An oasis in the middle of the city

A warm, humid day in june 2022. Slowly but surely, the size and shape of the new Buchs boutique hotel are becoming apparent, although the first guests won't be able to spend the night until early summer 2023. We took the opportunity to ask Ruth Kramer and Kathrin Schertler-Secli about how things are looking.

Small side note: The interviewer was able to confidently set aside her prepared list of questions. After the first question, the answers simply flowed out of their own accord. The question was:«Well? What's the new boutique hotel going to be like?»

The rooms

Ruth: Katharina and I were just walking through the rooms together. That felt really good. Seeing the floor plans and dimensions on paper is one thing, but to feel the sense of space is a whole new experience. Of course, we’re still in the middle of the process, but the individual rooms have been thought through down to the smallest detail. They’re turning out truly beautiful and are a delight to behold. Katharina: It’s important to us that nothing is missing for the guests in terms of practical use. This is particularly true for the bathrooms, for which the layout is rather small. So things have to work a bit like on a ship. It may be a touch cramped at times, but you’ve got everything you need. In contrast to the bathrooms, the rooms are very spacious – they’re more like living areas than hotel rooms. They’re not just a place for a great night’s sleep, but also an area for you to relax, read, work … just hang out!

The design

Katharina: The beauty of the Traube should be mirrored in the hotel. Of course, the hotel is a new building, so everything will be a bit more modern, lighter, and the room ceilings will be higher. The spirit to create something beautiful is the same as with the restaurant. Ruth: Just like with the Traube, nothing is «off the shelf» when it comes to the hotel. The material as well as the look and feel are very important to us. Everything is hand-picked. Kathrin and I can now communicate without communicating and understand each other blindly. This is a huge gift. We have a lot of fun! Katharina: In fact, we two women can really express ourselves even more in the hotel. What do I mean? The restaurant, with its rather low, dark rooms facing north, feels almost a bit masculine to me. The hotel, on the other hand, is more feminine – to stick with this imagery. We work with soft pink and green tones, and large windows provide brightness. The hotel is essentially the female counterpart to the male. But you can immediately see that the two belong together, are married. We thought about this early on. What did we really like in which hotel? What truly impressed us? We collected all these thoughts and will now hopefully combine them in our boutique hotel – aspects that are not just beautiful, but above all sensible in terms of practical handling. I still remember the small, delicious breakfast that I once enjoyed in a secluded garden in a hotel in Spain. This should soon also be possible in Buchs. Eventually, the garden room will become a public space, a daytime café. Everyone, not just hotel guests, can spend time there and enjoy breakfast, coffee and cake, or drinks and snacks.

Das Gartenzimmer

Katharina: The garden room will be the heart of the hotel. It has a six-metre-wide and three-metre-high glass front that can be fully opened on nice days. This means that the interior and exterior spaces flow seamlessly into one another. From there, you go down a level into the garden.

«There won’t be one big garden, but rather several small, secluded spaces with different themes.»

The Garden

Ruth: There won’t be one big garden, but rather several small, secluded spaces with different themes. For example, we’ve got the rose garden, and the little spot under the tree, the area at the water courtyard, which feels almost Zen-like. And, if everything goes to plan, we’ll also have the space on the water with a kiosk. Katharina: I loved enjoying an ice cream after a bike ride while the children played a little in the water at the fountain … Ruth: … the water will certainly play a key role. Just today, as I stood in this garden room and imagined what peace and oasis we can create in Buchs … I could picture it: it will be a meditative place. I’m sure we can achieve it!

The Facade

Katharina: We based the facade on the aesthetic of the old, dark-tanned barn. When we dismantled it, we immediately realised that we were missing the warm, dark stable. So we decided to make the hotel a purely wooden structure with a facade made of charred larch wood. This carbonisation involves an old Japanese craftsmanship technique. However, we don’t get our wood from Japan, but from Toggenburg.

The oasis in the middle of the city

Katharina: Our boutique hotel is surrounded by streets and life, which is why we give special consideration to insulation. Despite this, or precisely because of it, we want to create a general oasis. Guests should step into the Traube world. At first glance, you might not think of a beautiful view, but if you stand in the upper rooms of the hotel, you’ll be surprised by the stunning view: of the castle, the Studnerberg and part of the Buchserberg. Or you can look out of the lobby and see the old courthouse, surrounded by trees. It’s absolutely beautiful. Our architects really thought everything through.

Ruth: It will be an artistic place, an oasis, and super sustainable! It’s a building that has a long life ahead of it. Especially since everything we have selected meets such high quality standards. Of course, we also made sure we fit in with the region.

Interview: Doris Büchel