Quartzite stone, local larch, and Alpine slate rarely combine to form something this formally ambitious — yet that is precisely what AW² principals Reda Amalou and Stéphanie Ledoux achieved when they conceived Six Senses Crans-Montana as a tectonic structure carved into the hillside above Crans, opening in 2023. The Paris-based firm, working alongside Swiss architects JPPSA and GBO Architecture, designed the six-storey, 27,000-square-metre complex — 46 suites and 17 residences — around a governing idea: a journey from darkness toward light. Guests enter through a stone-lined tunnel and move upward through a central 2,000-square-metre alpine garden before arriving at panoramic roof terraces with uninterrupted views toward the Valais peaks. The images confirm how completely AW² carried that concept into the interiors. Guest rooms layer polished concrete ceilings, aged larch panelling, and wide-plank oak floors into a palette that feels neither rustic nor minimalist but genuinely new — a kind of geological modernism where the material logic of the exterior continues without interruption. Freestanding stone bathtubs sit behind larch screens; boucle sofas face full-height glazing that frames the valley below. The restaurant deploys perforated timber screens against double-height walls, magenta upholstered chairs introducing warmth without nostalgia. Most striking is the indoor pool, where thousands of pale timber rods suspended from the ceiling create a canopy that echoes a forest floor seen from beneath — the mountain, once again, turned inside out.

2hr drive from Geneva airport (GVA) or 2hr train ride to Sierre from from Geneva airport (GVA) followed by funicular ride; 3hr drive from Milan Malpensa airport (MXP)

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