Page 234 - Livre Beau Rivage Palace
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Fig. 5                                                  Fig. 6                                                                                 Fig. 7                                                  Fig. 8

              Towards the end of the nineteenth century, Alphonse Daudet   its criticism on the disfigurement of entire panoramas caused by the          because it was not the focus of interest for the architectural world   the destruction of the landscape’. He is sympathetic towards attempts
          became known as the most high-profile critic of the tourist   construction of mountain railways and major hotel complexes; it                  at the time.  In 1929, Werner Amstutz published his manual Neue   to adapt them to the local style in line with the  Heimatschutz
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          development of the Alpine regions, particularly the Swiss Alps. In   also attacked the lack of connection between this architecture and        Wege im Hotelbau – the title itself (New Ways of Hotel Building)   efforts. He repeated this judgment in Schweizerische Stilkunde of
          a number of works the French writer caricatures and condemns   the landscape and local architectural traditions. The organisation              announcing the author’s aim to reject all historicist architectural   1944, and in the commemorative brochure of the Société Suisse
          the changes affecting the Alpine villages and landscapes following   was active throughout the country and in the first edition of its         forms.  In the same year the specialist press published the first   des Hôteliers in 1957. 23
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          Switzerland’s arrival among the tourist elite. In his mordant   new magazine it published a pair of images comparing a medieval                examples of radical renovations of old ‘hotel hulks’ following the   Peter Meyer was highly regarded by all specialists of the period
          satire  Tartarin on the Alps, written in the 1880s, he attacks the   church with a new hotel. The caption makes the point: ‘A beautiful        principles of the trendsetting Neues Bauen movement. Schweizerische   and so his judgment also laid the foundations for the categorisation
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          commercialisation of the Swiss landscapes, showing the tension   building and an ugly modern construction on the banks of Lake Geneva.’        Bauzeitung described the renovation of Hotel Weber in Locarno   of hotel buildings in the study undertaken by architect and planner
          between tourism and landscape in the belle époque. At the start   Right from the start, therefore, the new Heimatschutz movement               by architect Armin Meili in 1928 as exemplary: he removed the   Armin Meili. This expert report, commissioned by the federal
          of chapter 5, Bompard – Tartarin’s cynical companion – regales   declared war on  the  ‘ugly’ hotel buildings,  the  latter  routinely         mansard roof, raised the building by one storey and covered it with   government and published in 1945 under the title Assainissement
          his credulous friend with a speech on the effects of the tourist   featuring on the negative side of pairs of images contrasting ‘good’        a roof terrace (fig. 12).                               technique d’hôtels et de stations touristiques, proposed – at a time when
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          infrastructure on the Alpine panorama: ‘Switzerland at the present   and ‘bad’ (fig. 10). At the same time the group became actively               At this time, all progressive architects were calling for a new,  post-war unemployment was a fearsome prospect – the renovation
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          time, ve! Monsieur Tartarin, is nothing more than an immense Kursaal,  involved in planning renovation and construction projects in line       modern and  ‘honest’ architecture. They saw the belle époque   of all the major Swiss sanatoria and their hotel buildings.  Among
          which is open from June till September – a panoramic casino, to which   with its beliefs. In 1906, for example, the Bern section commissioned   hotel as the symbol of an old, outmoded order. In 1920, when   its suggestions were the removal of towers and domes, and even
          people crowd for amusement, from all parts of the world; and which a   architect Karl Indermühle to develop an alternative plan for a          he was 81 years old, Horace Edouard Davinet, one of the most   the demolition of entire buildings: the ‘blacklist’ includes the Hotel
          tremendously wealthy company possessed of thousands of millions, which   sanatorium at Lauenen in the Bernese Oberland. The project –          gifted – and busiest – hotel architects of the late nineteenth century,  Palace in Lugano, the Kursaal in Lucerne and the Grand Hôtel
          has its headquarters in Geneva, has exploited. Money is necessary, you   which won the national competition, arousing great disapproval        whose designs included the hotels Giessbach (fig. 13), Seelisberg,  of Saint-Moritz. For the buildings to be renovated, the experts
          may depend, to farm, harrow and top-dress all this land, its lakes, forests,  in Heimatschutz circles – was for a massive block building with   Spiezerhof and Rigi-Kulm, was already making his excuses in his   suggested that all the ‘atmospheric’ architectural elements should be
