Andermatt - 1
James Lamb, above, isn’t running a hotel – he’s tasked by Orascom’s Samih Sawiris and his increasingly influential son Naguib with putting Andermatt on the map. Yes, the destination’s on the bucket list for Swiss, but not for the rest of the world. That's why the presence of The Chedi so vital, and why Lamb was eventually enticed, as CEO Hospitality Andermatt Swiss Alps AG, to come and make it all work.
This is not, by the way, a hardship posting. Andermatt’s gorgeous, 1,400m ASL and population 1,700 and seemingly unbelievable clean alpine air. Skiing in winter and golf, padel and mountain summer sports the rest of the year. Reach it by legendary zigzag roads or by twice hourly trains that make the seemingly-diagonal track seem smooth as silk.
Yes, it's always been a tourist destination, but under the radar. Fifteen years ago, Orascom’s Samih Sawiris was introduced to Andermatt by the then-Swiss Ambassador to Egypt. Sawiris invested heavily and now Orascom ‘is’ Andermatt. The project, which must be completed by 2040 when its Lex-Koller foreign investment licence ends, already includes The Chedi, designed by Jean-Michel Gathy (using his Setai style): it’s nine detached ‘houses’, joined subterraneously. There’s another hotel, Radisson Blu, connected to a most impressive concert hall, Andermatt Music, designed by London-based Swiss-Austrian architect Christina Seilern. It’s a unique space – see below. Origami-look roof, massive windows looking out to alpine pastures, seating for 700 and superb sound, the responsibility of a top-class origami-roofed 700-seat concert hall with sound by Nagata Acoustics, who also did Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie…
