Fafleralp, Lötschental
The Renovation of
Hotel Langgletscher
Interview: with Christian Heller;
Photography: Mike Rabensteiner (Montamont)
The Renovation of
17. May 2026
A short walk from Fafleralp sits Hotel Langgletscher, which opened in 1931. The architects from Atelier Loryplatz, Sandra Münger and Christian Heller, have given the building a new identity – a new dimension of material, light and space.
Fafleralp
High at 1,789 metres, embraced by the magic of a larch forest, we find a place that reconnects us – with nature, and with the slower rhythm of life found in the mountains.
View
The hotel remains an unheated stone house, a summer residence for friends and families who value conscious simplicity. Its originality and understated beauty were respectfully preserved during the renovation in 2023.
There is no need for any pictures above the beds here. Gazing out of the beautiful, old windows, we understand that this is what really matters – the essence of alpine living, translated into the present day. A little slice of paradise.
Montamont
What was the concept behind the renovation?
Christian Heller
The idea was to find a new language – to bring the house into the present while keeping great respect for what has endured for a hundred years. We believe there’s a reason why the Hotel Langgletscher still stands where it does. It sits here in the valley with a quiet certainty, like a rock in the current.
We developed the project from the existing structure, consciously subordinating ourselves to it. From that attitude, a new identity slowly emerged.
Montamont
What defines the character of the house?
Christian Heller
The Langgletscher remains an unheated stone house, a summer residence. Simplicity has always been part of its nature. It attracts people who value exactly that – qualitative simplicity. Not the many, but the ones who understand it. People who care about material, light, space – and honesty.
Montamont
What story does the interior tell?
Christian Heller
We worked with local weavers who created heavy, handwoven curtains on traditional wooden looms. The artist Adrian Scheidegger developed the colour concept – each room has its own palette, drawn from the flowers, mosses and stones of the landscape. The walls are coated in plaster made of sand from the Lonza river, mixed with lime – a translation of the rough exterior texture into the interior.
The furniture design draws from the 1930s and 40s – a period of transition where modernism and tradition touched. Steel frames, classic lines. We wanted to bring in the thought of simultaneity – to let the pieces speak of their time.
Montamont
What does this place mean to you, especially after the landslide?
Christian Heller
Blatten is shaken, its future uncertain. But up here, the sense of self-evidence remains. These houses simply stand. There are places where everything seems to pass by – and they are meaningful.
