stretches out into the fresh mountain air, built in 1902 according to Parisian plans, painted dark grey and with white shutters. Anyone expecting Swiss res­traint behind this elegant façade has not reckoned with Ruth Kramer. The hostess of the family-run Brücke 49 is bubbling over with warmth and enthu­siasm. The fact that the fashion designer and interior expert lived in Denmark for many years is evident in every room – from the guest rooms to the holiday apart­ments to the breakfast tab­leware on which regional and homemade pro­ducts are served at the long dining table in the living room. A young woman from Cali­fornia walks in wearing colourful pyjamas and takes a seat next to a young Swiss man and a German couple.  

Ruth and her husband Thomas were actually just visiting Vals, but when the sun appeared over the breath­taking land­scape, Ruth was smitten. The couple stayed, even­tually bought the old Furger family home and revi­ta­lised it as a guest­house. Today, you can still walk across the solid wooden flo­or­boards and look out of the ori­ginal double windows, enriched by an inspiring mix of modern design, tra­di­tional fur­nis­hings and indi­vidual art.

A few years ago, the hostel was added to the accom­mo­dation, the neigh­bouring house from 1775, which has also been reno­vated down to the last detail and makes you feel at home with three bright and lovingly curated holiday apart­ments.  Here you imme­diately feel welcome and immerse yourself in the magic of the place.

Three Cheers, chalet!

Just a few steps further on, a wooden house with a deep black façade opens up. Two storeys nestled against the slope, sur­rounded by two large ter­races with far-rea­ching views over the stone-covered roofs (a building regu­lation and a stroke of luck for the overall picture) to the peaks. Up here, you really do float above it all.    

Accom­panied by the fresh air: Ariasana is the name of the chalet built in the 1950s as a family holiday home, which Manuela Peng Job inhe­rited and reno­vated and reinter­preted tog­ether with her husband Charles O. Job and architect Reidun Dolva Grand. Without losing the ori­ginal soul of the house. Because when you walk through her home town with Manuela, who has lived in Zurich for a long time, you will hear gree­tings and gossip ever­y­where and people and memories come tog­ether to form a dense picture of soli­darity. Typical chalet ele­ments were adopted and trans­lated to the present day with great flair and unusual tech­niques. Such as the exterior façade using the Japanese Shou Sugi Ban process or the large, floor-to-ceiling windows that open up to the land­scape and flood the rooms with light. However, the cha­rac­te­ristic tone is set by the French grey wall colour, which lends ele­gance and structure to the spruce wood panelling and bathroom tiles. Com­bined with antique farm­house fur­niture, design classics and con­tem­porary art, such as the orange-coloured chi­ckens, which remind us that the plot was once called Hen­nebüel [chicken hill].

The luxury of ori­gi­nality

Once you have passed the village square with its cha­rac­te­ristic Vals houses in log con­s­truction and the Hotel Alpina, which was reno­vated by Gion A. Caminada, and left the village shop, the alpine dairy and all the other ori­ginal busi­nesses that still exist here behind you, a steep hiking trail winds up the mountain to Leis, a small hamlet at 1,526 metres above sea level. Whereas Vals is already quiet, the dece­le­ration in Leis goes one step further. A few farm­houses, a white chapel, a tavern, and in the middle three slender houses made of light-coloured solid wood.

Designed and built by Peter Zumthor for his wife Annalisa, who  had always dreamed of a secluded wooden house in the moun­tains. The Oberhus [Upper House]and the slightly smaller Unterhus [Lower House]were built in 2009, fol­lowed by the Türm­lihus [Tower House] in 2013. The tra­di­tional yet newly con­ceived knit con­s­truction of the houses allows huge pan­o­ramic windows from wall to wall. This not only allows bright day­light to flood into the three-storey Zumthor holiday homes from all sides, but also turns the land­scape into a subtly framed work of art and an integral part of the simple interior design. As soon as you enter, you are greeted by the scent of wood, which accom­panies you through all the room sequences –some­times flowing, some­times closing – and even extends to the bathtub. Soothing rooms full of security that make nature the centre of attention – whether indoors or out­doors. An archaic and ethereal expe­rience at the same time.

A hotel that makes waves

No wonder Annalisa Zumthor longed for a place like this, beyond luxury in its con­ven­tional form. After all, the writer of Rhaeto-Romanic lite­rature ran the Hotel Therme herself for several years.

Here at the ent­rance to Vals lies not only the village’s bubbling tre­asure, the only thermal mineral spring in Grau­bünden, but also its most volatile pro­perty, built in 1893 as a charming spa and bath­house. In the 1960s a German mul­ti­mil­lionaire had bigger plans and trans­formed the site into a resort with an outdoor wave pool and four high-rise towers, most of whose 345 apart­ments were sold to third parties.

When the muni­ci­pality took over the hotel complex a few years and owners later, it planned a new aes­thetic start tog­ether with Peter Zumthor. Both for the thermal baths and for all the reac­quired apart­ments, which the architect carefully bathed in a new light with stucco lustro[lime based polished plaster], rich colours and simple fur­nis­hings. In 2012, the 7132 Hotel was trans­ferred to the Chur real estate dealer Remo Stoffel, who con­tinued Zumthor’s approach and had all the available apart­ments designed by three other star archi­tects.

