Casa Muttabella, an apartment rental in Switzerland

An Artfully Updated Family Apartment in the Swiss Alps

In the shadow of 3,000m peaks in a Swiss Alps ski resort, this apartment has been the holiday getaway for a Hamburg family since the 1970s. Its architect and interior designer owners, David Gössler and Olivia Sommer, have recreated the memory-filled spot, updating the apartment’s spaces with an eye on artful gathering and maximizing the home’s harmonious living environment.

Clearly defined spaces are a trademark of the couple’s design style, creating a floor plan that delineates communal and private spaces. Modernist touches are abundant throughout the sleekly reconfigured apartment, and interiors offer a soft interplay of light, color and texture in a natural palette. New raw materials such as stone and wood meld with the apartment’s original timber veneers and paneling for warmth, and family art and heirlooms remain as part of the apartment's allure.

Two of the three bedrooms are kings, and the third is a single room ideal for a child. The rooms share a bathroom, updated with pastel green tiles and easily accessed from all three bedrooms. A large south-facing balcony offers dramatic views over the village of Flims to the Signina Mountains.

Ski access can be on foot (10 minutes), by bus, or by car (four minutes), and hiking is available right out the building’s doors.

Around

The apartment is located in Grisons Canton in the Swiss Alps (at 1,081m high), in a UNESCO World Heritage designated site known as Sardona. A ski resort links the village of Flims with Laax and Falera, and the region has attracted visitors since the 1870s, known as a “climatic health resort” for its mountain terrain and breathtaking, healing nature. A popular destination for families, bikers and hikers, the area is an outdoor sports and wellness mecca with hundreds of trails, mountain bike routes and lakes for swimming, adventure and relaxation.

The landscape is sublime, a high-altitude playground that resulted from tectonic shifts. The Tectonic Arena Sardona is a sharply jagged area marked by an overthrust, where older rock strata have edged dramatically above younger rocks. The UNESCO site illustrates the Alps’ geological history, the area the result of the ancient collision of the African and European continents. With Murgsee Lake, Pizol and Martin’s Hole as notable local landmarks, this 300sqm “geopark” can be visited by taking the cable car from Flims. There is also a beautiful hiking trail called Trutg dil Flem, that is especially interesting for people interested in architecture because the pedestrian bridges along the way were designed by the famous Swiss engineer Jürg Conzett.

Another spectacular part of the area is the Rhine Gorge of Ruinaulta. With its roiling waters, steep white walls and dense surrounding forests, this high mountain paradise can be visited on foot, by mountain bike, via railway or in a raft. Lake Cauma offers a great spot for swimming and sunbathing in the warmer months, with its constant temperature of between 20 and 24 degrees Celsius, and there are restaurants around the lake. Another gorgeous lake nearby is the Crestasee, located in an idyllic clearing with a jetty and a raft at its center. The spring-fed lake is a peaceful setting, surrounded by a fairytale evergreen forest.