€2bn Mareterra waterfront project launched in Monaco

Mareterra, a €2 billion development on six hectares of land reclaimed from the sea, was officially launched in Monaco yesterday. The project creates a new pedestrianised neighbourhood with a park, a waterfront promenade, residential buildings, restaurants and retail.

It is a “transformational project for Montecarlo, our very first national eco-district,” said Prince Albert of Monaco as he officially opened the new district. “Mareterra will integrate perfectly with our shoreline, and in a few years will be seen as a natural extension of our territory.”

SAM L´Anse du Portier, the company responsible for the project, recruited a star cast of architects and engineers including Renzo Piano, Norman Foster, Stefano Boeri and Tadao Ando. The masterplan has been conceived to integrate with the existing coastline, extending the territory from the Grimaldi Forum to the Formula One Grand Prix tunnel in the heart of Monaco. 

Piano, who had already worked in Monaco redesigning Larvotto Beach, was brought back at the Prince´s request and has designed the main residential building. Called ‘Le Renzo’, the 17-storey, 125-metre long building looks like a cruiseliner, floating five metres above the ground on supporting columns, with shops and restaurants in the space beneath and a sea-water pool just two metres above sea level.

Le Renzo has only 50 apartments, all of 400 sq m or more, including one penthouse quadruplex. All the apartments have already been sold off-plan at record prices for Monaco, which has some of the most expensive real estate in Europe. According to unofficial sources, prices of €120,000/sq m have been achieved.

Foster, Boeri and Ando have designed other residential buildings, including ten villas on the coastline and four townhouses on top of the hill, also already sold off-plan, while Valode & Pistre Architects, responsible for the entire masterplan, designed another four apartment blocks.

Mareterra – the name comes from the Italian words for sea and land – claims to be Monaco´s greenest development, as it has been built using sustainable construction techniques and is powered by renewable energy – over 9,000 sq m of solar panels have been installed – and is heated by huge heat pumps that use sea water.

Over 1,100 trees have been planted over a 1-hectare area with pedestrian paths and cycle lanes as well as biodiversity shelters such as bird nests and insect hotels. Artificial reefs have been created to favour colonisation of the new sea coast, as well as corridors for sea life.

“Mareterra is a pioneering case study for land reclamation and for building on water, designed to withstand the predicted rise in sea-water levels,” said Guy-Thomas Soussan-Levy, managing director, Mareterra. “We worked on this project for ten years, so we had the time and the resources to do things well. I am proud the works were completed six months ahead of schedule.”