Rolf Sachs suspends chunk of rock inside Saltz restaurant
A wall of salt, railway clocks and a rock hung from red climbing ropes all feature in artist Rolf Sachs' Swiss-influenced restaurant at Zürich's The Dolder Grand hotel.
The Saltz restaurant opened last week at the historic hotel, which first welcomed guests in 1899 but was extended by UK firm Foster + Partners in 2008 to include 175 rooms and an extensive spa.
"The restaurant in a hotel is always a difficult thing,"
"They came to me because they wanted something different, otherwise they would've gone to a decorator."
Located on the lowest floor, the restaurant features a fully glazed wall that offers panoramic views over a terrace and beyond to Lake Zürich.
But Swiss-born Sachs was keen to divide up the space into areas and levels with distinct atmospheres, so diners won't just want to sit by the window.
This division also helps to deal with the room's awkward triangular shape. "It's a very difficult space to geometrically work out," he said. "Each corner is approached very differently."
"Everything has something to do with Switzerland, in a subtle way," he added. "I had to be careful that it didn't get cheesy."
On one side, a raised area is coloured entirely in red – the dominant colour on the Swiss flag – and a jagged neon light mounted on the wall is designed to look like the country's mountainous landscape.
But Swiss-born Sachs was keen to divide up the space into areas and levels with distinct atmospheres, so diners won't just want to sit by the window.
This division also helps to deal with the room's awkward triangular shape. "It's a very difficult space to geometrically work out," he said. "Each corner is approached very differently."
"Everything has something to do with Switzerland, in a subtle way," he added. "I had to be careful that it didn't get cheesy."
On one side, a raised area is coloured entirely in red – the dominant colour on the Swiss flag – and a jagged neon light mounted on the wall is designed to look like the country's mountainous landscape.
The ropes are also strung into a web across the ceiling, while smaller rocks are attached to a white wall "like a painting".
"Rock is so powerful, and nature is the best sculptor," said Sachs.
At the entrance, rows of Swiss railway clocks – famous for their red second hand that pauses for a second at the 12 o'clock marker – all display the same time and are each named after one of the country's aviation waypoints.
Sachs usually works with sculpture and installations, such as a piece at theV&A museum for which drops of coloured ink fell six storeys into a glass tank below. His furniture designs include a table made from two sledges andchairs cast from resin.
But the London-based artist and designer has also renovated a Bauhaus building and designed the interior for a ski club house in the Alpine resort of St Moritz.
