In the planning of the renovation, the Zallinger made the
bold choice to forgo their chance of receiving a four-star
classification, as it would have required increasing the volume
of each building—an effort that would have unnecessarily
intruded upon the local environment.
Instead, the Zallinger and noa* focused their efforts on
creating a space that offered receptive luxury on a smaller
scale. Each new room was expertly designed to make prudent
use of the space, allowing for every creature comfort, without
the excesses of many Western hotels.
e exterior of each chalet is comprised of wood blocks
that are stacked together and staggered in order to allow the
appropriate amount of light to enter each room. In this snowy,
mountain context, large windows can produce a glare that is
cumbersome, if not downright uncomfortable.
e architects at noa* cleverly avoided this fate by adopting
the staggered-blocks, which have become the dominant motif
of the new design and call effortlessly back to the structure of
the original Zallinger barns.
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