Mario Botta presents new restaurant on Glacier 3000

Mario Botta presenting the new restaurant on Tuesday © Keystone / Laurent Gillieron

Reconstruction will start next week on the restaurant, destroyed by fire in September, in the Swiss ski resort of Glacier 3000 in Les Diablerets. Swiss architect Mario Botta presented the new building on Tuesday on the 2,971-metre Scex Rouge.

“I wanted to renew the look of the building and give it an even more solid and resistant character,” the 80-year-old star architect told the media. He had been involved in the original project in 2000 before withdrawing due to disagreements with the promoters.

“As an architect, it is my job to give the clients a feeling. They have to feel that they are between heaven and earth, that they are experiencing something unique,” Botta, from canton Ticino, added.

“We have almost completed the deconstruction phase. From next week, we will start the reconstruction,” said Bernhard Tschannen, head of Glacier 3000. The shell should be completed by the end of October. The interiors will then be completed in the following six months. The opening is scheduled for spring 2024.

While the exterior appearance of the building will be almost identical due to construction templates, the interior will be completely redesigned, with a space gain of 35 square metres per floor and new panoramic corner windows. Fire protection will also be improved.

On September 19, a fire broke out at the high-altitude restaurant situated above Glacier 3000 at Les Diablerets in French-speaking canton Vaud, southwestern Switzerland. No one was injured as the building was empty at the time of the blaze.

Energy efficient

Several structural changes serve to increase energy efficiency. For example, more than 600 solar panels will be installed on the southwest façade and the side canopies of the new building. These will be able to produce up to 110 kilowatts.

This can cover a large part of the energy consumption of the restaurant business and up to 6% of the company’s total annual energy consumption. The heat generated by the ventilation of the kitchens and the operation of the cold rooms is used to produce hot water.