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Mareterra Becomes Monaco's First Eco-district

Mareterra is Monaco's first certified eco-district. 85% of the coastal infrastructure was transported
by sea...

A 6-hectare neighbourhood overlooking the 500 m² of Posidonia beds (the seaweed that landfills, nobody knew that hectares of
sea: 60,000 m² of luxury housing and a new serves as a nursery for fish) were moved and Posidonia grass had been destroyed. No
coastline stretching 1 kilometre ... in all a €2 transplanted. ‘‘Mareterra was a real laboratory one was concerned. The builders of the
billion project. Mareterra is taking the world for research and monitoring; we only used Fontvieille land reclamation project gloriously
by storm. The new district, developed by the best practices. Posidonia has never been demonstrated how they were going to throw
the Monegasque company (SAM) l’Anse du moved over such a large area anywhere in pebbles into the sea, but certainly not how
Portier with the help of others, notably the the world. The preservation of Posidonia has they were going to protect the seabed... It
multinational construction giant Bouygues been a problem for a long time, particularly never crossed anyone’s mind,’’ admits Bernard
Travaux Publics, will comprise 10 luxury for industrial ports. Previous preservation Fautrier, who for 10 years was formerly Minister
villas, four townhouses ranging in size from methods did not work well. Today, not only for Public Works and Social Affairs for the
600 - 2,000 m², plus 110 apartments. These has the transplantation been successful, but Government of Monaco.
exclusive properties with access to a seawater we can see that the plant is colonising new
swimming pool named ‘The Princess Charlene areas,’’ says Guy-Thomas Levy-Soussan, ‘‘We supply 80% of our street lighting with
Pool’ have already found purchasers at record Managing Director of L’Anse du Portier, the green electricity from the neighbourhood’’.
prices. The Principality’s eleventh district, Monaco contractor for the project. ‘‘Mareterra The main emphasis for Mareterra has
designed by three megastars of eco-friendly is the first eco-district in Monaco to be certified been energy transition. ‘‘Concrete is made
modern architecture - Denis Valode, Michel (by HQE Sustainable Urban Planning). We on site, and over 85% of the water-based
Desvigne and Renzo Piano – will also house completed the first stage of the studies, infrastructures were transported by sea to
an extension to the Grimaldi Forum, a 3,000 m² there were interim monitoring audits, and the reduce CO 2 emissions. We are also using
shopping area and a wide seafront promenade. certification will be awarded on completion. As more environmentally-friendly concrete. We
Not to mention an artificial wooded hill planted soon as the first stone was laid, we set out to recycle fly ash from blast furnaces,’’ explains
with 1,000 trees from a Tuscan plant nursery, do things right. We were lucky enough to have Guy-Thomas Levy-Soussan.
a meditation room decorated by a Vietnamese the time and investors who were concerned Another landmark measure: ‘‘We wanted
artist, a blue grotto that allows visitors to see about protecting the environment to have the to create our own thalassothermal loop as
inside one of the concrete casings, and a resources to do things properly. This is in soon as the project was launched in 2015,
mobile sculpture by Alexandre Calder, originally line with the Sovereign’s desire to encourage to use energy from the sea to cool and
acquired by Princess Grace... urban development that is as sustainable heat the district. After detailed review, the
For this new extension into the sea, started in as possible,’’ explains Guy-Thomas Levy- chosen solution was to connect directly to
2015, a site had to be created from scratch, Soussan, who points out that ’this is a first the government’s thalassothermal network
surrounded by a protective belt made up of for the Principality. We didn’t have the same at Larvotto,’’ adds the Managing Director of
18 reinforced concrete casings placed on an environmental and energy knowledge when we Anse du Portier, who has opted for an
underwater embankment. This required 2.8 built Fontvieille, which was designed before energy mix. The developers have
million tonnes of quarried materials for the 1973.’’ Times have changed... ‘‘It’s clear that also financed the installation of
landfill, the embankment and the ballasting some of this urban development took place at photovoltaic panels on the
of the blocks! At 26 metres high and weighing a time when we didn’t
10,000 tonnes each, the 18 reinforced concrete know, for example,
casings manufactured in Marseille were w h a t d a mag e
transported to Monaco one after the other. A we were doing
journey of more than 200 km made with the to the marine
help of a tugboat, which represented a real environment.
technological challenge. When Fontvieille
was built, and
Limiting the impact on the environment before that
For the project developers, the main issue was the Sporting
to find innovative solutions to limit the impact and Portier
of this colossal construction site on the sea.

© Mareterra

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