Structural and general building work in Cannes

The Cannes building stock combines three distinct scales, and structural work answers each differently. Le Suquet, the old town organised around the château de la Castre and the church of Notre-Dame-d’Espérance on the hill above the old harbour, belongs to a vocabulary of stone masonry, rendered elevations and narrow dimensions. La Croisette carries a built front of Belle Époque and interwar palace hotels, several of which are protected architectural landmarks. The hills of La Californie and Super Cannes, finally, carry isolated properties.

On those hills, the slope and the old retaining walls of the villégiature properties are the structural point to examine before any project, including when the project looks like nothing more than an outdoor fit-out. A regulatory particularity also sets Cannes apart from most of the department: the commune falls within seismic zone 3, described as moderate, under decree no. 2010-1255, where it is expressly named — while 133 of the 163 communes of the Alpes-Maritimes fall within zone 4.

Le Suquet is a fabric of stepped lanes on the hill: plant cannot reach it and supply is by manual handling. La Croisette and the centre are subject to a calendar of international events which shapes the year and severely restricts occupation of the highway during those periods — a programming constraint settled at the survey, not during the work. The properties of La Californie and Super Cannes are served by steeply graded hillside hairpins, with plot accesses often above or below the road.

The Lérins islands form part of the communal territory, and the Fort Royal, on Île Sainte-Marguerite, is protected as a historic monument. Any intervention on the islands entails bringing materials in and taking waste out by sea: logistics becomes the first term of the problem, before technique. As a coastal commune, Cannes also comes under the hundred-metre strip and the regime governing areas close to the shore, islands included.

The Croisette seafront combines maximum salt exposure with strong solar reflection: external works there age faster than a few hundred metres back, and both metalwork and external joinery call for marine-class protective systems. The hills of La Californie and Super Cannes, set back and at altitude, largely escape that salt deposition. Two material regimes within one commune, which are not addressed with the same grades or the same thicknesses.

With the bearing settled, a complete renovation can reconcile Art Deco heritage with present-day comfort, bespoke finishes and interiors can set the tone of a reception, and an extension or a pool can be drawn on the slope. Our crafts in Cannes read in that order: structure governs, the rest follows.