Since then, in addition to Zumthor’s colourful, gle­aming rooms, the so-called House of Archi­tects has left guests spoilt for choice: whether they prefer the shel­tered oak cocoon of Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, the mini­malist con­tem­plation of Tadao Ando, whose rooms cele­brate the subtle aes­thetics of Japanese teahouses, or the more futu­ristic rooms of Ame­rican Thom Mayne, who creates three-dimen­sional spatial expe­ri­ences, some­times out of wood, some­times out of black stone. Those who are less keen to expe­riment and prefer reliable high-end luxury can simply move one tower further into the 5‑star superior edition of the 7132 hotel chain, which has made the postcode of Vals its name and, in addition to exclusive deluxe rooms and pent­house suites, also includes a bar and various restau­rants, including Michelin-starred cuisine. One of the con­fe­rence rooms, a former swimming pool, is also the perfect place to hold a meeting. On the whole, the hotel and apartment towers in one place or another, still reveal the aes­thetics of times gone by, with white-clad bathers strolling down ter­razzo steps and an aban­doned Kneipp pool sud­denly appearing in the middle.

From Coca Cola to Kengo Kuma

Back to the water, the source of Vals’ success story. While the thermal baths have now become the pro­perty of the muni­ci­pality, the popular Vals mineral water has belonged to Coca-Cola HBC for over two decades. However, neither red and white lorries nor striking adver­tising slogans can be found in Vals. Neither is a 381- metre, glass hotel tower, the Femme de Vals, which was pre­sented as an archi­tec­tural vision in 2015 and hotly debated. The initiator of the project is now in Dubai, hoping to find another exciting project there. Mean­while, Vals prefers to con­tinue adorning itself with out­standing archi­tecture in the style of under­statement.

Like the Balma House by Truffer AG, designed by Kengo Kuma. For roughly four decades, the family business has been extra­cting quartzite from Vals in its Jos­sagada quarry, pro­cessing it and rea­lising pro­jects around the world since the style-defining thermal baths were built. The new resi­dential and com­mercial building was to interpret the Vals stone in an unusual way and yet blend har­mo­niously into the tra­di­tional village land­scape. When the Japanese architect looked down on the village from Leis, its roofs looked like flying stones. A fan­tastic asso­ciation that was fol­lowed by an eleven-year planning and rea­li­sation phase and finally an artistic façade made of 501 larch boards and 882 quartzite slabs.

The so-called ‘house of flying stones’ is remi­niscent of a Japanese pagoda in com­bi­nation with the rough sawn wood of the sur­rounding stables and the regional stone, which in this form becomes a weightless element.

Thinking big on a small scale

Villa Vals, designed by archi­tects Bjarne Mas­ten­broek and Christian Müller, is also ele­gantly under­stated and blends seam­lessly into the moun­ta­inside.

The ent­rance is via an old barn, from which an under­ground tunnel leads to the living area. The curved and exten­sively glazed façade is flush with the slope and not only pro­vides suf­fi­cient light, but also allows the opposite side of the valley to become a natural canvas. Another strikingly unusual project that inte­grates itself per­fectly into the sen­sitive land­scape and that was com­pleted without the usual par­ti­ci­patory process in Switz­erland. This is because Swiss building law nor­mally pre­scribes a model that visua­lises the building volume and can be inspected and pos­sibly objected to by local resi­dents. This is cer­tainly a key aspect of why Vals has not lost its ori­ginal charm despite modern buil­dings and lively tourism, as is so often the case in other Alpine regions. The app­re­ciation of cen­turies-old tra­di­tions and respect for the spec­ta­cular beauty of nature can be clearly felt here. Hand in hand with an openness to the spirit of the times. Of course, there are also the Louis Vuitton-clad mountain tou­rists, but they usually stay behind at the ent­rance to the village. First and foremost, people still come to Vals in search of beauty and with an interest in special archi­tecture.

If you walk along the paths around the village, you will encounter the same people again and again – whether they are locals or guests. Always smiling, with a ‘Grüezi wohl!’ [Gree­tings!] on their lips. Like the Ame­rican artist Lisa Lee Ben­jamin, who runs the Art Space Amöbe, an exhi­bition and exchange space that con­nects the village with the world. The ‘Library for a Happy Future’ is curr­ently meeting in Lisa’s studio. A group of Swiss and inter­na­tional artists and sci­en­tists who are looking for ways out of the crisis for a climate-fri­endly future with their project. Vals is also one of their stops, as water is not only of essential importance for the small mountain village. Standing on the moun­tains above or in the centre of Vals, this small island with a dif­ferent way of mea­suring time, the question of what luxury actually means becomes all the clearer. How much less is always more. If you ask Ruth, all you need to be happy is a small picnic basket and a stream to dive into. Into the healing waters of Vals, whether warm or cold.

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Text: Julia Hauch, May 2024

Photos: © Lukas Schweizer / Visit Vals AG (Coverfoto), © Julien Balmer / 7132 Hotel (1, 21–24, 34), © Martin Morell (2, 5–9), © Robert Reposo / Uns­plash (3), © Global Image Creation / 7132 Hotel (4, 25–27), Alex Baxter (10–12), © Martin Hemmi (13–16), © Ralph Feiner (17–20), © Jaromir Krei­liger (28), © Paul Cle­mence (29, 31), © naaro  (30), © Iwan Stöcklin (32, 33)