The Chedi Andermatt

Andermatt in 2005 was a garrison village at 1,440 metres whose army had left, with a railway junction, a handful of inns and a famous off-piste mountain. The Egyptian developer Samih Sawiris saw it that year and set out to build a resort. The Chedi Andermatt, opened in December 2013, was the first and the most visible result, and it changed what the village was.

History

Sawiris's company, Andermatt Swiss Alps, acquired the former military land at the edge of the village and planned hotels, apartments, a golf course and the merger of the local ski area with Sedrun to create the largest ski domain in central Switzerland. The Chedi came first, designed for the Singapore-based GHM group, which operates the Chedi brand and had made its name with resorts in Asia. The hotel opened on 20 December 2013 after four years of construction. The SkiArena with Sedrun followed, the 18-hole golf course opened on the valley floor in 2016, and the village has gained a concert hall and several further hotels since. The Chedi has stayed the resort's anchor.

Architecture and design

Jean-Michel Gathy of Denniston, the Belgian architect behind many Aman and Chedi hotels, designed the house. From outside it reads as a group of linked chalets with pitched roofs, timber cladding and deep eaves, scaled to the village. Inside it is somewhere else: dark wood, stone, more than two hundred fireplaces including a two-sided one in the lobby, Asian lacquer and bronze, and glass walls on to the valley. The lobby's five-metre-high cheese cellar, a glass tower of ageing Swiss wheels, has become the hotel's most photographed feature.

Rooms and suites

There are 123 rooms and suites, from Deluxe rooms of around fifty square metres upwards, each with a fireplace, a terrace or balcony and a bathroom in stone with a free-standing tub. Suites run to several hundred square metres, and the hotel also sells and manages private residences within the building. Gathy's layouts give every room a view of the mountains on at least one side.

Dining

The Restaurant is the main room, built around four open kitchens, Swiss, Western and two Asian, so that a table can order rösti and dim sum in the same sitting. The Japanese Restaurant, with a sushi and tempura counter, holds a Michelin star, and the hotel runs a wine and cigar library alongside the bar. In winter a terrace serves lunch by the ski lifts; in summer the garden takes over.

Wellness

The spa covers around 2,400 square metres with a 35-metre indoor pool under a glass roof, a heated outdoor pool open in snow, Finnish and bio saunas, a hammam, ten treatment suites and a fitness centre. The pool, with its row of loungers under the timber ceiling, is one of the largest in any Swiss hotel. The hotel also has a ski butler service and a private lounge at the Gütsch lift.

Weddings and events

The Chedi has a ballroom and a set of meeting rooms with daylight, used for corporate retreats and the occasional wedding; the restaurant and the garden take receptions. Weddings tend to be small, the valley and the pool terrace serving as backdrops, while Andermatt's chapel and the Gütsch summit are alternatives for the ceremony.

Location

The hotel is a few hundred metres from Andermatt station on the Matterhorn Gotthard Bahn, the line of the Glacier Express, and from the Gemsstock and Gütsch lifts. Zurich airport is about ninety minutes by road or two hours by train with a change at Göschenen; Milan is around two hours by car. In summer the Furka, Oberalp and Gotthard passes all start at the village, and the Chedi's position makes it a luxury hotel in Andermatt that works as a base for driving as much as for skiing.