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Specificities: Monaco or Manhaco?

by Milena Radoman
Town planning in Monaco has a lot of very specific features. "Monacism is expressed in 3D: above,
below, under, over, in front and behind...’ explains Jean-Philippe Hugron, author of ‘‘Architectural
Guide Monaco’’.

"The first villas disappeared to make way for the Price Tower in Bartlesville (Oklahoma).
larger buildings, especially hotels," explains When it was completed in 1956, the structure
Jean-Philippe Hugron. The quest for height designed by Frank Lloyd Wright made the
saw the construction of the first luxury rounds of the world's architectural magazines,
hotels called ‘‘palaces’’. "The extensions to and in a short space of time became an icon
build higher floors were particularly unusual of modern architecture", recalls the author.
in denying the past, where the new storeys Another distinctive feature of Monegasque
asserted the current fashion. In other words, architecture is that as well as verticality,
one style unabashedly followed another, Monaco has cultivated traditional and neo-
forming an unprecedented, exquisite traditional construction. A style of architecture
cadaver: Art Deco storeys superposed Art that, in Europe, was mainly developed in
Nouveau storeys. This ‘‘thousand layer Belgium with the New Urbanism movement:
cake’’ is typical of the Principality!” says the "These contemporary buildings with
architect, according to whom "As a seaside balustrades express a form of nostalgia. If
resort and a gambling destination, Monaco this kind of architecture is badly done, it
Jean-Philippe Hugron, had a tradition of novelty’’. immediately lapses into kitsch and becomes
auteur de / author of « Guide d’architecture - Monaco »
ridiculous, but there are buildings that are very
“More than a symbol of richness, Monaco is The early stages of high-rise building in well designed", says the historian.
a deluxe experimental ground for impulsive, Monaco can be seen in what Jean-Philippe
uninhibited urban planning that is not afraid Hugron calls ‘earth-scrapers’, buildings that * Rem Koolhaas, champion of 'Bigness’, deciphers Manhattanism
in 'Delirious New York': published in 1978.
of deconstructing the engineering genius of dig deep into the ground... "In Monaco, plots of
the place in order to redefine it. In this way, land were rare and the only land still available
the city-state is a constantly-evolving tribute in the 1930s was situated on steep slopes. Monaco-under-sea, ‘‘The
to the ‘the latest fashions’. For Jean-Philippe This led to the construction of buildings that pacific conquests’’
Hugron, an historical architecture specialist appeared to have just two storeys on the
and founder of the Courrier de l'Architecte, street side, but nearly fifteen floors on the side Through successive extensions out to sea, the
Monaco is a temple of transformation. "After overlooking the sea. Monaco's skyscrapers are Principality's territory has grown by 20%, from
an explosion of plaster in the 19 century, the unusual in that they don't reach for the sky, 150 to 202 hectares. These ‘pacific conquests’*
th
Principality is now an aggregate of concrete. but instead, with their eyes riveted downwards, have ensured the economic development of
Better still, it's an artificial shoreline with look towards the ground. So they are towers the second smallest country in the world
an ever-changing coastline", comments the in spite of themselves; they inhabit the slope, (after the Vatican), with the creation of new
author of the ‘Architectural Guide Monaco', embracing the topography to make better services and industries as well as new housing.
transposing Rem Koolhaas'* Manhattanism use of it and offering as many people as Although Monaco's first sea reclamation
to Monaco, which is renamed ‘Manhaco’. possible the pleasure of a view in the interests dates back to 1907, when the historic beach
The expert perfectly sums up the urban of densification". The architectural debate of Fontvieille was filled in (giving rise to a new
mechanics of a Principality constrained by a embraced modernity when the first tower was port, an incineration plant and the first football
lack of space: ‘Expansion is only possible in built on Port Hercule with the Palais Héraclès stadium), Monaco above all gained land on
the air, the sea and underground. Bigness 2.0: designed by Jean Ginsberg. "Conceived at the the Mediterranean at Le Portier and Larvotto.
Manhattanism only knows 2D, while Monacism end of the 1950s, this building embodies the In the 1960s, at the instigation of Prince Rainier
is played out in 3D. Up, down, under, over, in desire to reach for the sky and to densify the III, the State redeveloped its coastline between
front and behind... even across the border.’ principality, with a view to making density Le Portier and the French border (Roquebrune).
both liveable and acceptable". Next came "Several projects have shaped the Monegasque
The emergence of the Shuylkill (see p.43) and then Le Millefiori, coastline: the two reclaimed areas of Le Portier
which for a long time remained the highest
and Le Sporting, the Larvotto beach and the
skyskrapers in Monaco tower in the Principalitý at 35 storeys of 116 Spélugues building complex" explains Jean-
metres high. Thought by its promoters to be Luc Nguyen, Director of Public Works. The
At the end of the 19 century, the Principality ‘‘the most prestigious building in Europe’’, it had Rainier III Auditorium, the Japanese Garden,
th
started looking for more space... and looked a radial structural arrangement of Y-shaped the Grimaldi Forum, the Summer Sporting
to the sky. Vertical development began on the concrete sails. Club and the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel are just
highly sought-after land around the Casino. "The shape of the building is reminiscent of some of the developments that have shaped

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