MEDITERRANEAN

Let’s begin in Menton, France—almost as if we’re starting in Italy—and head west.

1. Ireland-born Eileen Gray moved to Paris in 1902 and began educating herself in painting and design. This launched her decades-long career as a furniture designer, artist, shop owner, interior designer, and architect—a true polymath. Included in her varied œuvre is Tempe à Pailla, a home finished in 1933. Gray designed this home for herself with “modern” elements that were shocking and unconventional for the time: rectilinear forms, ribbon windows, concrete surfaces, an interconnected relationship between indoor and outdoor spaces, attention to sunlight, and more. This is a private residence. 187 Rte de Castellar, 06500 Menton, France

2. Here’s another ode to the aptitude of Eileen Gray: e.1027. Gray designed this summer home with architect Jean Badovici, with whom she developed a personal and professional relationship. Although Gray shares credit for e.1027, most of its design and construction (from 1926 to 1929) existed thanks to her mind and supervision. The house’s name is a secret code between Gray and Badovici: E for Eileen; J—for Jean—is the 10th letter of the alphabet; Badovici’s B is the 2nd letter of the alphabet; and Gray’s G is the 7th. This is a historic house museum; make an appointment to revel in more of its history. e.1027 Sent. Massolin, 06190 Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France

3. Lots of heresy surrounds the origins of Le Corbusier’s Le Cabanon. The story you’ll hear most often? That Corbu purchased land nextdoor to Gray’s e.1027 because he was obsessed with her. Others claim the motivation wasn’t so bold: he designed four summer cabins for a restaurant owner who owned property next door to e.1027. Le Corbusier was granted permission to build a small residence on-site for himself and his wife as an escape from Paris. Speculations aside, Le Cabanon (1951) is a bite-sized cabin that seems to be the antithesis of how you’d imagine his “machine for living” principles. Its walls are painted in various hues (similar to his surprising color choices for Villa Savoye near Paris) and some have murals; it has a tiny doorless lavatory, and warm-toned built-in furnishings. Another fact: the internationally-recognized architect passed away while swimming in the Mediterranean directly in front of e.1027 and Le Cabanon. This is a historic house museum that you can visit. Site Corbuséen du Cap Martin, 06190 Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France

4. La Chapelle du Rosaire de Vence’s first stone was laid in 1949 and the last one in 1951. Although Henri Matisse’s identity is strictly defined by most as an artist, he served as the architect for this commission. He was too unwell to attend the inauguration but wrote a poignant letter to fill his absence: “This work has taken me four years of exclusive and diligent work, and it is the result of my entire working life. Despite all its imperfections, I consider it to be my masterpiece.” Matisse designed the modest church to show gratitude to Sister Jacques Marie, who had cared for him years earlier while she was a nurse. With help from a few others (architect August Perret, glazier Paul Bony, and Father Marie-Alain Couturier), his hands created the structure and the accompanying stained glass windows, sculptures, ceramics, murals, furniture, and priest’s vestments. This is a permanent place of worship, visitable five days a week. 466 Av. Henri Matisse, 06140 Vence, France

5. Fondation Maeght was founded in 1964 by Marguerite and Aimé Maeght, a couple who were devout publishers and art dealers during the mid-century period. Influential, the couple held close friendships with artists Calder, Giacometti, Léger, Braque, Miró, and others. They commissioned Josep Lluís Sert, a Catalan modernist architect, to work alongside Miró and various artists to create an immersive location for the enjoyment of art and Southern European culture. The Fondation describes the grounds and Sert: “It was as a humanist that Sert developed his ‘village architecture’ concept, as dedicated to the artists involved as it is open and welcoming for art lovers; but it was as a modernist that Sert reinterpreted the codes of a Mediterranean village—the whiteness, the earth, the patios.” You must have tickets to visit this museum, but good news: it’s open seven days a week. 623 Chemin des Gardettes, 06570 Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France

“The problems of architecture are international. They are fundamental in that they related to man and his needs, and today the mechanics of solving these needs are pretty much the same everywhere. Style? Style comes of itself. . . . You are covering a fine piece of land with many miserable dwellings. Look about you. On one side you have a magnificent view of the mountains, on the other, the wide expanse of the Mediterranean. You cannot put [people] in rabbit hutches. You must put them in great buildings from which they can enjoy the view. If you group them together the buildings will cover but a small percentage of the ground area; the rest will be available for gardens, for recreation.”

— Le Corbusier to George Nelson, Pencil Points, July 1935

Keep advancing the westward way, past Cannes and Saint-Tropez, toward Marseille. Then, if you dare pause, stay a night (or deux or trois) at l’Hôtel Corbusier.

