Hotel of the Week: St. Moritz’s Plush New Loro Piana-swathed Rooms are the Definition of Quiet Luxury

For the largest extension to date in its five-generation history, the family-operated hotel enlisted Milan-based architecture and interior design practice ACPV Architects to orchestrate the 25-room, six-story Serlas Wing, which debuted in January after a seven-year planning process. “I have a very personal connection with St. Moritz,” says studio cofounder Italian architect Antonio Citterio, whose home here is designed in a traditional alpine style. “When I think of St. Moritz, I think of the unique Engadin aesthetic—a mountain chalet comes to mind, for example.”

Constructed from regional, silver-streaked Dorato Valmalenco stone and punctuated with deep windows accented by bronze details and red awnings reminiscent of Paris’s Hôtel Plaza Athénée, the new wing seamlessly melds with the surrounding natural landscape and local vernacular. However, the architects also added a few modern deviations, such as the cantilevered wooden roof, designed with locally sourced materials, while in the penthouse suites, wooden roofs were finished using yakisugi, a traditional Japanese controlled charring technique.

“With the Serlas Wing project, we were searching for an architectural language that captures the spirit of the place,” says Citterio, adding the facade was inspired by the compact architectural volume and carved-in window openings of the landmark Chesa Planta, a traditional, 16th-century aristocratic home in the Upper Engadin. “Our approach was to create a contemporary building that functions in the mountain location—the project is not about modernity or expression, but about creating a place where people can experience the quality of the [destination].”

While suites at Badrutt’s Palace customarily devote the most square footage to the bedroom, the new accommodations place emphasis on living space to create a more residential ambience accentuated by chic contemporary furnishings from B&B Italia and Flexform. Warm walnut-colored wooden details punctuate corridors paneled with cream wool fabric. Cocoon-like bespoke headboards and bed skirts are crafted in collaboration with Loro Piana Interiors.

Similar to the rooms in the main hotel, Serlas Wing spaces boast floor-to-ceiling windows that are strategically placed to frame views of the towering, surrounding snow-capped peaks. The main difference? Guests also have sweeping shots of Badrutt’s Palace Hotel’s distinctive design.

What’s below ground is as impressive and thoughtfully conceived as what visitors see above. A pedestrian tunnel system—accessed on one side via the longest hotel escalator in Switzerland—leads to the village square and Chesa Veglia, the oldest farmhouse in St. Moritz that’s home to four restaurants and a bar. The ground floor, meanwhile, capitalizes on its prime real estate on one of the city’s most fashionable streets, adding to the luxury landscape with shops like Miu Miu and Saint Laurent.

“I like to say that a project has a father and a mother—to me, this means that a project has almost a genetic filiation that comes from the design team and the client who believes in it,” says Citterio. “This was important in the case of Badrutt’s Palace Hotel—we focused on bringing the identity and heritage of the hotel, with its long tradition of great service, and translated this idea of quality into a contemporary product.”