Swiss Alps, Engadin-St. Moritz. Beauty expands with a panoramic view. It is not only because of its landscape that includes high peaks, in one of the European valleys with the highest altitude, over 1,800 m and majestic mountains of up to four thousand. Also for its elegant architecture of patrician houses with facades decorated with sgraffito and harmonious rhythm of windows, protecting habitats where wood reigns.
When it snows, this cold-hot/white-tan polarity becomes more acute in the transition from outside to inside, increasing the experience of intimacy and comfort. We are in the heart of the Alps, in the canton of Grisons, whose uniqueness even reaches its own language: Romansh or Romanesque, the fourth official language of the Swiss Confederation.
The architect Arnd Küchel, with double offices in St. Moritz and Zurich, has returned to his childhood home in Zuoz, a small town 18 km from St. Moritz, to update it. It is a patrician house where he has preserved the tradition of traditional bourgeois villas. The building is part of the protected heritage and was built in 1915 by the architect Nicolaus Hartmann, well known in his time. With almost 500 m2, the house underwent an extension in 1940.
“The house – explains Arnd Küchel to Magazine – is historically important for the Engadin Valley because of the architect who designed it, but also because of its high degree of original conservation.” The biggest challenge of the reform, he points out, was first of all respecting the regulations and maintaining protection. And also finding a way for the new interior to fit well with Hartmann’s architecture.
The room that holds the greatest vividness in the emotional memory of his childhood is the dining room, where the family met and had long conversations and dinners. “My family traveled often, so it was rare to get together. That’s why the best memories come from this integrity of being together,” says Küchel.
The pine wood, original from the time, was then and continues to be the envelope that covers almost everything inside the house. To its restful rusticity, Küchel wanted to breathe a new contemporary vital pulse, to add color, more light and lightness, to reduce its weight.
The renovation has included restoring in detail the wooden elements: carpentry, walls, coffered ceilings, moldings and carvings. The pine was sanded with great care. The architect emphasizes that the new lighting concept gives it a completely renewed appearance. The wooden moldings at the top of the walls are underlined with hidden LED strips, generating indirect ambient light and extra luminosity as a current resource.
The new furnishing highlights the beauty of the historical atmosphere. The deep-touch textiles stand out, with velvet seats in intense green and blue tones, or striking snow-white upholstery. Passionate about design, Küchel has introduced furniture by contemporary authors such as Antonio Citterio, but also unique creations from the early 20th century by Charlotte Perriand. Or luminaires by Serge Mouille, with his iconic Spider wall sconces, with long metal arms from the 1960s.
They coexist with charming period corners, such as the gallery with leaded stained glass windows and a bench protected by pronounced wooden volutes. “It was a religious corner, to sit alone and immerse yourself in your thoughts and prayers,” the architect clarifies. Although it was also used as a viewpoint towards the center of the town. The house holds other small surprises: the tea house is a construction just on the other side of the large terrace, with an original roof from 1915 and a decorative painting executed directly on the wall by a Japanese artist.
In the renewed vitality of the house, the introduction of color is a significant asset and includes pieces such as the collection of Italian ceramics from the second half of the 20th century, paintings or the sheep sculpture acquired in a Parisian gallery, configuring a very personal interior.
His childhood home today also houses some designs created by Küchel himself. With the tables and stools from the Sella collection he takes up the traditional system of direct assembly of legs and produces them by hand in St. Moritz.
