Page 234 - Livre Beau Rivage Palace

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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