One of our valley’s notable features is the harmony of its unified architectural style, a style which does not seek to dominate over the natural environment.
You will see this for yourself if you look around you while you are travelling on l’Olympe. You can see the results of the wishes of the resort’s first architects: Paul-Jacques Grillo at first and then, more importantly, Christian Durupt. It was the latter, who lived and worked in the valley until his dying day, who formulated the building specifications which have endured over the decades.
He established the humble-yet-harmonious original principles, declaring that houses should be built no higher than the trees. Local stone for the walls, light-coloured pine for the cladding and state for the evenly-sloped roofs form a visual ensemble that still strikes visitors today.
Some critics and advocates for subsequent fashions in ski resort design decried a lack of originality and creativity (despite Charlotte Perriand’s inventive interior designs) but our resort’s creators, supported by the town council, remained committed to their choice.
For them, the supreme originality was to appear to have none! The result is clear to see: the harmony of our resorts and villages has endured despite growing beyond their founders’ initial dreams, remaining true to their ideas.
The resort’s visionary founder Peter Lindsay, together with his architect Durupt, the "guardian of the temple" and their colleagues who shared the same vision, are no longer with us, but the fruits of their work remain visible in the harmony of our valley, preserved by its inhabitants and loved by its regular visitors.
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