Chalet in the Swiss Alps by Pierre Yovanovitch

Imagine a warm, cosy timber-clad ski chalet, with a picturesque vista across the snowy Swiss Alps. Now imagine if the chalet’s interiors had been designed by a former Pierre Cardin menswear designer with a keenness for luxurious, storied details like blue-chip artwork and vintage and custom-made furniture. Pierre Yovanovitch, and his eponymous Paris-based studio Pierre Yovanovitch Architecture d’Intérieur, have created exactly that, within a penthouse apartment in a charming Swiss snow village called Andermatt.

The 500-square-metre space is a modern and lavishly-appointed alpine retreat set on the top floor of a new five-storey block. It’s a visual feast where bows of blond spruce timber are an artistic adornment, as well as being structural and functional. In the entryway, spruce shingles have been painted rust red to resemble roof tiles, and the cantilevered spruce stairway features a balustrade inspired by rural fencing.

In the grand salon is a custom snow white sectional lounge with ash-tinted larch frame, a vintage cast plaster John Dickson side table, custom carpet by Holland & Sherry, and a custom stone fireplace by French ceramicist Armelle Benoit. There are 70s-era pine chairs by Chilean artist Roberto Matta, and a lantern by Matali Crasset, which was originally created for a French cathedral.

Other artistic lighting is layered throughout – in the kitchen, Hely blown-glass suspension lights by Finnish designer Katriina Nuutinen hover above a quartzite countertop, and Jeff Zimmerman’s hand-blown Salt Crystal lights hang above the entrance hall’s circular custom benches.

Spruce alcoves create smaller nooks within the wide, light-filled space. The first houses a long dining table, which connects to the kitchen via a service window. The second timber nook frames another custom lounge, which is wrapped around two of nendo’s ‘Innerblown’ blown molten glass coffee tables. Upstairs, four timber alcoves make cozy bunkbeds.