Sand, light, and altitude: 3D printed furniture for Hotel Alpin in the Swiss Alps

Perched in the mountain village of Saas-Fee, Hotel Alpin invited Wedge to create a series of custom furniture pieces that bring material research into the language of hospitality. Each base is 3D printed in recyclable silica sand, paired with hardwood and glass. The pieces draw from the region’s geology, translating pressure, layering, and erosion into physical form.

Within the hotel’s warm interior, the printed surfaces capture how light moves across altitude. Ridges and voids trace the rhythm of fabrication, while the material’s granular texture shifts with daylight. Tables and stools appear almost geological, as if shaped by the same slow forces that define the alpine landscape outside.

The collaboration extends Wedge’s study of circular fabrication, where materials remain in continual transformation. Every printed base can be returned to powder and reprinted, forming a regenerative cycle between production and reuse.

“What struck us most was how alive the material feels,” says the Hotel Alpin manager. “Each piece has a quiet energy, it reflects the mountains rather than imitating them. Guests notice how the surfaces change with light — it’s unlike anything we’ve had here before.”

Through this meeting of craft and computation, Wedge turns matter into memory, building furniture that belongs to both place and process.