Bespoke finishes and interiors in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin

The commune sets side by side two architectural registers that are rarely neighbours: an intact medieval village and an emblematic ensemble of the twentieth-century modern movement. The first works local stone masonry, Romanesque vaults and render; the second — timber walls, industrial materials, the minimal volumes of the Cabanon — calls for a finishing vocabulary entirely foreign to it. Nothing allows one to be treated as the other. Lime render on an old vault and a timber panel calibrated to the millimetre answer two distinct demands: one of accommodation, the other of precision.

That double belonging has a practical consequence: in this commune we never start from a catalogue of finishes. The starting point is the survey of what exists — nature of the substrate, thickness of the render in place, drawing of the joinery, condition of the metalwork. It is the survey that says whether the right gesture is the restitution of old decoration or the execution of a clean contemporary piece. Both skills coexist in the workshop; it is the place, not the preference, that decides.

The village has kept its medieval character: narrow lanes covered by Romanesque vaults, old houses, stairs, and the rue Moncollet. The fabric combines local stone masonry, vaults and render; the old walls are frequently taken over by ivy and pellitory. These plants are no garden detail: their holdfasts and roots open the joints, hold water and undo render from beneath. Finishing work on an old façade therefore begins with treating the vegetation and repointing, not with the choice of a colour.

The village is served by stepped lanes and vaulted passages: hand carriage is the rule, and the size of transportable pieces is limited by the width of the passages. A door, a stone top, a solid stone basin are conceived there in the format that passes — even if that means assembling on site what would have been monolithic elsewhere. We survey the access route before the workshop, step by step, and draw afterwards. The reverse order produces superb pieces immobilised at the bottom of the stairs.

Cap-Martin is a headland thrust into the sea, exposed on several orientations: its external work belongs to one of the most severe marine atmospheres in the area where we operate, and direct maritime exposure is the dominant factor of degradation there. Metalwork, ironmongery, fixings, balustrades: everything metallic is chosen and protected for that regime, and the screws count as much as the piece they hold. Fine ironwork fitted with unsuitable fixings announces itself in less than two seasons by a run of rust down the render.

The upper village, set against the relief and back from the shore, enjoys a markedly milder regime, while the seaside frontage at the edge of the neighbouring territory and the sloping sector of the lower corniche each have their own. In this commune more than elsewhere, finishes are settled address by address. They also presuppose what carries them: structural and general building work brought back to plumb, a high-end renovation arbitrating between restitution and contemporary writing, extensions and fit-outs that come to terms with the slope. The page we devote to Roquebrune-Cap-Martin brings these four crafts together.