Extensions & villa fit-outs in Beaulieu-sur-Mer

The communal territory is one of the smallest on the Riviera coast, wedged between the cliff and the sea: the fabric is tight and available plots are scarce. To enlarge, here, rarely means to build elsewhere on the land — it means to occupy better what one already has. A conservatory, a single-storey extension opening onto the garden, a pool-house set against an existing wall are worth more than a volume dropped in the middle of a plot that has no room for it.

The climate argues for the outdoors. The bay ranks among the best sheltered on this coast, and the district known for its mildness owes its name to the microclimate the screen of cliffs grants it. That shelter from the wind does not remove the salt deposit: the built part of the commune lies entirely within five hundred metres of the shore, hence in a marine atmosphere within the meaning of ISO 9223. A pergola, the joinery of a conservatory, the ironwork of a balustrade are treated here in marine class.

The commune holds a classified historic monument, the Villa Kérylos, built between 1902 and 1908 by the architect Emmanuel-Elisée Pontremoli for the historian and archaeologist Théodore Reinach, and classified since 15 September 1966. Its presence brings a protection regime over its surroundings, which conditions works visible from the monument or in shared view with it. The twelve monolithic columns of its peristyle are of white Carrara marble: local villégiature set the bar high on material, and a new volume is measured here against that inheritance.

As a coastal commune, Beaulieu-sur-Mer applies the hundred-metre strip and the regime governing areas close to the shore, where the extension of urbanisation is admitted only if limited and justified. It also falls within seismic zone 4 under decree no. 2010-1255. Two harbours finally structure the communal seafront and the heritage protections attached to it: the position of a plot in relation to them changes how a project reads.

The commune is crossed by the lower corniche and by the coastal railway line: the servicing of plots is organised between these two infrastructures, on a narrow band of ground. The fabric of the centre and of the harbour surrounds is tight, and site parking as much as the taking of roadway are in practice the first constraint to settle — before earthworks, before masonry. An outdoor scheme is therefore planned from what the lane allows, not from what the garden calls for.

The old villégiature fabric combines two factors here: the age of the works, often a century old, and the permanent salt exposure of a seafront with no screen. It is structural and general building work that says whether a residence can carry one more level or open a wall towards the garden. A complete renovation then tunes the existing and the addition, and bespoke finishes and interiors install the local register — marble, stucco and plasterwork, mosaics, ironwork. Our crafts in Beaulieu-sur-Mer read in that order.