Structural and general building work in Nice

The Nice building stock divides between the old fabric of Vieux-Nice — tall, narrow, party-walled buildings —, the bourgeois apartment blocks of the nineteenth century and the Belle Époque, and the villégiature villas of the hills. In an old party-walled building around a courtyard, loads are shared with the neighbouring buildings: opening a load-bearing wall there involves the structure of a whole ensemble, not that of a single dwelling. It is the fact most often overlooked in the projects that reach us, and it is the one that decides feasibility.

The Vieux-Nice conservation sector was created by decree of 11 September 1969 and extended by decree of 28 January 1985; it is bounded to the south by the sea, to the west by the Paillon, to the north by the place Garibaldi and to the east by the port. The commune also falls within seismic zone 4, the most demanding on the French mainland, under decree no. 2010-1255 — a fact bearing directly on any underpinning as on any added storey.

The safeguarding and enhancement plan for Vieux-Nice was approved by decree of 17 December 1993 and amended by decree of 22 October 1997: within the perimeter it is that document, and not the metropolitan local plan alone, that governs works. Since the law of 7 July 2016, the two Nice conservation sectors — Vieux-Nice and the Port quarter, established on 9 November 1994 — have become remarkable heritage sites as of right, without any new procedure. Nice has finally been inscribed since 27 July 2021 on the UNESCO world heritage list, which adds a management obligation to the national protections already in force.

Vieux-Nice is a fabric of lanes inaccessible to ordinary site vehicles: supply is by manual handling or within regulated delivery windows. In the bourgeois buildings of the centre, historic stairwells and their balustrades are protected works in themselves, and protecting them during the works is a task in its own right. The hill villas — Cimiez, Mont Boron — are served by steeply graded hairpin lanes, with accesses often below or above the road. Nice is the only commune in our territory where temporary occupation of the public highway takes place in a large-city context.

Vieux-Nice uses the génoise as a facade cornice and génoise ceilings inside: a constructional register more Italian than French, which an intervention must know how to read before knowing how to remake. Nice facade decoration traditionally relies on painted render and trompe-l’œil — surrounds, rustication and mouldings are often painted rather than carved. On the seafront, the Promenade des Anglais and the quai des États-Unis take salt deposition from which the hills of Cimiez, a few kilometres away, are largely preserved.

A structure understood before it is opened is what afterwards allows a complete renovation to awaken mouldings and parquet without weakening the building, bespoke finishes and interiors to recover the original craft, and an extension or a terrace to be considered on the heights. Our crafts in Nice all start there.