Strange. As soon as you enter the light-flooded lobby of the Hotel Sensoria, you feel the desire to fold paper cranes and let them flutter in the wind. The filigree wooden supports that support the one-storey pavilion are reminiscent of picking sticks. The pavilion is a reception, bar, lounge and library in one – a place where guests arrive and depart, drink their aperitif, leaf through books – and start reading right away in an armchair. The bathhouse visible from the lobby, which connects the indoor and outdoor pools, is also an airy wooden construction through which the sun falls and constantly creates new plays of light and shadow.
Hotel manager Lea Oberhofer, 34 years old, consciously plays with cultural borrowings from other countries. The Hotel Sensoria Dolomites in Seis am Schlern has been open since June. The Ritterhof, which the parents ran, used to stand on the same spot. The old building was gutted and combined with the new building to form a new unit with a great deal of sensitivity. “Japanese architecture inspires me,” she says. You can see that, especially in the public rooms: the lobby merges into an enclosed Zen garden, the restaurant and terrace are only separated from the sunbathing area and the pool area by a bamboo hedge.
A Japanese implant in Seis am Schlern? Architect Paul Senoner untangles the Asian-Alpine confusion of the senses: What you see here is typical of South Tyrolean barn construction. “In fact, there are similarities,” Senoner admits. “Certain timber construction techniques are similar in both cultures.” Senoner and his business partner Lukas Tammerle planned and accompanied the conversion and new building. “A tailor-made house according to the wishes of the client”, is how Senoner sums up the philosophy of the architect duo. Which was certainly not easy in the case of Lea Oberhofer and her husband Simon Leitner, 35, because the lady of the house in particular had very clear ideas about how her hotel should look. “After all, I have to work and live with the result every day,” she explains. Sometimes you have to fight for your ideas.
The lobby, which is also the library, is airy and bright with 800 books and magazines.
(Photo: BRANDNAMIC)
South Tyrolean wooden architecture reminiscent of Japan: the bath house of the Hotel Sensoria.
(Photo: BRANDNAMIC)
Lea Oberhofer has lived and worked abroad for a long time. Her work at the luxury group Louis Vuitton has taken her to Vienna, Paris, Milan and Singapore. “Besides, I’ve always had a soft spot for good hotels,” she says. When it came to finding a successor in the family business, she was the one of the four siblings who dared to do it. “I said to myself: When I come back, I want to do something completely new.” She’s been collecting ideas for years. She was already familiar with beautiful things, fine fabrics, furniture and exclusive design objects from her job. “I chose all the fabrics, every cushion myself, everything is made from natural fibers – even the carpets,” she says. The wooden constructions in the lobby and bathhouse are made of local wood, the floors in the public areas are made of reddish, warm-toned beech wood.
Breakfast, as well as the lunch and cake buffets, are arranged on nine solid wooden blocks, a custom-made product that she calls the “Marché Concept”. Instead of standing in line, guests walk from station to station without a crowd. In the evening, the waitresses serve a five-course menu, which the guests choose at breakfast. This is to avoid wasting food. The guests accept the concept well, says Oberhofer. The main thing is fine. “Our chef is Italo-Moroccan”, the dishes include roast beef with pak choi and Lagrein sauce, or black salsify velouté with brioche and basil.
The Sensoria isn’t just another fluffy cabin-style hotel. You will also look in vain for the usual alpine decorative elements – such as checked patterns, jugs on shelves or old equipment from mountain farms. Instead, the house is characterized by a no-frills, reduced elegance that is otherwise more familiar from Northern Europe. Every piece of furniture, every lamp is deliberately chosen and placed. This creates space and lightness.
Everywhere in the house there is also a subtle smell of natural scents – lemon, cedar, bergamot, amber. Each room has its own scent, as does the spa or relaxation room. Once a week, Lea Oberhofer invites you to fragrance journeys. The predominantly female participants can then use their noses to travel to distant countries. It goes without saying that the fragrances are available for sale in the hotel shop and are not exactly cheap.
Lea Oberhofer patiently explains hiking trails to her guests and gives tips for excursions. “I’m responsible for the software and Simon for the hardware,” she jokes and explains: The husband takes care of organization and the numbers, she takes care of the guests. And the senior boss around her two grandchildren. Lea Oberhofer wants to leave “traces in the soul”. A high claim, because your guests have usually already seen a lot. For them, many impressions are as fleeting as a scent.
So it’s good to look outside from time to time. There, directly behind the house, the 2400 meter high Santnerspitze rises into the sky. The location is a unique selling point. Resting in a deck chair, swimming in the pool, doing yoga or eating: the guests always have a view of the Sciliar massif, to which the Santnerspitze belongs. A color and cloud spectacle from sunrise to sunset, where you sit in the front row. One would like to let a paper crane fly.
Information: Overnight stay with three-quarter board from 245 euros per person in a double room, sensoriadolomites.com
Editor’s note: The research trip for this article was partly supported by tour operators, hotels, airlines and/or tourism agencies.