A Natural Beauty

Richter et Dahl Rocha's thalassotherapy and wellness center rejuvenates Clinique La Prairie, a world-class medical spa on Switzerland's Lake Geneva

Donna Paul -- Interior Design, 6/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

For decades, the rich and powerful have come to the town of Clarens, on Switzerland's Lake Geneva, in search of the fountain of youth. In the 1930's, when Clinique La Prairie opened its doors, luminaries in crepe de chine dresses or double-breasted wool suits would arrive in plush Pullman cars and Maybach Zeppelins. Everyone from Marlene Dietrich to King Ibnsaud of Saudi Arabia was there, lured by such exotic house specialties as injections of sheep-fetus serum. As the decades passed, the trains gave way to planes and crepe de chine to chinos, but the famous kept coming. (Think Charlie Chaplin and Charles de Gaulle.) The medical spa now attracts a mostly European, Russian, and Chinese clientele-interested in plastic surgery, hydrotherapy, and slimming regimes as well as those famous sheep-extract shots.

Sometimes, however, even a spa could use a face-lift-in this case a $40 million thalassotherapy and wellness center by Richter et Dahl Rocha Bureau d'Architectes. Clinique La Prairie owner Armin Mattli, who launched La Prairie beauty products in 1978 and sold the company for a fortune six years later, had seen Jacques Richter and Ignacio Dahl Rocha's arresting Nestlé headquarters in Vevey, Switzerland, and contacted them immediately. "They presented only one concept, and it was the one we chose," Mattli says. After that, progress slowed down considerably. The architects devoted a year to hashing out zoning restrictions and permit problems, then two more years to constructing the 80,000-square-foot building.

RDR's greatest challenge-and greatest achievement-was to integrate the new design into a disparate collection of buildings: a 19th-century château-cum-hotel, a conventional residence from 1929, and a glass medical tower from 1991. On a literal level, that integration meant joining the spa to the medical center by a tunnel and to the château and residence by enclosed passages. "Arms reach out toward the existing buildings to connect them," Richter says. So, even in inclement weather, guests can walk between treatments in comfort.

Stylistic integration was equally important. "We developed a new typology of building, one that responds to functional requirements as well as becoming part of the landscape," Dahl Rocha says. The long, low structure hugs the contours of the hillside site. "It's almost sunken, a device to link what was there," he explains.

Connection to the breathtaking natural setting is evident in the spa's dramatic facade of dry-stacked granite. Called Verde Andeer-for its greenish-gray cast and place of origin in the tiny Swiss village of Andeer, near the Italian border-the stone references the walls in local vineyards, and its centuries-old look contributes to the medieval air of the narrow windows cut into the spa's 16-inch-thick facade. Meanwhile, the spa's roof is almost entirely planted with grass, an eco-conscious move that also creates, from above, the suggestion that the building grew out of the ground. "It melts into the landscape," Dahl Rocha says. The grassy surface is interrupted by volcanolike tiled shapes: the sloping surrounds of skylights above the main swimming pool.

The sun shines through those skylights and into the pool, creating a soothing interplay. Light and water are powerful presences elsewhere, too.

One level below, RDR covered a wall by the saltwater thalassotherapy pool in pâte de verre tiles, known for their delicate translucence. Windows in the hallway nearby are surrounded by the same tiny glass mosaic tiles, in light-as-air shades of turquoise, cerulean, and cloud.

The halls, the lobby, and the bar have limestone floors. When wood appears, it's dark-stained oak-for example, all treatment rooms feature oak cabinetry. On top of one room's cabinet sits a Thai brass statue of Buddha, another recurring theme. Contemporary marble Buddha heads line the wall of the staircase that leads up to the main pool.

There, instead of contemplating sacred Mount Meru, they gaze, through three glazed elevations, at the snow-capped Alps.

