Audemars Piguet's Newest Hotel Lets Guests Ski Down its Roof

A boutique hotel set among the scenic slopes of Western Switzerland’s Vallee de Joux is under way, and once finished, will see its guests skiing down its zigzagged roof.

The building comprises a stack of tilted slabs that angle from the ground up to create a series of terraces, which lead straight onto the foot of the slopes – inviting guests to descend on their skis while also doubling as a walkable path.

The Audemars Piguet Hôtel des Horlogers, designed by Bjarke Ingels Group – is described by the Danish architect as “an evolution on the hotel typology”.

The 7000 square metre luxury hotel “seamlessly integrates into the surrounding pastoral landscape of the Vallee de Joux,” BIG said in a statement.

The timber-clad hotel will feature a continuous sloping corridor of connecting rooms. Other amenities include two restaurants, a bar, a spa and conference centre.

The 50-room luxury hotel will stand next to another tourist attraction BIG have also been commissioned to build for prestigious Swiss watch brand Audemars Piguet.

A spiral-shaped museum will showcase 1300 timepieces for the Swiss watch manufacturer, the company which has been family owned since its founding in 1875, along with archives of the brand’s 250-year history as an homage to the craft of watchmaking.

Related reading: 13 Multi-Billion Dollar Urban Renewal Projects

Proving BIG has a thing for ski-able rooftops, the Audemars Piguet Hôtel is their third project to feature a ski-able roof, including the Koutalaki Ski Village located in the Finnish Lapland and Copenhagen’s Amager Resource Centre (or ARC Power Plant) the ARC is also equipped to convert 400,000 tons of waste each year and provide low-carbon electricity for 550,000 people.

Currently under construction the hotel will open to the public in 2020.

Twisting NYC project

In the big apple, Bjarke Ingels’s twisting of high line condos will soon launch sales with condos expected to start from $2.8 million and reach up to $25 million.

Construction is well under way on the XI (“the Eleventh”), a mixed-use development at 76, 11th Avenue, and is transforming a full city block between 10th and 11th Avenues as the West Side project aims to establish its own micro neighbourhood.

Renders show the two travertine-clad towers twist and shift proportions as they rise.