For this project, two apartments were joined together in a small building in Crans-Montana facing Lake Grenon. The clients were planning on spending more time in the apartment, especially in the winter. Like the architecture of the ski resort, the 1969 building is not in the mountain style. Closer to a modernist architecture, it follows along the same lines as the aseptic current. The clients, however, made it clear in their request that the new apartment should have the feel of a mountain home, not a city dwelling. The project needed to respond to this desire for a change of scenery and retreat, while also being a functional space primarily used in connection with winter sports. One reference immediately came to mind – Charlotte Perriand’s mountain architecture, in particular her small chalet in Méribel.

For our part, we had no intention of producing an ornamental interior shell. The project was born from these tensions, and it attempts to implement an architecture with function as its starting point, along with spacious, open floor plans, redesigned storage space, and two large pivoting panels that offer both depth and modular privacy to the apartment, around a new fireplace facing the lake. Woodwork in three-ply steamed fir gives the renovation a robust solidity that stands in contrast to superficial and decorative “veneer” architecture. The green marble bathrooms bring the forest landscape back to the heart of the project.