Previous spread, left: Silhouetted against the Alps in Clarens, Switzerland, a vintage scale stands on a skylight surrounded by glass mosaic tiles at Clinique La Prairie's new thalassotherapy and wellness center. The building was designed by Richter et Dahl Rocha Bureau d'Architectes.

Previous spread, right: The building's two top levels are wrapped in Verde Andeer, a Swiss granite that recalls walls in local vineyards. The glazed section above belongs to the lobby bar.

Top: A concrete path runs past the restaurant's windows. Bottom: Treatment rooms' windows have 16-inch-deep reveals.

Top left: A stairwell leads from the lobby down to the thalassotherapy level. Top right: A terrace planted with bamboo lines one side of the building. Bottom: Achille and Pier Giacomo Castiglioni's lamp arches over one of the lobby's seating areas. Flooring on this level, which also includes the bar by the windows, is French limestone from Burgundy.

Top: The main swimming pool is clad in glass mosaic tile. Bottom, from left: The whirlpool is adjacent to the swimming area. Skylights allow sunshine to pass through to the pool. The second-floor hallway gets a peek into the bottom of the pool. Buddha heads by Daniel Schlaepfer line the stucco wall next to the stairs.

Top left: A guest room in the late 1800's château features headboards upholstered in cotton. Top right: The interior focal wall of the restaurant blooms with a silk-screened orchid motif. Leather upholsters the custom chairs. Bottom: Part of the thalassotherapy room is clad in glass mosaic tiles.

Top: A Thai brass Buddha presides over a treatment room with stained-oak cabinetry. Center: Skylights emerge through the building's grassy roof.

Bottom: The Buddha heads are marble.

PROJECT TEAM: CHRISTIAN LEIBBRANDT; MANUEL PEREZ; BERNARD EMONET; BRUNO EMMER; FRÉDÉRIC COMBY; EMMANUEL OESCH; CHRISTIAN GONIN; FABRICE ROULIN; NATHALIE SAEGESSER; CÉDRIC SIMON; CLAUDIA DELL'ARICCIA; JULIANNE MAYOR; MARCO TURIN; KONSTANTIN TZONIS. CUSTOM SKYLIGHTS (ROOF, MAIN POOL): CHANTIER NAVAL RENE LUTHI & FILS. TILE (ROOF, MAIN POOL, WHIRLPOOL, HALL, THALASSOTHERAPY): BISAZZA; SASSI CARRELAGES BULLE (INSTALLATION). STONE INSTALLATION (EXTERIOR), FLOOR INSTALLATION: ROSSIER + BIANCHI. CUSTOM BALUSTRADES (LOBBY): A. TARONI CONSTRUCTIONS MÉTALLIQUES. LAMP: FLOS. RECESSED CEILING FIXTURES: NEUCO. VASES: THROUGH ADRIANI ROSSI. CHAIRS, RUG, CUSTOM SOFA (LOBBY, BAR), CUSTOM CHAIRS, WALL COVERING (RESTAURANT): HUGUES CHEVALIER. POOL INSTALLATION (MAIN POOL, WHIRLPOOL, THALASSOTHERAPY): FEHLMANN WASSERAUFBEREITUNG. RECESSED FLOOR FIXTURES (WHIRLPOOL): REGENT. HEADBOARDS (GUEST ROOM): CECCOTTI. CUSTOM CURTAIN (TREATMENT ROOM): L'ENSEMBLIÈRE; KVADRAT (FABRIC). PLAS- TERWORK, PAINTING CONTRACTOR: ENTÉGRA. ELECTRICAL CONTRACTOR: AMSTEIN + WALTHERT. PLUMBING CONTRACTOR: SANIPLANS. HVAC: PIERRE CHUARD. LANDSCAPING CONTRACTOR: SCHNEIDER PAYSAGE. LIGHTING CONSULTANT: RÉGENT APPAREILS D'ÉCLAIRAGE. CIVIL, STRUCTURAL ENGINEER: DANIEL WILLI. LANDSCAPE CONSULTANT: JEAN-JACQUES BORGEAUD.