Kameha Grand Zurich: Swiss References at an Unexpected Scale

The lounge combines a circular seating group with deliberately enlarged decorative elements. Photography © Francesco Secchi. Courtesy of Marcel Wanders.

For Kameha Grand Zurich, completed as a 2015 hotel interior, Marcel Wanders drew on familiar Swiss associations and changed their scale. Cowbells became monumental lamps, chocolate suggested the divisions of wall panels, and the idea of a bank vault informed minibar design. These references gave the project a recognisable local vocabulary, which the studio carried through rooms with markedly different functions and atmospheres.

The original commission for LH&E Group included guest accommodation, restaurants, lounges, spa spaces and the Kameha Dome event room. Its breadth allowed a common set of ideas to move between intimate interiors and large communal settings. Furniture, lighting and surface patterns were composed together, giving ordinary hotel elements an unusually prominent role in the experience of a room.

Everyday references, enlarged

The lobby makes the method particularly clear. A substantial gold cowbell hangs in front of a white, padded wall scattered with golden keys. Both objects are familiar, yet their repetition and change of size make them part of the architecture. The softness of the wall surface also prevents the metal accents from becoming the room’s only material register.

The lobby turns the cowbell and hotel key into architectural-scale motifs. Photography © Francesco Secchi. Courtesy of Marcel Wanders.

The adjoining lounge works through a similar contrast of scale. Low seating is gathered on a circular carpet beneath an oversized light, while a tall white vase and red curtain establish strong edges. The arrangement creates a recognisable place to sit within an interior full of large objects. Its legibility depends on keeping the seating group coherent even as the surrounding forms become theatrical.

Guest rooms as individual settings

The guest-room design extends the Swiss references into more contained spaces. Dark panels divided into chocolate-like blocks provide a strong backdrop for pale upholstery and patterned rugs. In the photographed Deluxe Suite, these planes frame both the bed and the sitting area. The furniture remains clear against the darker envelope, while the textile patterns add a separate layer of detail close to the body.

Chocolate-like wall divisions frame the bedroom and its adjoining sitting area. Photography © Francesco Secchi. Courtesy of Marcel Wanders.

The original design release also described individually conceived suites organised around particular activities and moods, including writing, games and relaxation. That approach gave the accommodation different identities within the larger scheme. The connective tissue was the studio’s attention to tactile surfaces, expressive lighting and objects that offered more than one reading: useful furniture could also introduce a visual joke or an unexpected association.

Public rooms with contrasting moods

At L’Unico, the restaurant design combines warm timber tones, tactile upholstery and sculptural columns. Curved booths establish smaller settings within the open room, while the ceiling and lighting connect them. The interior reflects the project’s interest in making a large hospitality space feel composed of understandable places, each with a clear relationship to the circulation around it.

L’Unico arranges seating around a warm palette and repeated curved forms. Photography © Francesco Secchi. Courtesy of Marcel Wanders.

The spa reception reduces the palette to white, pale timber and fine gold accents. Repeated rectangular frames bring the doorway, wall treatment and desk into alignment. Compared with the richer lounge and restaurant, the effect is more measured. The photograph shows that the project’s identity could survive a reduction in colour and ornament because proportion and repeated forms continued to do the organising work.

The spa reception uses a quieter palette and a sequence of pale frames. Photography © Francesco Secchi. Courtesy of Marcel Wanders.

The Kameha Dome takes the opposite direction. The original release describes a 701-square-metre event space, with red ceiling drapery set against a black-and-white floor. Daylight enters through the glazed perimeter, while chandeliers and fabric lower the apparent scale of the overhead structure. The patterned floor remains a strong element even when tables occupy the room.

The Kameha Dome brings red fabric, daylight and a graphic floor into a single large room. Photography © Francesco Secchi. Courtesy of Marcel Wanders.

Kameha Grand Zurich’s original interiors connect these different settings through a consistent willingness to enlarge, repeat and reinterpret familiar forms. Interior design: Marcel Wanders, 2015. Photography for the images shown: Francesco Secchi, supplied through the Marcel Wanders press room.

Sources: Official project documentation; Project release 1.