Le Corbusier's Cabanon and Thomas Rebutato's Etoile de Mer could already be visited, but now Eileen Gray's villa too is open to the public for the first time.
The 50th anniversary of Le Corbusier's death coincides with the inauguration of a unique enclave on Pointe du Cabbé, christened Cap Moderne and comprising constructions that all bear the visionary architect's stamp. "For us this is the culmination of 15 years of efforts by the Eileen Gray-Etoile de Mer-Le Corbusier association to save the site and create a synthesis of its various elements," explains Robert Rebutato, who made a major contribution to the project by donating the Etoile de Mer bar-restaurant that had belonged to his father to the coastal conservation agency. When Thomas Rebutato bought his land here in 1947, on the adjacent plot a stunning white villa had stood for 20 years, the home of Eileen Gray and Jean Badovici: E1027 – E for Eileen, 10 for the J of Jean, 2 for the B of Badovici, 7 for the G of Gray.
A model home
When Eileen Gray conceived this house she was of course familiar with the aesthetic upheavals instigated by Von Doesburg, Rietveld, Mallet-Stevens, Le Corbusier and Gropius. Her design resembles a small liner moored on the steep hillside. Perched on elegant pillars, her living room looks out to sea through plate-glass windows; in it the Irish designer placed a big divan, a shower room screened off by a wall, a siesta corner with a designated pillow cupboard, and a bar-cum-dining room. Through such space divisions and moveable, fixed or built-in furnishings that facilitate activities, Gray wanted each individual to be able to live independently. On the shady north side she located the kitchen extending outdoors. By fusing her own sensibility into modernist ideas, Eileen Gray reinvented seaside living. Ten years later when Le Corbusier visited his friend Jean, he painted the villa's walls with singular coloured frescoes.
A prefabricated wooden hut
"My father built a fishing shack, a prototype which he later turned into a snack bar; Le Corbusier was his first customer," Robert Rebutato remembers. The two men became friends, as the portrait on the café's frontage shows. A second hut was built on in 1952, with a door between the two for access. "I've a castle on the Côte d’Azur, measuring 3.66m by 3.66m. It's for my wife and it's extravagantly comfortable and pleasant," the architect wrote of his pine-log cabin. In the small space under its sloping roof he fitted in a bed, a curtained-off toilet, a work bench, a washbasin, a table, storage units and a coatrack, in a harmonious colour scheme. In exchange for the plot, Le Corbusier built five "camping units" here for Rebutato, demonstrating the architect's research into modular holiday accommodation suitable for mass tourism. This listed enclave can be visited until 2 November, after which a new tranche of restoration starts.
Par Tanja Stojanov
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