Chl?terli
Gstaad, Switzerland
Patrick Jouin

Patrick Jouin turns an Alpine chalet into a chic dining and entertainment venue for Europe?s jet-setters

© Thomas Duval

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By Philip Jodidio

Set in a 300-year-old chalet on the main road into the Swiss mountain resort of Gstaad, Chlösterli blends tradition, modernity, and a sense of humor. The chalet, built by the monks of Rougemont Abbey, had been converted into a restaurant and pizzeria before the Monaco developer Michel Pastor bought it. Pastor and the chef Alain Ducasse called on Paris designer Patrick Jouin to breathe new life into the dark wood structure. Jouin, who also worked with Ducasse on the Plaza Athenée Restaurant in Paris as well as Mix in New York City, is a 37-year-old who had been in charge of furniture and product design for Philippe Starck before starting his own firm in 1998.

Working within strict guidelines on what is the oldest wood building in the village, Jouin cleaned and restored the chalet’s facades. The most visible intervention outside the building is a new, 1,600-square-foot terrace for summer dining made of Iroko wood and concrete. Subtle variations in the placement of slats in the wood enclosure surrounding the elevated terrace allow diners to take in the bucolic mountain setting.

Ducasse’s plan called for not one but two restaurants: a traditional Swiss dining venue on the ground floor and, above that, Spoon des Neiges, one of seven Spoon locations around the world. (Jouin designed the Spoon Byblos in Saint Tropez, which opened in 2002.) Ducasse also operates acclaimed restaurants in Paris, Monaco, and New York, and châteaux and hotels in France. Each of the restaurants at Chlösterli has its own 2,250-square-foot kitchen serving a dining area of less than 1,100 square feet. Targeted to a wealthy clientele, Chlösterli includes an 850-square-foot discotheque on the ground floor.

The two-story-high disco is the most spectacular departure from the usual Alpine experience. Scottish slate on the floor gives way to resin blocks lit from below by a LED system that pumps vibrant and changing colors into the space. A 17-foot-high glass wall divides the disco from the kitchen and serves as a giant, transparent wine rack. Jouin played on the incongruous presence of international sophistication in a traditional farming area by designing tables in the shape of old wine buckets and wood seats that are wry updates of vernacular prototypes.

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Formal name of Project:
Chl?terli

Location:
Gstaad, Switzerland

Interior Designer:
Patrick Jouin