The Dolder Grand

In 2009, the Dolder Grand celebrates its first birthday following a four-year remodelling by Foster+Partners. Photographers from the Zurich studio nave, Nadja Athanasiou, Michael Bühler and Peter Lüem, have documented the entire project throughout every stage of the refurbishment, charting the scope of the hotel’s metamorphosis. The resulting narrative in pictures and words is not simply a linear documentation, but a rich and complex tapestry in which text and image are interwoven with a lyricism that brings the architecture to life on the pages of the book. Journalist Judith Wyder complements the photographs with anecdotes and facts that give a fascinating and many-facetted insight. Dutch novelist Cees Nooteboom has contributed an essay in which he describes the hotel as a microcosm and a home away from home, musing on how guests tend to take possession of the hotels they stay in.