Institut de la mer de Villefranche
Nested at the foot of a limestone cliff, under the low cornice that connects Nice to Monaco, partially concealed and enclaved, the building uses constraints to draw its infrastructural architecture. This generates a cloister deformed by the slope, deconstructed in the three dimensions. Composed of opposite geometries, two inverted and superimposed L-shapes, the project reveals a new spatiality by creating a courtyard/patio. This interiority is related to the landscape of the bay of Villefranche by a water basin overhung by an inhabited bridge-building. A device of steel occlusions closes the small balconies of the residence and creates, once opened, separatives. Their proportions keep in mind the openings of the corderie of the arsenal nearby. The combination of anchored raw concrete masses, raised and levitated echoes the repetition of metal boxes, generatin a dialogue between archaic and contemporaneity.