6. Villa Noailles, constructed from 1923-1925 by Robert Mallet-Stevens, is rumored to be one France’s earliest examples of modern residential architecture. Mallet-Stevens provided the Noailles couple’s home with various extensions for a decade, exploring the intersection between the Secession movement in Vienna, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and evidence of early European Modernism. “Sun, views, modernity and simplicity were the Noailles’ special requirements. Mallet-Stevens was asked to create a house in harmony with its environment…as a result, the gaps in the house walls framed views as if they were paintings.” The villa is now a “Centre for Contemporary Art of National Interest” and you can take a free guided tour most days of the week. Mnt de Noailles, 83400 Hyères, France

7. Unité d’Habitation La Cité Radieuse was one of Le Corbusier’s experimentations in large-scale housing and city planning. UNESCO world heritage described the project as “the founding work of architectural Brutalism, a major test of a new mode of housing based on the balance between the individual and the collective.” Unité could host around 1,700 occupants in nearly 350 apartment units, providing people with their own living sanctuaries while also creating building-wide avenues with shops, galleries, and public spaces within its perimeter and on its roof. The building’s original hostel continues to operate as a hotel! 280 Bd Michelet, 13008 Marseille, France

8. If you’re an admirer of architect/designer Jean Prouvé, his collaborator Serge Binotto designed Maison Ronde for his parents in the quaint town of Mirepoix. This delectable pie-shaped home will add considerable time to your route. It is off our path, on its lonesome, and in great disrepair. Its current status doesn’t mean that it should be ignored. In fact, it deserves the opposite! L’Association de la Maison Ronde is working to secure a preservation-focused new buyer for the home in hopes of continuing a rehabilitation project with local architects and architecture students at the University of Toulouse. They’re currently looking for conservation assistance and funding—anything to keep the home's spirit intact and honor the recently-lost Binotto. This is a private residence. 1 Av. des Pyrénées, 09500 Mirepoix, France

Get ready for the noticeable transition into Spanish territory. Time to switch languages and be on the lookout for jamón y queso!

If you need another suggestion for a place to rest for the evening, stop in La Selva de Mar, Spain, for tapas at Can Perleta Tasca Gallega and a stay at a mountainous, private winery (with burros!).

9. Historian Michel Déon wrote that artist Salvador Dalí had “roots” and “antennas.” His roots went deep into the earth, searching for everything while he produced forty years of art. His antennas were probing for artistic and social advancements, for clues of the future. At Museo Casa Dalí, you’ll surely gather evidence of these roots and antennas! Salvador and his wife Gala moved into what began as a small fisherman’s hut in 1930, expanded its architecture, and transformed their life together here until 1982 when Gala passed away. This is a house museum; tickets cannot be purchased online the day of, and interior visits sell quickly, so plan ahead! Even if you can’t take an interior tour, the exterior and surrounding gardens will leave you feeling enchanted. Will you feel grounded or tuned into the alien future? Hopefully both... Platja de, 17488 Port Lligat, Girona, Spain

On the way to your next destination is the Expo Dalí, so if you didn’t absorb enough of the artist’s charm, check out the museum.

10. José Antonio Coderch y de Sentmenat (let’s call him JAC) was a Catalan architect who was Barcelona-born and educated. He is responsible for a few of the following locations. JAC studied under an architectural disciple of Antoni Gaudí, who was essentially the father of Catalan architecture. What’s most interesting is that these studies focused on copying ornamental motifs. What you’ll see in the following residences is literally the opposite—stark facades with an absence of ornamentation. Casa Senillosa was a single-family home built into the existing magical streets of this Spanish port town of Cadaqués. Although it appears bare, think about JAC’s attention on overall shape as a type of ornament. This is a private residence. Carrer d'en Guillem de Bruguera, 8, 17488 Cadaqués, Girona, Spain

11. The 1960s for JAC consisted of an intense output of single-family homes. Whitewashed, rectangular, concrete forms of this home, Casa Roses, cascade down the mountainous hillside along the sea. Coderch’s designs of this period were a geometric puzzle both externally and internally—the discovery of each section of the property unfolds as you wander through the floor plan. This is a private residence. You can only view the home’s facade from the street, but you can see the more intricate sides of the home really well from a boat (if you’re super lucky) or at a very close distance from the hiking trail (Punta La Figeurassa) just outside the house’s property line. No trespassing!! Avinguda de José Díaz Pacheco, 184, 17480 Roses, Girona, Spain

12. Another notable example of JAC’s mastery of the single-family home is Casa Uriach, designed in 1961. Coderch endearingly said of its zigzagged exterior footprint: “In this house we initiated the stepped forms in the façade, to which we have been very loyal subsequently.” This is a private residence. Carrer del Prat, 08480 L'Ametlla del Vallès, Barcelona, Spain

It’s time for an explosion of architectural textures, colors, and styles. Say “hola” to Barcelona and more Catalan Modernism.

