High pitched

Layers of Scandinavian and mid-century design add the luxe frosting to this snowy, chalet-style bolthole.

- IAN PHILLIPS

Emmanuel de Bayser and Josef Voelk were not initially planning to buy an apartment near Gstaad. They weren’t even necessarily looking for a place in the mountains. They simply wanted somewhere they could reconnect with nature after spending 15 years living exclusively between Paris and Berlin. They actually came within a whisker of buying a house in Normandy, France, with a spectacular sea view. A week before the contracts were due to be exchanged, however, Emmanuel chanced upon an article about local shermen protesting against the installation of an offshore windfarm. “There were plans for 60 turbines to be set up directly in front of the house,” he recalls.