Frozen In Time

Commissioned to restore a historic home high in the Swiss mountains, Capaul & Blumenthal architects made it their mission to preserve the property’s remarkable beauty

- Jo Leevers

When architect Ramun Capaul and his practice partner Gordian Blumenthal walked through this abandoned house, their hearts skipped a beat. ‘Türalihus was untouched – we found it just as it had been left 60 years ago,’ says Ramun. The pair had been asked to bring the house back to life, a process that would also involve peeling back layers of history. ‘We didn’t want to over-modernize it because that would have robbed it of its character,’ says Ramun. ‘Rather than cover up the decorative styles of several centuries, we let the house tell its own story.’

One of the reasons why the building had remained so intact is that it stands in the Swiss mountain village of Valendas, perched on the shadowy side of the Rhine gorge. ‘In winter, the village doesn’t get direct sun for two to three months,’ says Ramun. While villages such as Flims and Laax on the sunny side of the gorge flourished with tourism from the Sixties onwards, Valendas was left in the shadows. ‘But the upside was that, while houses in those chic resorts were carved up into ski apartments, those in Valendas remained intact.’