          mountains and waterfalls, to keep up a staff of employés, or supernumeraries,  a symmetrical facade design. The counter-project, by contrast,   memoirs: ‘Following the World’s Fairs and the establishment of numerous   removed: towers, crenellations, domes, and even historic interiors.
          and to build upon all high places monster hotels with gas, telegraphs and   divided the building into a number of low-level, non-identical     Kurorten, we were far from thinking about Heimatschutz; on the contrary,  ‘Purification of the superfluous and ugly ornaments of the end of the
          telephones all laid on. […] Yes, it is true; but you have seen nothing of it   units arranged asymmetrically (fig. 11). 16                     we were looking to bring in the most bizarre styles in order to counteract   last century,’ was the recurrent theme of this report, which was
         yet. When you penetrate a little further into the country, you will not find a   This sustained attack on the grand hotel buildings of the      the barracks-style character of these huge caravanserais.’ 21  published in book form in 1945. As for the Beau-Rivage Palace
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          corner which is not fixed up and machined like the floor beneath the stage   early twentieth century achieved such success that soon the hotel                                                         in Lausanne-Ouchy, the report mentions its ‘overloaded facade’.
          in the opera: waterfalls lighted up, turnstiles at the entrances of glaciers, and,  architecture of the belle époque was regarded – and not just in   STATE SUPPORT FOR THE RADICAL CURE               (fig. 23, p. 241)
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          from ascents of mountains, railways – either hydraulic or funicular.’  (See   Heimatschutz circles – with disdain and incomprehension, along       During the Second World War, the architect and art historian   In the post-war years the official camp attacked the ‘old hotel
          fig. 9, p. 241)                                         with the many nineteenth-century buildings which borrowed from                         Peter Meyer (1894-1984) set a milestone in the battle against   hulks’ on  the same basis  and with substantial  financial support.
              Shortly before the First World War, the strong growth of the   historical architectural styles. Towards the end of the First World         the monumental hotel buildings of the belle époque.  In the   And they set about the task with great thoroughness. Many hotel
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          hotel industry stirred up the first widespread, organised opposition   War, Samuel Guyer wrote: ‘For years a war has been waged against        magazine Werk, he published the first overview of architectural   renovations and several demolitions carried out in the third quarter
          to this industry for foreigners. People started openly criticising   the hotel “hulks” disfiguring our most beautiful regions.’ In contrast to   history dedicated to hotels of the nineteenth century, adopting   of the twentieth century have their roots in Meili’s report. In 1948,
          hotel builders for disfiguring the landscape and destroying what   the Heimatschutz movement, which directed its criticism mainly              a radical position by categorising the buildings according to two   in the magazine Werk, architect Theo Schmid was able to look
          had been an unspoilt natural environment. At the same time, there   against these massive, square edifices, Guyer found the grand hotel        periods which he calls respectively the architecture of ‘before and   back with satisfaction over ‘six years of hotel renovation’. In an article
         was a growing awareness of a distinctively Swiss identity, captured   buildings ugly ‘because they present sometimes a sentimental-romantic     after the Fall’ (fig. 14). The sober, classical architectural style of the   focusing on the success of this initiative, he once called for more
          in the local architecture, which was diametrically opposed to the   aspect, sometimes a mask suggestive of pomp and pride.’ 17                 early nineteenth century, defended or at least accepted by the   renovations of nineteenth-century historicist buildings in the
          foreign, ceremonial style built into the culture of the grand hotels.    In the rare publications dedicated to the hotel industry of           author, is distinguished from the historicist buildings of the second   modernist style. 26
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         In 1905, the  Heimatschutz – heritage protection – movement   the 1920s, the history of hotel architecture is certainly given some              half, which he categorically rejects. The great turn-of-the-century   Even though the official campaign came to an end in 1948,
          emerged as an important platform for resistance. Initially, it focused   attention, but the period after 1850 is not taken into account        hotels built in open countryside are downgraded to ‘scapegoats for   the same approach to hotel renovation persisted and its ‘successes’

          Engelberg, Hôtel Terrasse.                              Caux, Palace.                                                                          Vulpera, public room at the Hôtel Waldhaus.             Hotel Schweizerhof – Lucerne (open all year).
                                                                                                                                                                                                                 Undated postcard.



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