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Null Stern Hotel
A guest settles into the Null Stern Hotel, a former fallout shelter close to the Austrian border. Photo: Atelier fur Sonderaufgaben Photograph: Atelier für Sonderaufgaben/PR
A guest settles into the Null Stern Hotel, a former fallout shelter close to the Austrian border. Photo: Atelier fur Sonderaufgaben Photograph: Atelier für Sonderaufgaben/PR

Switzerland's Null Stern Hotel: the nuclear option

This article is more than 14 years old
There are no windows and no privacy, but the first 'zero-star hotel' has been a surprise hit and could be coming here

"Zero is the new seven," says the sign at the entrance. Perhaps it is, but the idea will take a little getting used to. In the small Swiss town of Teufen, in the canton of St Gallen near the Austrian border, conceptual artists (and twin brothers) Frank and Patrik Riklin have taken over an 1980s nuclear fallout shelter and created something altogether different – a hotel.

Billed as the world's first zero-star hotel, the Null Stern Hotel occupies the underground space of a nondescript apartment block. The hardened concrete structure and near-two-foot-thick blast doors were designed to take the full brunt of a nuclear or chemical attack. In time of crisis the bunker would have been able to hold more than 200 people.

Now, as the Null Stern Hotel, it sleeps just 14, eight in four double beds and the rest in singles. Part of the hotel's concept is that the beds are arranged in two large open rooms, with no dividers between them.

"We wanted to create a space of contrasts," said Patrik Riklin. "Like sugar and fish. They are two things that naturally don't go together, but matched up they make people think, for good or bad. That's how we see the Null Stern. We kept the internal structure of the shelter intact – the concrete and the ductwork – and then we added the warmth of antique beds and furniture. For us it's an art installation before it's a hotel – a place where people can think about their surroundings."

I'm not sure about sugar and fish; what I saw was more The Sound of Music meets Dr Strangelove. As soon as you go in it is difficult not to become immersed in dystopian movie imagery. Everything from Terry Gilliam's Brazil to Fritz Lang's Metropolis comes to mind.

Tuxedo-clad Pascal Gysel, the Null Stern's communications manager and temporary receptionist, was neck-deep in paperwork but he nonetheless gave me a quick tour. Sitting at the other end of the luxury scale from the Burj al Arab, the Dubai hotel that has awarded itself seven stars, the Null Stern consists of the two large rooms for sleeping, a shared lavatory/shower section and a lounge. It is surprisingly small for its intended purpose: although it's big enough for 14 hotel guests, I wouldn't want to be locked up in there with 200 others after a nuclear strike.

According to Frank Riklin, that's exactly the sort of thing the twins want guests to think.

"Switzerland has more than 250,000 fallout shelters and we are still building them," he said. "We have the highest ratio of shelter space to population in the world. It's absurd, especially 20 years after the end of the cold war. Most shelters are nothing more than expensive wine cellars now. We wanted to create the antithesis of this with the Null Stern; it's a way of confronting this bizarre hangover from the cold-war era and moving on."

Rhetoric aside, it is pretty cool concept, and I have to admit I was sold on the idea of contrasts – but maybe not in entirely the same way the twins view them.

After a first fretful night in what amounted to a concrete coffin, I was dying for some fresh air. The whirr of the ventilation system, starting up at odd hours through the night, was only slightly muffled by the ear protectors provided at each bedside. By morning – and I could tell it was morning only by the green glow from my watch – I needed out of there. (There are no windows, only a circa 1973 television set hooked up to an outside CCTV camera, which gives guests a spooky X-Files view of topside.)

For me at least, this was when the contrast kicked in. Stepping out from the Null Stern I was greeted by a crisp blue summer's morning, the sun just peaking above the trees, its rays backlighting the dew hanging from blades of grass and the silk of spiders' webs. Immaculate green rolling hills dotted with crowns of thick forest swept into the distance before finishing against the rocky escarpment of the Appenzell Alps and Säntis, the highest peak in the range, at more than 2,500m.

This may be the kind of contrast that is about as subtle as being hit by a lorry, but it does make its point – people feel happier above ground than below.

As I filled my lungs with fresh alpine air, a few other guests began emerging from the bunker. Blinking rapidly and looking a little shell-shocked, 68-year-old Irene Beck from Zurich, still in her dressing gown, sipped a strong cup of coffee. She and her husband had come to the Null Stern after seeing it advertised in a local freesheet.

"I liked the idea of a hotel that wasn't a hotel," she said. "The thought of staying in a place where guests from all over the world are forced to confront each other really appealed to me. Unlike in conventional hotels, where everyone is locked away in their own room, or sits at separate tables in the dining room, here we are forced to mingle – whether we like it or not."

Still, it wasn't all plain sailing.

"At home I usually have a few windows open at all times, I can see the mountains in the distance which I find comforting," she said. "But here, in a concrete cellar, I had a few moments of claustrophobia."

But as she sweeps her arm in a grand gesture at the morning sky she added: "This is what Frank and Patrik are trying to achieve."

Perhaps strangest of all is that the hotel's concept seems to be a hit. With only three months of operation under its belt, the Null Stern has bookings up to 2012, but has also managed to get a nomination in this year's Worldwide Hospitality Awards. Buoyed by this success the management team now have their sights set on expanding to other countries, including the UK.

"The nuclear bunker concept was right for Switzerland, but it won't necessarily suit other countries," said Samira Singhvi-Charbonnier, head of UK development for the Null Stern. "We are looking for unusual and unused buildings above ground, like boarding schools, fire stations, office buildings or banks. This is in keeping with the idea of recycling forgotten spaces, about keeping the environmental footprint to a minimum."

After a hearty day hiking among the craggy reaches of the Säntis peak, enjoying the flipside of the bunker experience, I returned for a second night at the Null Stern. This time I was the only guest.

Frank and Patrik have left the shelter as original as possible: they have even refrained from stripping off the institutional pastel blue and yellow paint. Sitting by myself, letting the calming effect of the paint job sink in, I realise that there is a psychology behind the colour scheme. After all, being stuck underground while the world disintegrates above you has to be the most terrifying proposition that human kind would have to endure, and anything that would even remotely keep people from jumping out of their skin needs to be used.

But with little sign of a new cold war – at least in the near future – and more and more bunkers being turned into home gymnasiums or pet shelters, one can't help think that Stanley Kubrik would approve. This hotel won't appeal to everyone, but if alpine air and quiet mountain walks, with a pinch of Armageddon thrown in, are your idea of a perfect weekend break, the Null Stern will be ideal.

Essentials

A night at the Null Stern Hotel costs from CHF25 (£14.50) per person including morning tea or coffee (00 41 71 222 1090; zero-star-hotel.com). For more information on holidays in Switzerland visit myswitzerland.com or contact the Switzerland Travel Centre on 00 800 100 20030; swisstravelsystem.co.uk. Swiss (0845 601 0956; swiss.com) flies daily to Zurich from London, Birmingham and Manchester from £99 return.

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