Architecture
Architecture
Set on Saint-Barthélemy hill, Villa Arson lies on a vast estate of more than two hectares (almost five acres) boasting a superb panorama of the city of Nice and the Baie des Anges. It is a labyrinth of concrete, stone and vegetation, where inner streets and patios, open-air amphitheatres, terraces and hanging gardens are all laid out harmoniously around the Arson family’s former home.
Villa Arson is classified as a “Historical Monument” and has also been awarded the “Remarkable Contemporary Architecture” label.
The architectural project
Designed in the 1960s by architect Michel Marot, this singular architectural ensemble, built in the middle of a Mediterranean garden, is best discovered on foot. The subtle architecture, which has no façades, extends over 19,000 m2, harmonising with the topography of the hill, while works by contemporary artists dialogue with the architecture and gardens throughout.
The ambitious project to build a new kind of artistic institution, as laid out by André Malraux’s ministry, was entrusted to architect Michel Marot in 1966, against the backdrop of the construction of one of France’s earliest international airports: Nice Côte d’Azur.
Winner of the Grand Prix de Rome in 1954, Marot was undoubtedly selected as the architect for the project because of his deep knowledge of the Mediterranean and his impressive pedigree, including a diploma in architecture from the École Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Paris in 1950, and a scholarship obtained in 1952 to study at Harvard under Walter Gropius.
Marot inherited a 23,000 m² plot looking south over Nice, the sea and the Colline du Château Park, east to Cimiez and west to Saint-Sylvestre. Owned by the City of Nice and donated to the French state for the project, the land included an 18th-century villa and a terraced garden on three levels, featuring trees that were to be preserved owing to their listing as historical monuments.
All signs pointed to Marot designing an architecture that would respect the site. As he put it: “The desire to make built elements disappear in the greenery encouraged me to lay it out like a lizard in the sun.”
The plot was thus transformed into a horizontal architecture comprised of hanging gardens, terraces, open-air amphitheatres, patios, staircases and ramps.
The concrete walls, built like buttresses, bear the imprint of the buildings’ interior formwork, while on the outside they are covered with Var stone, revealing the raw nature of the materials deployed. It is precisely because of this treatment of materials that the Villa Arson often receives the “Brutalist” tag (a nod to the architectural style New Brutalism in England from the 1950s–1970s). Beyond the use of exposed concrete formwork, Brutalism is more of an attitude, a state of mind and an ethics than a recognisable aesthetic. It lends sites and landscapes a decisive role and positions the architect as an interpreter of the plot to be built upon, considering that the key elements of a project can already be located there. Paying particular attention to the “as found” — the site’s materials and characteristics — allows the architect to create an architectural project that is wholly in tune with its environment.
“More nonchalant than brutal, I’m definitely influenced by 1960s architecture, but I tend to lean more towards tradition, context, the site, the neighbourhood, vegetation and the economy.” (M.M.)
This desire for a vernacular architecture played into the choice of materials, notably the Var pebbles, whose pointillism, as Marot saw it, “should become like the pointillism of the leaves”.
Throughout, the ground is paved with grey, pink and white gravel triangles dubbed “Veronico” after Marot’s fiancée, who conceived and designed this rectangular tile cut on the diagonal.
At Villa Arson, terraces top the workshops, which enjoy ample natural light combining zenithal lighting via diamond-shaped “pyramidions” overhead and lateral lighting courtesy of skylights. Each studio is unique and custom-designed; the mediums taught in each therefore depend on their lighting arrangements, spatial configurations, volumes and so on.
In addition, plants, terraces and obstacles link up to form a labyrinth that doubles as protection from the sun. This labyrinthine dimension is also to be found in the interior spaces, particularly the exhibition galleries. The complexity of the architecture is deliberate, creating intimate zones where guests can momentarily lose themselves.
Visits are animated by a series of in-situ works produced over the years during exhibitions or as public commissions for the site.
