Laminam total look on the French Riviera | Blue Coast villa, a show of architecture and nature

Less than one kilometre away from the summer residence of #lecorbusier, the famous Swiss-born, naturalised French architect, #calviceschiaviganoarchitettiassociati completed its Blue Coast project in 2018. This sumptuous villa, with a spectacular view of the sea, echoes some of the modernist principles of the Master of contemporary architecture. #laminam partnered the project supplying the finishes which cover all the interior and exterior vertical and horizontal surfaces (including the entire swimming pool area, to the sole exclusion of the master bathroom).

“The Architect, by his arrangement of forms, realises an order which is a pure creation of his spirit; by forms and shapes he affects our senses to an acute degree, and provokes plastic emotions; by the relationships which he creates he wakes profound echoes in us, he gives us the measure of an order which we feel to be in accordance with that of our world, he determines the various movements of our heart and of our understanding; it is then that we experience the sense of beauty.”

Le Corbusier (1887–1965, Swiss-born, naturalised French architect, urban planner, painter and designer).

The #laminam surfaces star in a sumptuous 2018 project on the French Riviera by #calviceschiaviganoarchitettiassociati. In describing the Blue Coast Villa, we cannot fail to mention Le Corbusier’s idea of the figure of the architect, both because the project recalls some of his famous modernist principles and because the Master and founding father of contemporary architecture and urban planning loved to spend his summers less than one kilometre away as the crow flies, that is, in Cap Martin’s “Cabanon” - the only building #lecorbusier ever built for himself, and today a museum dedicated to the great architect.

“The project,” explain the architects at #calviceschiaviganoarchitettiassociati, “features an essential #design. Two large beams, two horizontal lines connecting two stone blocks like a bridge.” Inside there is a house, outside, only sea and sky: “if it is true that the pleasure of observation grows - in a dialogue organically linked to the system of natural laws - with the continuously changing appearance of the observed object”, then Blue Coast is undoubtedly conceived as a unique and spectacular location for the enjoyment of architecture and nature.

Sea and stone, nature and artifice, light and shade, rain or sun: the unfolding of the day’s natural events creates the unpredictable conditions for the project’s underlying mission: to connect opposites and create pleasure. “Not everyone can afford the luxury of living in such a house, but those who can have a unique tool to hand, designed to create relationships with others,” say the architects. “The house is designed to accommodate friends with the utmost freedom and comfort and to organise every kind of social event.” Fully detached, the building’s dual vertical distribution facilitates the logistics connected with catering for large receptions. Various “layers” guarantee moments of both privacy and sharing, in an evocative play of paths that also involves the external garden spaces.

“The materials used are made to last but also - and above all - to impress,” the architects conclude. A goal achieved in partnership with #laminam, the Italian multinational with a sustainable green identity known as the first company worldwide in the ceramics sector to produce large sized slabs and exceptionally thin thicknesses. Indeed, the villa owes its impressive total look aesthetics to Laminam’s finishes: I Naturali - Calacatta Oro Venato, I Naturali - Calacatta Oro Venato Lucidato and Filo – Mercurio (for all except the master bathroom). These finishes are inspired by natural materials but feature greater levels of technical performance.

The #laminam world takes inspiration from the great stones used traditionally in Italian architecture, such as marble, slate and porphyry, from the exquisite beauty of silk, from the texture of the woods that have made Venice great, from the intensity of colour forged on metal by the passage of time, and from the transparencies and three-dimensionality of the quartz stones which make precious any surface. Laminam’s R&D staff continuously tests, studies and designs surfaces, materials and structural effects in a perspective of sustainability with the goal of offering the market finishes produced by using natural raw materials and cutting-edge techniques with a low environmental impact.

In a continuous, elegant and evocative play of natural and artificial elements, Laminam’s finishes not only cover all the vertical and horizontal internal surfaces, but also create continuity of flooring between the interior and the exterior. This system creates a spectacular play of transparencies and reflections, that is particularly effective during the day when the villa is flooded with sunlight and at night when the swimming pool, which views on one of the most beautiful and memorable scenes of the French Riviera, is lit up.