7132 Hotel: A Luxurious Swiss Alpine Retreat
Where does architecture, design, gastronomy, and wellness coalesce? Discover with L’OFFICIEL the aesthetic and healing powers of the 7132 Hotel hospitality experience, imbued with world-class design and architecture, reinvigorating spa treatments, and outstanding cuisine
Perched atop the tiny village of Vals in the Swiss Canton of Grisons lies a scenic alpine retreat that provides a luxurious and relaxing sensory experience centered around top-level architecture and design, award-winning gastronomy, and ancient wellness practices of thermal bathing. Named after the town’s postal code, the hotel complex of 7132 Hotel—comprised of 7132 Hotel 5S, 7132 House of Architects, 7132 Glenner, 7132 Thermal Baths, and 7132 Gastronomy, which includes Italian restaurant 7132 Da Papà and three gourmet restaurants such as 7132 Red, 7132 Blue Bar, and the two-Michelin-starred fine-dining restaurant 7132 Silver, run by German Head Chef Mitja Birlo—is one of the most inspirational hideaways the country of Switzerland has to offer.
“Visiting Vals is all about leaving behind drab mainstream routines and experiencing a destination, a hotel, or a restaurant in a much more conscious way,” says 7132 Hotel’s General Manager, Katrin Rüfenacht. “We try to follow a philosophy of attention: attention to details and attention to a place’s particularity. As hotel and thermal baths are closely intertwined with Vals' history and life, our main concern is to put architecture and services in the cause of what makes Vals unique—an idyllic setting, an archaic alpine landscape, tradition, and room for forward-thinking visions.”
7132 Hotel’s Thermal Baths recently celebrated its 25th year anniversary since first opening to the public in 1996. Basel-born and Grisons-resident famed architect Peter Zumthor was commissioned by the municipality of Vals in 1983 the new design of its legendary Thermal Baths, whose highly mineralized waters originate from the nearby St. Peter’s hot springs. The community of Vals has a long-standing tradition dating back to the 17th century of using natural thermal waters to treat dermatological ailments such as tuberculosis and eczema. From a former sanatorium to a five-star spa hotel, the natives have witnessed first-hand the structural changes this local attraction has undergone throughout the years, gradually transitioning from a medical facility to a leisurely tourist destination for health enthusiasts and architecture and design aficionados alike.
Made of raw concrete and 60,000 slabs of Vals quartzite, Zumthor’s monolithic masterpiece has been praised by architecture critics worldwide with flying colors and granted protected heritage status only two years after opening, turning the Swiss architect into a global sensation and winning him the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2009. The magic of experiencing the suggestive mountainous landscape and breezy open sky from the 36-degree Celsius outdoor pool in the early morning hours or late night time and wandering around the dark quartzite indoor pools while listening to their water gurgling sounds is something really unrivaled. Time at the Thermal Baths stops, giving rise to a special synergy between modern architecture and the surrounding natural world.
After 2012, several other prestigious architects have been invited to Vals to contribute to the oeuvre by the new owner of 7132 Hotel and Vals native, Remo Stoffel, who has made ever since all the necessary investments to ensure the ongoing maintenance and essential expansion of the 7132 world. Japanese legends Kengo Kuma and Tadao Ando alongside American powerhouse Thom Mayne have joined forces with Peter Zumthor for the realization of the four-star design hotel 7132 House of Architects, a collective effort of four internationally renowned architects to bring to life their creative visions through the design of 73 idiosyncratic hotel rooms, 20 square meters each.
“We wanted to have some of the most influential personalities of design and architecture together in one place—interacting with a mountainous village in a way no one would expect them to,” explains Rüfenacht.
Peter Zumthor created ten rooms in Italian stucco lustro with various hues of red, black, and yellow, Kengo Kuma resorted to Japanese carpentry to design his 23 rooms as cozy oakwood cocoons while his fellow countryman Tadao Ando decided to pay homage to the serene aesthetics of Japan’s tea houses when envisioning his 18 rooms. To top off this grand architectural project, Thom Mayne of Morphosis group designed the remaining 22 rooms in indigenous wood and local black stone, placing in 2016 a stand-alone bright yellow futuristic-looking shower stall in the center of each room.
The final refurbishment stage of the hotel was concluded in 2017 with the remake of the main 1980s building into 7132 Hotel 5S, a five-star-superior hotel including three spa suites, twelve spa deluxe rooms, three double rooms, one single room, and three Kengo Kuma-designed penthouse suites of 90 square meters each overlooking the picturesque snowy scenery. “The experience delivered at 7132 Hotel 5S is the modern version of a Swiss grand hotel—no compromise in comfort for the experienced international luxury traveler, but one-of-a-kind designs, bright colors, and rare natural materials dominate the timeless design,” concludes Rüfenacht.
