Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The three decades following WWII were marked, as in much of Europe, by the rise of
modernist architecture - concrete blocks and high-rise towers - partly as a response to
pressing housing needs. Marseille's notorious suburbs, Monaco's forest of skyscrapers
and the emblematic pyramidal Marina Baie des Anges in Villeneuve-Loubet all date back
to this era. Many now bemoan the flurry of constructions that took place in postwar years,
and the lack of building regulation (and enforcement) that prevailed at the time.
LE CORBUSIER
It was rather late in life that Swiss-born Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (1887-1965), alias Le Corbusier, turned to the
south of France. He first came to visit his friends Eileen Gray, an Irish designer, and Romanian-born architect
Jean Badovici in the 1930s. Gray and Badovici had a very modern seaside villa, E-1027, on Cap-Martin and Le
Corbusier was a frequent guest.
Following a spat with Gray in 1938 however, Le Corbusier built his own holiday pad, Le Cabanon. It remained
his summer cabin until his death in 1965 (he died of a heart attack whilst swimming).
Le Cabanon is unique because it is a project that Le Corbusier built for himself, but his most revolutionary
design is undoubtedly the Marseille concrete apartment block L'Unité d'Habitation. Built between 1947 and 1952
as a low-cost housing project, it comprised 337 apartments arranged inside an elongated block on stilts. The build-
ing was considered a coup by architects worldwide (and an aesthetic sacrilege by the Marseillais) and the façade,
communal corridors and rooftop terrace of the block have together been protected as an historical monument since
1986.
Le Corbusier is buried with his wife in section J of Roquebrune-Cap-Martin cemetery.
Contemporary Architecture
As with every other art form, Provence and the Côte d'Azur have kept innovating in ar-
chitecture. Mouans-Sartoux's 2004 lime-green Espace de l'Art Concret, designed by
Swiss-based architects Annette Gigon and Mike Guyer to complement the village's 16th-
century château, has to be the boldest example of late.
Most recent is Rudy Ricciotti's new Musée Jean Cocteau in
Menton (he also designed the Pavillon Noir in Aix-en-
Provence). The cow-print-like seafront building couldn't con-
trast more with the old town's Italianate architecture and is an
ode to Cocteau's own surrealist style. Another famous contem-
porary architect to have left his print on Provence-Côte
d'Azur is British master Sir Norman Foster, who designed
Nîmes' steel-and-glass Carré d'Art, the Musée de la Préhis-
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