Monaco or Manhaco?

Town planning in Monaco has a lot of very specific features. "Monacism is expressed in 3D: above, below, under, over, in front and behind...’ explains Jean-Philippe Hugron, author of ‘Architectural Guide Monaco’.

 “More than a symbol of richness, Monaco is a deluxe experimental ground for impulsive, uninhibited urban planning that is not afraid of deconstructing the engineering genius of the place in order to redefine it. In this way, the city-state is a constantly-evolving tribute to the ‘the latest fashions’. For Jean-Philippe Hugron, an historical architecture specialist and founder of the Courrier de l'Architecte, Monaco is a temple of transformation. "After an explosion of plaster in the 19th century, the Principality is now an aggregate of concrete. Better still, it's an artificial shoreline with an ever-changing coastline", comments the author of the ‘Architectural Guide Monaco', transposing Rem Koolhaas'* Manhattanism to Monaco, which is renamed ‘Manhaco’.

The expert  perfectly sums up the urban mechanics of a Principality constrained by a lack of space: ‘Expansion is only possible in the air, the sea and underground. Bigness 2.0: Manhattanism only knows 2D, while Monacism is played out in 3D. Up, down, under, over, in front and behind... even across the border.’

The emergence of skyskrapers in Monaco
At the end of the 19th century, the Principality started looking for more space... and looked to the sky. Vertical development began on the highly sought-after land around the Casino. "The first villas disappeared to make way for larger buildings, especially hotels," explains Jean-Philippe Hugron. The quest for height saw the construction of the first luxury hotels called ‘palaces’. "The extensions to build higher floors were particularly unusual in denying the past, where the new storeys asserted the current fashion. In other words, one style unabashedly followed another, forming an unprecedented, exquisite cadaver: Art Deco storeys superposed Art Nouveau storeys. This ‘thousand layer cake’ is typical of the Principality!” says the architect, according to whom "As a seaside resort and a gambling destination, Monaco had a tradition of novelty".

The early stages of high-rise building in Monaco can be seen in what Jean-Philippe Hugron calls ‘earth-scrapers’, buildings that dig deep into the ground... "In Monaco, plots of land were rare and the only land still available in the 1930s was situated on steep slopes. This led to the construction of buildings that appeared to have just two storeys on the street side, but nearly fifteen floors on the side overlooking the sea. Monaco's skyscrapers are unusual in that they don't reach for the sky, but instead, with their eyes riveted downwards,  look towards the ground. So they are towers in spite of themselves; they inhabit the slope, embracing the topography to make better use of it and offering as many people as possible the pleasure of a view in the interests of densification". The architectural debate embraced modernity when the first tower was built on Port Hercule with the Palais Héraclès designed by Jean Ginsberg. "Conceived at the end of the 1950s, this building embodies the desire to reach for the sky and to densify the principality, with a view to making density both liveable and acceptable". Next came the Shuylkill and then Le Millefiori, which for a long time remained the highest tower in the Principalitý at 35 storeys of 116 metres high. Thought by its promoters to be ‘the most prestigious building in Europe’, it had a radial structural arrangement of Y-shaped concrete sails.

"The shape of the building is reminiscent of the Price Tower in Bartlesville (Oklahoma). When it was completed in 1956, the structure designed by Frank Lloyd Wright made the rounds of the world's architectural magazines, and in a short space of time became an icon of modern architecture", recalls the author.

Another distinctive feature of Monegasque architecture is that as well as verticality, Monaco has cultivated traditional and neo-traditional construction. A style of architecture that, in Europe, was mainly developed in Belgium with the New Urbanism movement: "These contemporary buildings with balustrades express a form of nostalgia. If this kind of architecture is badly done, it immediately lapses into kitsch and becomes ridiculous, but there are buildings that are very well designed", says the historian.

* Rem Koolhaas, champion of 'Bigness’, deciphers Manhattanism in 'Delirious New York': published in 1978.

