Audemars Piguet is building a new Watchmaker Hotel in Brassus, in the Joux Valley, in Switzerland. The building is designed as a 6-story progression of ramps and has 50 rooms, 2 restaurants, conference rooms, a bar, a fitness area and underground parking. Its footprint is 30 m (98 ft.) x 80 m (263 ft.), and it is 25 m (82 ft.) tall. Ramp roofs are vegetated, accessible from the rooms and support terraces.

The structure is made entirely of reinforced concrete, with the exception of the room ceilings, which are wood-concrete composite slabs. The supporting structure consists of rafters, slabs and ramps supported by walls and columns. The elevator shafts and stairwells are continuous throughout the entire height of the building and give it horizontal stability. Special attention was paid to the design of the reinforced concrete walls in the rooms and common areas, as well as the glulam beams of the composite room ceiling slabs, as they are exposed and part of the architectural aesthetic. The room ceilings juxtapose glulam beams connected to the concrete slabs by screwed fasteners to create a uniform surface. Finally, a ramp to the parking deck is cantilevered over the excavation supported by soil-nail walls.

The ramp-shaped geometry required modeling the hotel according to BIM methodology.

The building is labeled Minergie-ECO, and the wood used in the manufacture of the glulam beams is spruce from sustainable harvesting of the forests of the Joux Valley.

The new Watchmaker hotel is an ambitious project that will present the creation of a bold and dynamic image of the Joux Valley region.