Hotel of the Week: A Design-Driven Retreat in the Dolomites Adds an Intimate Sister Property

In the early 20th century, Art Nouveau architect Otto Wagner was tasked to design a place of healing and relaxation for Austrian aristocrats similar to the Swiss health resorts found in Davos and Leysin. Using the bones of the original wood-and-stone, two-winged structure—which was never completed as planned due to war—owners Stefan Hinteregger and Teresa Unterthiner worked alongside local architect Armin Sader to weave traditional South Tyrolean architecture with elements of nature.

The wooden façade of the historic building at Forestis, which opened in summer 2020, connects seamlessly to three sculptural suite towers shaped like trunks that rise into the sky like trees. “The Forestis architecture takes a step back, just as each tree in the forest gives space to the others,” Sader says. “The restaurant is constructed like a theatre with the Dolomites—a UNESCO World Heritage Site—on stage presenting a constantly changing play of light.”

For the four-apartment Odles Lodge, which sits above Forestis, Sader envisioned a more refined version of the region’s traditional rifugios, rustic mountain huts offering refuge for skiers and hikers. Hand-crafted with local spruce and Swiss stone pine with subtle swaths of sage-green and cream, rooms feature floor-to-ceiling glass surfaces framing the peaks that blur the line between the lodge and nature.

Designed for longer stays, the open-plan living area is outfitted with a full kitchen and South Tyrolean farmhouse-style stove, plus a fridge stocked with homemade jams and smoked ham and eggs from local farms (no need to cook too much, since a mountain breakfast is delivered each morning).

Everything from the essential oils of the lodge’s untreated local timber (said to have positive effects on sleep) to the mountain spring water (believed to promote cell regeneration) flowing through the taps and private courtyard pool ties back to the property’s original plan to be a health retreat. “We wanted to create a place that represents ourselves,” the owners explain. “Only in that way was it possible to create an authentic environment.”

See more images below: