Peak Luxury: An Architectural Guide to Ski Chalets

“Chalet” is a Franco-Provençal word hailing from Europe’s multilingual Alpine region—the mountainous area that straddles parts of Switzerland, Italy, and France. The term’s earliest usage referred to the traditional cattle herder cottages that dotted the mountainsides of the region. Farmers used these dwellings as cool places in which to store dairy products before the arrival of winter made them inaccessible. They tended to be constructed from wood and quite simple, both inside and out. The chalet’s glamorous association with skiing, which dates from the 1930s, is their defining feature today. When widespread air travel made it easier to reach the Alps, winter sports enthusiasts realized they could visit the famous mountain range during peak ski season, and some savvy herders, in turn, began renting out their unoccupied chalets.

Famed British skier Erna Low organized the first all-inclusive ski vacations in Austria in 1932. At the end of World War II, the jet age made trips to the Alps even more accessible to travelers from all over the world, and by the 1960s, packaged ski vacations were wildly popular. In the very early days, organized ski vacations may have been great fun, but they were not glamorous. More akin to campsites, early chalets offered minimal furnishings, and warm water was a rarity. Plus, a challenging hike was often required in order to reach these rough-hewn retreats. Ski vacations in the Alps during the second half of the 20th century, however, were much more likely to feature fabulous food as well as cozy, luxurious interiors and professional chalet hosts known in the region as “seasonaires.”

As the popularity of winter sports, from traditional downhill skiing to the ever-expanding roster of new sports recognized at the Winter Olympics, has grown, chalets have blossomed from quaint mountain cottages to full-fledged luxury estates at high altitudes. Over the years, the design and style of chalets has evolved to reflect shifting tastes as well as the traditional architecture of different winter resort regions like the American Mountain West. In honor of the forthcoming 2015-2016 ski season in the northern hemisphere, Luxury Defined explores the evolution of the ski chalet and profiles five of the more popular residential styles on offer in today’s luxurious ski resorts.

Traditional Alpine Chalets
The Swiss perfected the fine art of building on the sides of mountains, and the aesthetic that came to characterize these traditional chalets is still a popular one, even in newly built luxury estates. Their key features are hand-hewn timber construction, pronounced overhanging eaves, front-facing gabled roofs, balconies and porches, and perhaps most recognizably, rustic architectural embellishments such as hand-carved hearts, flowers, or geometric designs. In essence, these are the sorts of chalets in which one could easily imagine the author Johanna Spyri’s beloved character Heidi preparing a cup of hot chocolate on a sunny afternoon. American architect Andrew Jackson Downing introduced this style of home to the United States in the mid-19th century. In snowy regions like New England and the Mid-Atlantic, the Alpine Chalet grew in popularity, particularly in states like Pennsylvania, where the “Pennsylvania Dutch” style introduced by German and Swiss immigrants was very familiar. Both in Europe and America, traditional chalets tended to be heated via cast-iron wood stoves with high stone chimneys that were often designed with a great deal of charm in their own right. Today, Traditional Alpine Chalets often retain the aesthetic features of these originals but have large, open floorplans and high ceilings as well as amenities such as dedicated storage for ski gear.

A-Frames
A-Frame homes almost look like they’re more roof than house, but beneath their dramatic silhouettes sit  spacious and modern interiors. Defined by the angle of a steep gable, they tend to feature huge windows where the walls are highest, which creates a dramatic wash of natural light indoors. They’re also practical: the steep roof is designed to shed snow easily in the winter months. A-Frame homes tend to be one and a half stories, with an open lofted area at the peak. Their design was a post-World War II architectural innovation that both Scandinavia and California’s Bay Area can claim as their own. Norwegian architect Henrik H. Bull (1929-2013) emigrated to San Francisco in 1954 and worked at a firm based in Oakland. There he designed several ski cabins, until he eventually established his own practice in 1956, when winter homes became his specialty. With his colleague John Flender, Bull built the first A-Frame ski cabin in Stowe, Vermont, and from that point on, he adapted the design for beach and lakefront properties as well. Eventually, prefabricated kits made A-Frames a popular choice and solidified the design as a classic of postwar architecture. Today, A-Frame homes have evolved from their “kit” days to include some spectacular modern estates, incorporating the best features of Henrik Bull’s design with the luxury finishes of an outstanding ski resort.

Log Homes
The American log cabin dates back to the country’s earliest settlements. One-room cabins with straightforward rectangular plans and gabled roofs were often fashioned by hand from the very timber cleared from the properties upon which they would eventually sit. Thanks to the Victorian love of camping and the popularity of rustic architecture and furniture in the 19th and 20th centuries, log homes evolved into large, spacious homes, just as Alpine chalets did. Instead of single-room cottages, today’s log homes might boast double-height ceilings with exposed beams. The look of hand-hewn lumber, hammered copper, and stone floors are all still popular touches with which to give a newer luxury estate the unpretentious warmth of a log house. Because log homes both great and small are suited so well to mountain settings, they often include porches and decks to maximize the views of nearby mountain ranges. Many have lofts not unlike those found in A-Frame houses, and walkout basements that can be used as living or storage space.

Swiss Cottage-Style Homes
Swiss Cottage-style houses hail from a 19th-century branch of the traditional chalet family. Inspired by the design of homes in the mountainous regions of Switzerland and Germany, these residences tend to be two stories tall with large windows and a profile that—not coincidentally—evokes the look of an antique cuckoo clock. Swiss Cottage-style homes typically make copious use of rough-cut lumber and visible metal hardware, as well as rough-cut boards that may be applied to other surfaces in order to affect the look of Swiss post-and-beam construction. Exposed beam ceilings, gabled roofs with wide eaves, raised stoned foundations, and exterior weatherboarding painted in bright colors are also common. Traditional touches like decorative coats of arms and roofs clad in rounded shingles or balconies with carved and painted wooden balusters give these homes their signature “gingerbread” aesthetic.

Ultra-Contemporary Chalets
If gabled roofs and rough-hewn beams are not one’s preferred style, there are plenty of chalets designed to embody the look and feel of an innovative, 21st-century estate. The rise of the Ultra-Contemporary Chalet is notable in some of the world’s most fashionable winter resorts, especially in the western United States, where the connection to traditional Alpine architecture is less direct. The wide open spaces and spectacular mountain views of places like Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and Telluride, Colorado, provide ideal settings for modern architectural elements such as huge windows, glass walls, and sleek, natural materials like slate and bluestone, all of which look right at home here. Indoor/outdoor features are also growing in popularity, with new standards in sustainability and energy-efficiency encouraging smart, eco-conscious design in the luxury sphere.