Controversial designs of what might become the world’s tallest hotel in a Swiss village are being unveiled.
Deep in the Swiss Alps lies the small village of Vals, which 1,000 people call home. Look up, and you’ll see pristine mountaintops surrounding this quaint community — for now.
Swanky New York City architecture firm Morphosis, led by architect Thom Mayne, has proposed a sleek new hotel that will dominate Vals’ nonexistent skyline. The skyscraper would stand 1,250 feet tall, the same height as the Empire State Building (without the pinnacle), Mashable reported.
The glass tower of the hotel, named 7132 after the town’s postal code, would feature 107 rooms ranging from $1,000 to $24,000 per night.
“For the 7132 hotel and arrival, the incredible setting demands reducing materiality and presence in the design so that, as in all our work, the connection to site becomes paramount,” the International Business Times quoted Mayne as saying.
“As much as possible, the hotel is a minimalist act that reiterates the site and offers to the viewer a mirrored, refracted perspective of the landscape.”
Although the architecture firm said it expects the building to be completed in 2019, construction will not begin until (and unless) it wins over the hearts of local voters.
The monstrous building would cost $313 million dollars to build and would feature a restaurant, spa, ballroom, gallery, library, fitness center and etc.
The design was selected from several entries from world’s leading structural designers as part of an international design competition.
“The tower’s reflective skin and slender profile camouflage with the landscape, abstracting and displacing the valley and sky. The combination of one-room-per-floor and a narrow floor-plate afford exclusive panoramic views of the Alps,” said Mayne.
The current tallest hotel in the world is the JW Marriott Marquis in Dubai. Vals’ owner Stoffel has confessed to being inspired by Dubai’s cityscape.
“That inspired me to realize my own vision, by forming 7132 Ltd, commissioning this stunning design, which will be built in my home town of Vals within four years.”
Meanwhile, Vittorio Lampugnani, Professor of Architecture at the Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich told The Telegraph: “Skyscrapers in the Alps are an absurdity.” According to Lampugnani, accommodating people in such a small space in the mountains makes no sense.
