Bahnhofareal St. Moritz

St. Moritz Station Area Test Planning

The proposal for the St. Moritz station area develops two distinct sites—Areal West and Areal Ost—as complementary parts of the wider station district. The project responds closely to the alpine topography, existing urban structure, railway infrastructure and important views, while creating new pedestrian connections and high-quality public and residential spaces.

Areal West

Areal West is conceived as a new hotel building that responds directly to the geometry of its surroundings. The five-storey volume is subtly faceted, following the different orientations of the street, railway and neighbouring buildings while maximising attractive views from the hotel rooms. At ground level, a generous overhang creates a sheltered and human-scaled transition between the building and the surrounding public space, allowing outdoor uses to extend beyond the façade.

The proposal strengthens pedestrian connections through the station area. A new route connects the site towards the lake via ramps, stairs and a safe crossing close to the roundabout, while additional connections lead around both sides of the hotel towards the bridge, parking garage, bus stop and restaurant plaza.

Parking is integrated into the plinth level, following the principles established in the feasibility study, with access from Via Grevas. The level accommodates 31 parking spaces together with hotel-related back-of-house functions, deliveries, waste management and technical areas. A dedicated hotel drop-off is positioned directly at the main entrance on Bahnhofplatz.

The hotel contains approximately 100 rooms distributed across four upper floors. The ground floor is reserved for publicly oriented and hotel-related uses, including a generous lobby, a 135 m² restaurant, a 75 m² bar and a 50 m² kiosk, together with the required service areas, kitchen and staff facilities. A three-storey atrium brings daylight deep into the building, developing into a planted light court on the upper levels.

Areal Ost

Areal Ost is organised as three residential volumes. Buildings A and B follow the same basic typology, while Building C responds more directly to the existing retaining wall. Buildings A and B step between four and five storeys, while Building C reaches five storeys. These changes in height create gaps in the overall silhouette, preserving views from neighbouring buildings and preventing the development from appearing as a continuous wall along the railway.

The spacing and articulation of the volumes introduce a smaller scale and greater porosity into the development. Ten-metre gaps between the buildings create visual connections towards the landscape and retaining wall behind, while also allowing flexibility in the structural and material concept, including the possibility of timber construction. Subtle rotations in the building footprints generate a sequence of varied exterior spaces, further articulated by balconies and loggias.

An approximately 80 cm raised plinth improves privacy for the ground-floor apartments and provides additional separation from the railway. At the entrances, residents pass through the building before reaching the two circulation cores, creating sheltered entrance areas and further reinforcing the permeability of the overall structure.

A four-metre-wide strip along the railway remains accessible for emergency vehicles, railway operations and snow clearing. Buildings A and B can be entered from both the railway and garden sides, while Building C is accessed from the railway side.

The underground parking entrance is integrated into a new landscaped hill located where an existing building is removed. Rather than functioning purely as infrastructure, the hill becomes part of a new pedestrian connection towards the centre of St. Moritz. The underground level accommodates 60 parking spaces—one per apartment—as well as storage rooms, bicycle parking and technical spaces distributed efficiently between a central plant area and the individual cores.