Completed in 1996 over the only thermal springs in the Swiss canton of Graubünden, this spa in the mountain village of Vals was designed by Peter Zumthor, who later won the Pritzker Prize. Today it is known as 7132 Thermal Baths.
Zumthor based the building on the idea of a stone quarry, as if it had been cut into the hillside long before the hotels around it. It is built of thin slabs of local Valser quartzite, stacked into 15 table-like blocks about 16 feet tall. Narrow gaps between their concrete roofs make the roofs seem to float. Inside, small, intimate rooms alternate with the large, meandering bath, and a grass roof covers it all.
Since 2012 the spa has been privately owned, and access is now largely reserved for guests of its hotel.
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