The entrance cultivates sobriety: a whitewashed facade, a paved stone ramp engraved, near a glass door, with the simple word “pensiun” in capitals and in Romansh – the fourth official language of Switzerland alongside Italian, German and French. Just opened in December 2025, Chesa Marchetta is the second hotel created by Iwan and Manuela Wirth, co-founders of the established art gallery Hauser & Wirth, to whom we already owe the Fife Arms, in the Scottish Highlands.
To house their new address with intimate dimensions, the couple chose the historic heart of Sils-Maria, in the Swiss Alps, a village in the canton of Graubünden tight around traditional buildings and opulent hotels. Under the frames of a house (chesa, in Romansh) and barns whose foundations date from the 16the century, the place has 13 rooms and a restaurant with around fifty seats.
The extensive renovation was carried out by architect Luis Laplace with constant attention to avoiding ostentation. This Argentinian based in Paris, whose sense of nuance and sensitivity have seduced the elite of contemporary art for years – he has notably designed the interiors of the gallery owner Emmanuel Perrotin and the artist Cindy Sherman – has practiced his art of painting here from floor to ceiling. “almost invisible architecture”.
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