The Bürgenstock Hotel, perched atop a mountain 450 metres above Lake Lucerne, acts as the spine of the resort. A funicular comes right into the bold modern building, and the imposing reception lobby, as well as the expansive meeting spaces, are shared with the Palace Hotel. The designers reconfigured the original masterplan to enhance operations and circulation and to ensure that each of the 102 guestrooms benefited from magnificent views, in the process creating space for a large outdoor terrace. Inside, from the lobby lounge, with its imposing windows, curvilinear forms and deep-seated sofas, to the guestrooms, each with a full-height window in both the bedroom and the bathroom, and Spices restaurant, a glass box cantilevered over the sheer drop of the mountain, the sensation is as a bird in flight hovering over the world, completely at one with nature. Material are neutral in colour, selected to achieve a sense of uninterrupted transition from the view outside to indoors. They include: stone from the mountains, timber from the forests, bronze resembling the light of late afternoon and a deeply veined green marble wall in the bathrooms. Guestrooms offer an idyllic retreat. The layout is unconventional in order to direct guests towards the view through the window where integrated seating provides a place to absorb nature’s majesty. Bathrooms run the entire length of the room and a two-way fire warms bathers in their sunken bath and window seat dwellers at the same time.