Gstaad had been without a grand hotel for nearly a century when The Alpina Gstaad finally opened in 2012, filling a gap in one of Switzerland's most storied resort villages with a building that makes no apology for its ambitions. The six-storey structure, designed by the Swiss architectural practice Aeby Aumann Emery, draws on the Bernese Oberland vernacular — steep slate-clad turrets, carved timber balconies, and whitewashed render — while achieving a scale that earlier alpine hotels in the region never attempted. At 56 rooms and suites, the property was conceived from the outset as a full-service destination rather than a chalet-scale retreat, with a 4,500-square-metre spa and multiple restaurants embedded within its mass. The interiors, handled by three separate designers working across different areas of the hotel, hold the tension between regional tradition and contemporary comfort with considerable skill. Guest rooms are lined in aged Swiss pine — planks running across walls and ceilings in the manner of a genuinely old Stube — while the furniture mixes carved antique chests, damask-upholstered headboards, and clean-lined upholstered sofas in cream and taupe, the red wool throws providing the only vivid chromatic gesture. In the fine-dining restaurant, dark reclaimed timber beams frame a palette of grey patterned carpet and chocolate leather seating, with sculptural metalwork wall pieces — twin ram's-horn forms — cutting against the rustic grain just enough to signal that this is a building fully aware of the present moment.

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