“There are spirits here, ghosts… I’ve seen them.”
In 2003, Lucas Harari spent three days in Vals, Switzerland with his family. Although the French cartoonist and illustrator was accustomed to visiting all manner of buildings because of their architectural appeal throughout his formative years—Harari said his parents, both architects, often took him and his two older brothers to see churches, museums, university campuses, and even government-subsidized social housing complexes—when he first laid eyes on the Vals Thermal Baths, he experienced a “profound aesthetic shock.”
“I still remember every detail of the trip,” Harari, who was just 13 years old at the time and living in Paris with his family, recently said.
Swimming in Darkness, a graphic novel written and illustrated by Harari (and translated by David Homel from French to English in 2019, two years after its initial publication) was inspired by that first visit to the storied Switzerland village in the heart of the Alps.
But Harari, who studied art—illustration, publishing, printmaking, book production—at the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in his native city, got his start writing comic book art while at university. He drew small comic strips and worked on fanzines with his friends. For his final project before receiving his degree, Harari decided to write his first long story (the first 60 pages of the book that would be published a few years later): “an architectural thriller set in the heart of Peter Zumthor’s masterpiece, the Vals thermal baths.”
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Harari didn’t just rely on his memories when he set about creating the graphic novel that is now on display in the lobby at Hotel 7132 House of Architects, one of three properties under the 7132 Hotels umbrella.
Fascinated by architect Peter Zumthor who, in the mid-1990s, was enlisted to design the Vals Thermal Baths, Harari said he collected hundreds of photos of Zumthor’s work, watched reports and interviews with the famous Swiss architect, and downloaded a 3D model of the thermal baths.
Elbow-deep in research and reflection for months on end, Harari was “completely immersed in the place.” After that, the story’s script began to take shape.
Vals, Switzerland is known for its hot springs, natural waters that spring from the earth and hover around 85-90 degrees Fahrenheit. Thomas Wieser, Hotel 7132’s director of sales and marketing, said the water is used to heat 7132 Hotel 5ˢ and 7132 House of Architects, and 7132 Glenner.
But while guests of 7132 House of Architects, which was built by Zumthor as well as Tadao Ando, Kengo Kuma, and Thom Mayne, relish in the distinct design and architecture of the guest rooms, for most visitors—and locals—Vals’ main attraction is the Zumthor-designed baths. Harari described the baths, which, like more traditional wellness spas, includes multiple treatment rooms for massages, body wraps, facials, and scrubs as “a true sensory experience.”
Made from 60,000 slabs of Vals quartzite, the baths, which flow with mineral water, enjoy heritage status and are considered one of Zumthor’s greatest masterpieces. The 80-year-old architect could not be reached for comment.
“He drew on the dramatic natural surroundings of the area for inspiration, using locally quarried Valser Quartzite slabs to create a moody, cavernous complex,” said Harari.
To be sure, the area’s springs had existed for hundreds of years, explained Wieser, but it was Zumthor in 1996 who was commissioned to turn it into a proper spa destination.
Standing in contrast to the rest of the charming Alpine village, the Zumthor-designed Thermal bath house, modern and stark, pays plenty of homage to the old: “It’s a 21st-century approach that uses the same materials used hundreds of years ago,” explained Wieser. The thermal baths are an example of “how you can create a mythic, timeless feeling within a modern structure,” Wieser added. Entering into the baths feels a bit like entering a cave in the mountains, so naturally there are few frills.
But while the building’s stark appearance may seem cold to some, once inside, any preconceived notions fall away as you’re overtaken by the magnificent allure of the cavernous area.
Pin-drop quiet (absolutely no cell phones or other devices are allowed inside the baths), the cathedral-like space tends to overtake guests, many of whom find themselves confused upon first entering the baths, for this is not the traditional wellness place they were expecting. Although Wieser said he doesn’t believe they cater to very religious clientele, there’s something about the baths that visitors find “holy in style, meditative,” as though there’s “something happening there.”
Indeed for Harari, who created an entire work about the thermal baths, there’s a “mysterious allure,” that embodies not just the thermal springs but the whole town. He created Pierre, the graphic book’s protagonist, after his own likeness. Pierre’s fascination with the thermal baths was inspired by Harari’s own fascination as a young teenager.
Harari sketched some during those impressionable three days in Vals 20 years ago, but he said the real illustration work took place once he was back home and reflecting on his time in the special village.
The French title of the book is “L’aimant.” Although Harari explained that the literal English translation is “The Magnet,” the book’s actual English title, “Swimming in Darkness,” serves as a reference “both to the fascination and attraction that the character of Pierre feels for the thermal baths, and to the power that he discovers when he comes into contact with the building,” Harari said. “It’s as if Pierre (Pierre is the French equivalent of the first name Peter; ‘pierre’ in French also means ‘stone’) was part of the building and was magnetically attracted to it.”
Since the book’s publication, Harari has returned to Vals, where he lingered in the baths and relished in their magnetism. A long-time spa employee who recognized Harari shared an experience of her own: “I’ve read your book and what you say is true: There are spirits here, ghosts…I’ve seen them.”