A haven for all the family

The village of Ried im Oberinntal is located at an altitude of 876 metres in the upper Inn valley, about twenty kilometres after Landeck on the road winding up to the Reschenpass through the Ötztal Alps and the Samnaun mountain range. In a sunny, quiet spot on the edge of the village stands Mozart Vital Hotel, a well-appointed four-star hotel designed right from the outset to cater for the needs of families with children. The main building, which runs perpendicular to the hillside below a football pitch, is surrounded by a 5,000 square metre landscaped garden complete with a natural pond and sunbathing lawns. The Ried bathing lake, equipped with a slide, beach volleyball court and beach bars, is right next door. Although the original architectural project was the work of Swiss firm Artis Plan, the hotel’s current structure is the result of a number of improvements made in subsequent stages, partly based on suggestions made by Artis Plan and partly following the proprietors’ own ideas. One of the owners in particular, Markus Radlbeck, personally designed much of the interior furnishings and had them made by local craftsmen. Some of the most significant works completed in the last decade include restoration of the façade, expansion of the wellness area and conversion of the buffet area. The lobby has also undergone a radical overhaul, with the entrance, reception and bar area redesigned from scratch. The dining room has been extended to create space for about a hundred new seats on two floors around a suspended central fireplace. The interior design of this room stands out for the use of gnarled oak detailing in pleasant contrast to the luxurious orange velvet of the chairs and the black waxed steel used for the fireplace, the columns and the spiral staircase leading to the upper level. The expansion project for the Wellness & Spa area, which now extends over an impressive 2,200 square metres, also involved redesigning the separate adult and children’s spaces. The adult space houses a «Silentio» 12×6 metre indoor pool with water at 28°C, a relaxation room, fireplace and a wide range of beauty and wellness treatments, while the children’s adventure play area is supervised by professional baby and child care staff for up to eleven hours a day. The 500 square metre Mozart Play Club is a children’s indoor paradise offering dozens of activities, including a swimming pool, softball, a wooden climbing train, slides and rocking animals, while the adjoining cinema screens a wide variety of cartoons and films for children. In the 400 square metre space of the Jungle Water Paradise, children can work off their energy on water games and explore the pirate ship, waterfall shower, bamboo hut, two swimming pools and children’s sauna. But the most exciting feature of all is a giant waterslide that twists and turns for a hundred and twenty metres between the various floors of the hotel before plunging into the pool. For the floor covering in this area, Markus Radlbeck wanted a material that would combine physical quality with the aesthetics of stone, the dominant element of the surrounding landscape. The chosen product was textured porcelain tiles from Coem’s Quarzite collection.