(Chalets · 2 Sep 2026)
Larch and stone
How we rebuilt Chalet Furi from its own beams, and what the old builders knew.
Chalet Furi was built in 1902 by a family of farmers. By 2019 its roof had collapsed and its walls were leaning.
We numbered every beam, took the house apart and stored it in a barn for a winter.
Then we rebuilt it on a new stone base, with the old larch outside and a modern frame inside.
“The old larch was 120 years old when it was cut. It deserved to be used again.”
The roof is stone slate from the valley, three tons of it, laid by hand by the last roofer in Zermatt who still does it.
Inside, the walls are lime plaster and the floors are wide planks of the same larch.
It smells, everyone says, like an old house. That is the point.
