Seven Swiss interiors with the best seats outside the house

The majestic Alpine landscapes of Switzerland combine the traditional with the contemporary in these seven tourist-enticing interiors that focus on their exteriors.

By horgenglarus and James Wormald

December 8, 2021 | 11:00 pm CUT

Peter Zumthor's holiday homes in Leis, Switzerland, overlook the landscape. Photo: Ralph Feiner

Steeped in history, culture and tradition, Switzerland is a country with a lot of pride. The famous Swiss exports of watches, financial services, chocolate and cheese are all synonymous with ‘quality’, but perhaps Switzerland’s greatest export of all, is its landscape.

The country is awash with picture-postcard scenery of snow-tipped mountains behind snow-tipped houses, with breathtaking lakes, trails and ski resorts blended in between. With such great nature so accessible, there are plenty of tourist traps waiting to be hit with the selfie-stick. Here’s how to do it both in style and comfort.

Top of Europe: Bollywood Restaurant – Jungfraujoch

Horgenglarus' Lyra chair allows visitors to lose themselves in Jungfraujoch's Alpine scenery. Photo: Cedric Christopher Merkli

Jungfraujoch is a glacier saddle connecting the two 4,000 m peaks of Jungfrau and Mönch in the Bernese Alps. Aptly named the Top of Europe experience, the popular tourist destination – the full summit reachable via the highest train station in Europe – includes activities such as skiing, hiking, sledging, and gliding. There’s also a selection of international cuisines available such as at the Bollywood restaurant, which sits at the very top of the ascent.

On the outside, the building’s grey, snow-covered complexion blends into its setting, seeming more like an arctic research station than a popular tourist venue. Inside, however, the wide, open space is kept minimal with the clean and simple lines of Swiss brand Horgenglarus’ Lyra chairs and stools, complementing the views without distraction.

360º Panoramarestaurant Weisshorngipfel – Arosa

The Weisshorn restaurant is positioned aside the peak's cable car station, bringing the incredible view to everyone. Photo: Ruedi Homberger

Further down the Alpine range, sits the mountain peak of Weisshorn in the Arosa ski resort. Compassionately situated alongside the Weisshorn cable car station, the four-star 360º Panoramarestaurant Weisshorngipfel offers stunning views of the mountain vista. Slicing a widescreen aperture along the centre of the structure gives the entire room of diners a perfect view – not just those lucky few near the windows.

The interior space, meanwhile, has been finished with raw spruce decking its upper walls and ceiling, above a bed of naturally-finished plywood Horgenglarus Miro chairs and Prova tables. These two simple and natural parallel axes combine to squeeze the visitors’ field of vision out onto the jagged landscape.

Gotthard Raststätte – Schattdorf

Gotthard Raststätte is a roadside service station with a focus on its natural surroundings. Photo: Roger Frei

It’s not always the high points of the country that get the postcard treatment, however. Even while travelling to some of Switzerland’s top scenic points, tourists are able to stop for a small preview on the way. Nestled in the idyllic Uri valley, the Gotthard Raststätte is a motorway service station with a difference.

Respectfully accompanying the beautiful landscape, the station’s subdued interior complements its environment with a light wooden construction that gently teases the exterior inside. A natural colour scheme with materials of wood and stone is combined with dark accent elements including oversized lighting and graphic sinks, along with Horgenglarus’ modestly enveloping yet stable Klio chair.

Davos Munts Lake – Vattis

Davos Munts Lake's typically Swiss Ustrietta building sits alongside the swimming lake. Photo: Lucia Degonda

Those choosing to rest at the service station could well be on their way to enjoying some of the popular vacation activities in the nearby Grabünden region, including world-famous ski resorts like Davos and St. Moritz. For those with a predilection for warmer climes, however, there are also areas for lake swimming and campsites.

The Davos Munts swimming lake, for example, takes you back to those long summer vacations of a happily-spent childhood. With a recently-renovated lakeside restaurant onsite, there is no need to plan any other activity than immersing yourself in the simplicity of the surrounding environment.

The Davos Munts swimming lake, for example, takes you back to those long summer vacations of a happily-spent childhood

Refurbished with local woods and stone from the surrounding hills, the utmost care has been taken with the stable conversion, not to taint the soul-strengthening atmosphere of the site. Inside the Ustrietta, meanwhile, the light, slim profile of Horgenglarus’ Moser chair has been selected to bring a stylish but natural comfort to the venue.

Campadi Trun – Trun

Local wood is the star of the building's interior. Photo: Ralph Feiner

Alternatively, if water isn’t your thing but you still love a hike, then the Trun campsite may be more your pace. Set a few miles down the road at the base of the Grisons mountains, the site created a new hub to encourage year-round camping. With the beautiful alder forest as a backdrop, the otherwise-innocuous building provides the hardiest of campers with a cosy place to meet, eat and socialise their evenings away, sharing good cheer and tales of a day spent on the trails.

The building’s interior enjoys epic depth thanks to huge roof trusses that intermingle with the furniture, while a simple and iconic Horgenglarus Classic chair has been selected in black to both complement and contrast the natural warmth of the rest of the interior’s local wood.

Holiday Lets – Leis

The three rentable cabins treat tourists to Leis' stunning range of vistas in all seasons. Photo: Ralph Feiner

Meanwhile, for those looking for a vacation that takes in the Swiss landscape, without eschewing home comforts, architect Peter Zumthor has built three timber cabins in the tiny hamlet of Leis, available to book as vacation homes.

Hidden away in the mountains, with a population of just 20, Leis sits at the very end of one hillside road. Despite their seclusion, however, the private sanctuary cabins have managed to keep up with modern trends, with contemporary interiors featuring Horgenglarus’ Classic chairs, perched in front of wide sliding glass doors, which open up onto a serene and unbroken snowscape.

St. Jordan Winery – Visperterminen

Horgenglarus' Lyra chairs and bar stools accompany a different kind of view in the winery restaurant. Photo: Thomas Andenmatten

Take a short drive west, though, and you’ll soon find yourself in wine country, with the St. Jordan winery revealing itself from behind the hillside. The building’s facade imitates those fertile neighbouring Visperterminen hills, coaxed as they are in sumptuous vines. While those views from the winding mountain road take in the spectacular landscape, the view from inside the winery’s event space is something else entirely.

Used for wine tasting tours, wedding receptions and corporate events, the space is shared with St. Jordan’s wine cellar. With Horgenglarus’ light, stackable Lyra chairs and bar stools a perfect choice for the dark and dramatic multi-use event space, drinkers and diners are comfortably treated to the exclusive sight – and smell – of the label’s 150 oak wine barrels.

Whether it's Swiss cheese, chocolate, wine, landscapes, or the furniture to go with them all, you really never can have too much of a good thing.