Monaco-under-sea, ‘The pacific conquests’ 
Through successive extensions out to sea, the Principality's territory has grown by 20%, from 150 to 202 hectares. These ‘pacific conquests ’* have ensured the economic development of the second smallest country in the world (after the Vatican), with the creation of new services and industries as well as new housing. Although Monaco's first sea reclamation dates back to 1907, when the historic beach of Fontvieille was filled in (giving rise to a new port, an incineration plant and the first football stadium), Monaco above all gained land on the Mediterranean at Le Portier and Larvotto.

In the 1960s, at the instigation of Prince Rainier III, the State redeveloped its coastline between Le Portier and the French border (Roquebrune). "Several projects have shaped the Monegasque coastline: the two reclaimed areas of Le Portier and Le Sporting, the Larvotto beach and the Spélugues building complex" explains Jean-Luc Nguyen, Director of Public Works. The Rainier III Auditorium, the Japanese Garden, the Grimaldi Forum, the Summer Sporting Club and the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel are just some of the developments that have shaped the seafront. ‘These projects were, and still are, true technical achievements: the Larvotto artificial beach was the first to be created in the Mediterranean, and its protective structures have proved remarkably effective for over 50 years, requiring very little maintenance; the Spélugues complex overlooks two major traffic arteries in the Principality and rests partly on piers above the sea; the Grimaldi Forum is built two-thirds below sea level, to a depth of -20 metres, and has a permanent pumping system to ensure the building's stability against hydrostatic pressure" he explains.

The largest extension out to sea (22 hectares) was constructed at Fontvieille. The area took more than 30 years to develop, until the Fontvieille Shopping Centre was completed in 1993, followed by the latest housing development in 2000. At the same time, Port Hercule underwent another expansion with the arrival of the semi-floating seawall (a structure weighing 160,000 tonnes, 352 m long, 28 m wide and 19 m high!) attached to a new quay. This meant extending the site by 3.7 hectares.

At the end of the 2000s, plans for an offshore extension resurfaced. Monaco requires between 300,000 - 350,000 m² per decade to meet its needs... Although the project for a 17-hectare district reclaimed from the sea (the result of an international competition) collapsed with the financial crisis of 2008, Mareterra is coming to life. Designed as an extension of the existing coastline, from the Grimaldi Forum to the Formula 1 Grand Prix tunnel, ‘Mareterra will integrate perfectly with our coastline and in a few years’ time will be seen as a natural extension of our territory,’ predicts Prince Albert II.

Monaco Underground 
In the past, Monaco has also gained precious square metres underground. Notably with the construction of an underground railway line, which began in the early 1960s before being resumed at the end of the 1990s, resulting in transferring the train station to the deep valley of Sainte-Dévote (with a 13-level car park)... But above all with the urbanisation of the land that was consequently abandoned by the SNCF. From 1999 onwards, the new underground railway line in Monaco has enabled a vast urban renewal operation: the creation of new public and private buildings and improvements to the Principality's urban network. 135,000 m² of floor space were constructed on the 4 reclaimed hectares. All of these construction programmes have profoundly changed the layout of Monaco. "Today, underground Monaco represents more than 3.5 million m3 of infrastructure, in short, a State under the State" comments Jean-Philippe Hugron. It all stems from the fact that “the Principality needs space for less lucrative activities, as well for facilities and infrastructures that are necessary to keep the city running smoothly: sewage treatment, refuse processing, parking and storage of all kinds". So, in the eyes of town planners and developers, Monaco has another, equally invisible reserve: a deposit of space... underground.

 Exploiting the Principality's limitations means that travel can be carried out underground. "Every day, the Principality doubles its population with the arrival of tourists and commuters. To absorb this inflow - often by car - we need to offer an adequate supply of public car parks (to date, more than 15,000 spaces are available in 40 different car parks) and to avoid congestion on the city's main roads" the specialist explains, before adding: “Six kilometres of underground tunnels also ensure the automated collection of household waste, transported at a speed of 70 km∕h directly into the incineration plant, which, as part of a policy of ‘waste recovery’, helps to produce energy, in particular for the Principality's urban heating”.