Into the Hotel (2000)

Into the Hotel

Inaugurated with great pomp and ceremony on 29 February 2000, this hotel was only open for 7 weeks, but that was enough to make it a legend.

Now completely remodelled but still closed, the original work created by Heinz Julen was the contrasting reflection of its creator:
There was an access tunnel and a grotto for meditation, a place for contemplative immersion named “INTO YOURSELF”, both hollowed directly out of the rock; a transparent nightclub where you danced on a glass floor above water which trickled out of the rock; revolving beds joined to the bath at the centre of the room; televisions were set in glazed bays so that you didn’t lose sight of the Matterhorn; a lift bar climbed through the floors at the centre of the atrium; a jacuzzi mounted on jacks which took its occupants up to the roof to enjoy bathing outside in full view of the Matterhorn – and the list goes on. Everything in this hotel was both an invitation to meditate and an ode to art. You had to look beyond the technology to see the symbolism in INTO.

The swimming pool surrounded by black marble symbolising death – the bather was invited to reflect, bathing became a mystical experience the roof which opened to let the jacuzzi pass through signified openness to the world and the bar lift represented the movement of life. Each object had a meaning and the hotel had a soul – that of Heinz Julen.