There is a particular kind of silence that you find only at high altitude. It arrives with thin air, settling on snow-muffled valleys and plateaus. The world below feels entirely theoretical. It is this silence that the Milanese architect Matteo Thun has spent years thinking about and which, this May, takes physical form in an extension at Hotel Bellavista – a family-run retreat in Trafoi.
Explore Matteo Thun’s new vision for luxury in South Tyrol
Set deep inside the Stelvio National Park at the foot of the 3,905-metre-high Ortler massif, the tallest peak in South Tyrol, the project is, at its heart, a friendship made architectural. Thun and Gustav Thöni – Olympic alpine ski champion and co-owner of the hotel with his family – have spoken about expanding the property for years. The hotel itself dates to 1875, its original 36 rooms enduring through generations precisely because it has never tried to be anything other than what it is: a place shaped by landscape, not the other way around. Thun’s new wing, which adds 24 suites, a lounge bar, and a substantial wellness complex, cleaves close to that polestar.
‘When Gustav spoke about expanding the hotel, the image of the nest came naturally,’ says Thun. ‘You don't want to interrupt the landscape; you want to frame it, to live within it.’
The nest became the project’s organising principle – not as a literal form, of course, but as a sense of openness tempered by shelter, exposure softened by enclosure. With sensitivity to the spirit of place above all else, Thun conceived a structure that sits lightly on the ground, its exterior clad in regional alpine timber – Swiss pine, fir, oak – giving the building the quality of something grown, rather than built. ‘Wood is not a stylistic choice; it is a cultural and environmental one,’ he says. ‘The structure is clear, the surfaces are honest, the details are precise. In this way, the material loses any sense of pastiche. It becomes contemporary because it is used with discipline.’
Connecting a substantial new volume to a historic structure inside a national park – a process subject to lengthy permitting processes that paused the project for years – demanded equal parts patience and precision. The new reception solves one of the trickier physical problems: it sits between the 1875 building and the new wing as a shared arrival corridor, so that guests move between eras without rupture. ‘The historic house carries memory, time, and identity,’ says Thun. ‘We did not want to imitate it, but to extend its spirit.’
Where Thun’s architecture sets the frame, the interiors by Merano-based Studio Biquadra – led by Christina Biasi-von Berg, who spent five years working in Thun’s studio before founding her own practice in 2005 – are filled with warmth and narrative specificity. In the lounge bar, her palette draws directly from Italian sporting archives, specifically blue, white, and red hues referencing the Valanga Azzurra – the legendary Italian ski team whose greatest champion co-owns the hotel – to create a post-prandial mood that is equal parts gathering place and architectural memoir.
The 24 new suites, meanwhile, are pared back to essentials – large panoramic windows commanding uninterrupted views across the Stelvio and Engadine Dolomites, alongside pared-back interiors that allow the changing light to do the decorating.
In the adults-only spa – 550 square metres of indoor space opening onto 5,000 square metres of outdoor wellness terrain – Biasi-von Berg shifts register entirely. Natural stone, pale tones, and moss-green accents produce deliberate calm to frame the mountain panorama beyond. An infinity pool opens toward the Trafoi Canyon like a suspended terrace, whilst four saunas, an outdoor Jacuzzi, and a hot and cold relaxation zone complete the immersion.
For Thun, the extension, so many years in the making, reflects a definition of luxury that has quietly evolved over a long career. ‘In a place like Trafoi, luxury is not an addition; it is subtraction,’ he says. ‘It is space, silence, and the possibility to reconnect with nature. When architecture allows you to experience a place in its purest form – when time slows down, and the landscape becomes part of your inner space – then it becomes luxury.’
Hotel Bella Vista is located at Via Trafoi, 11, 39029 Trafoi, Italy