Skyscraper against housing shortage? Planned "Lina Peak" skyscraper divides Zermatt
The plans of a hotelier are causing mixed feelings in Zermatt VS. A 260-metre-high skyscraper with 62 floors is to be built there. The question remains: how does this fit in with the Valais mountain idyll?
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- Architect and hotelier Heinz Julen wants to build a skyscraper in Zermatt VS.
- The high-rise is to be called "Lina Peak", will be 260 meters high and have 62 floors.
- Julen sees the high-rise as an important step in the fight against the housing shortage in the Valais vacation resort.
- Tourism businesses in Zermatt have difficulty finding affordable accommodation for their seasonal workers.
A step into the future or a disruptive factor in the midst of the mountain idyll? Ever since hotelier Heinz Julen presented his plans for a skyscraper in Zermatt, the project has been the number one topic of conversation in the tourist resort.
Opinions in the Valais vacation resort are divided.
In total, the high-rise building will house over 1200 apartments, around 1000 parking spaces, a concert hall with 2500 seats, a children's daycare center and various restaurants. There will also be a public swimming pool, a sports center, stores and a roof terrace.
Julen already owns the potential building plot. It is located at an altitude of 800 meters in the lower part of the village. The base of the skyscraper with the evocative name "Lina Peak" is to be a 40-metre-high plinth.
"Lina Peak" is therefore intended to create affordable living space
For Heinz Julen, the skyscraper could be an important building block in the fight against Zermatt's housing shortage, as he told Radio SRF.
Due to the high price of land, employers in the tourism industry in Zermatt can hardly find affordable accommodation for their seasonal workers. "Lina Peak" is therefore intended to create affordable living space.
However, luxury apartments are to be built in the upper part of the high-rise building - according to Julen, this will be of particular interest to customers from abroad.
However, because laws in Zermatt prohibit the purchase of real estate by non-residents, they would have to deposit their papers in Zermatt.
Locals have different opinions
However, the 5800 or so people who live in Zermatt all year round have mixed feelings about the mega-project. As Swissinfo writes, people vacillate between indignation and enthusiasm.
When the project was presented in mid-November, the hall in Zermatt was well filled and the audience was "rather open-minded".
The main fear is that the building could spoil the idyllic mountain landscape. In any case, previous experience with high-rise buildings in the Alps has not been the best. The Aminona towers in Crans-Montana VS are one example of this.
Real estate prices are rising sharply
However, the road to the high-rise building is still a long one. "First, 600 signatures have to be collected to demand the rezoning of the agricultural zone into a building zone," explains Heinz Julen. Only then would there be a referendum.
Floors 2 to 32 of Lina Peak would be reserved for the local population and seasonal workers employed in the resort's tourist infrastructure.
But the plans go even further: because the thousands of new residents would potentially clog up the access road even more, the developers are planning a visitor center to regulate the influx. In addition, a new gondola lift is to be built so that the ski slopes can be reached without having to drive through Zermatt.
However, Zermatt is already suffering from mass tourism. The number of vacation guests has been increasing for years, especially since the end of the Covid pandemic.
Normal earners have long been unable to afford property, and the vacancy rate is practically zero. Properties have long since become objects of speculation due to the incessant rise in prices.
It therefore remains to be seen whether "Lina Peak" could provide a remedy or exacerbate the problem.