13. My apologies for turning this into a JAC tour, but the number of his properties that remain intact along the coast of Spain is a testament to Coderch’s nuanced understanding of living comforts, form, city planning, and material usage. Casa Tapies was designed for painter and sculptor Antoni Tapies between 1960-1963. A historian describes its purposeful construction to fit into the existing street’s line of buildings, how it receives light, and the trick of the facade. “The painting workshop receives overhead lighting through plastic skylights, protected from the inside with a ceiling of adjustable white wooden slats. The brick walls are interrupted by the metal pillars, on which the lamps have been fixed. The library is a completely opaque volume to the street, backward facade and differentiated from the two facades. This allows the facades to look lower, recovering the scale of the neighborhood and the existing houses.” The outside might not look like much to most people, but check out these photographs while thinking about the above quote. The interior looks like a dream. This is a private home. Carrer de Saragossa, 57, 08006 Barcelona, Spain

14. I thought it would be a nice twist to show a highly-admired example of multi-family housing designed in 1967 by JAC (in his hometown!), Edificios Banco Urquijo. This compound spans an expansive six city blocks in width and a few stories in height, and as you’ve likely noticed, it feels extremely fitting inside the urban landscape of Barcelona. “The typological result ends up forming a hybrid between the garden city and continuous block urban housing. A kind of ruralization of the urban through an extrusion operation at height—as if it were an architectural game—of the models of single-family homes designed by the architect until that time.” These are private residences. Carrer de Raset, 21, 08021 Barcelona, Spain

15. I asked my most Mies-loving friend if he could describe the Barcelona Pavilion in three words. His answer? “I wanna go.” Let this be added motivation for you to make the drive. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was a Germany-born architect who you’re probably familiar with due to him being one of America’s pioneers of Modernism, both in architecture and furniture design. The Barcelona Pavilion was constructed with Lilly Reich in 1929, serving as Germany’s pavilion for the Barcelona International Exhibition. For the space, Mies and Reich designed the recognizable Barcelona Chair. The pavilion was deconstructed in 1930 after the exhibition ended and was, thankfully, sensitively reconstructed from 1983-1986. Now, it’s a foundation and museum. Pavelló alemany, 08038 Barcelona, Spain

16. Catalan architect Ricardo Bofill refused to consider himself a modernist. Still, his work will be included on this list for the sake of the era he built in and how he conveyed space, material, and lifestyle planning. Taller d’Arquitectura, his architecture workshop, was founded in 1960. Thirteen years later, his studio operated inside La Fábrica, a converted cement factory, and was devoted to philosophy, poetry, sociology, construction, and his personal living space (this video is a must-watch). This is still the operating architectural office of Bofill, although the treasured architect passed away in January 2022. Av. de la Indústria, 14, 08960 Sant Just Desvern, Barcelona, Spain

17. Across the road from Taller d’Arquitectura is Walden 7. The 1974 Bofill-designed living complex of nearly 500 apartments suited for 1,000 inhabitants, grouped around communal courtyards and gardens with levels of bridges and balconies. If this sounds similar to Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation in Marseille from earlier in our drive, it is. However, there is a large distinction that Bofill makes to separate his work from Corbu’s. While Le Corbusier’s units were identical, Bofill left the design and configuration elements up to the inhabitants. Each “cell” within Walden 7 could be moved and integrated with other apartment units, causing the interior spaces to change based on personal preferences, morphing over time. This is a private living complex with gates, but it’s great to admire from the street. Ctra. Reial, 106, 08960 Sant Just Desvern, Barcelona, Spain

18. La Sagrada Familia is not within the time constraints of the “modern” era, HOWEVER, I believe with all of my soul that you must visit this property if you are anywhere near it. It will undeniably change your life. Besides, architect Antoní Gaudi was far ahead of his time in his building skills and humanitarian efforts, so can we consider its 1882 beginnings as the jumpstart for Catalan modernism? ;) Although Gaudi passed away in 1926, his plans for the backside of La Sagrada Familia, known as the Passion Facade, were adapted to the Cubist style of the time and sculpted from 1954 until 1976. He knew the church’s construction would surpass the timeframe of his human life. The artisans and engineers who constructed—and will continue constructing—La Sagrada until 2030 are still following his directions. C/de Mallorca, 401, 08013 Barcelona, Spain

And finally—a picturesque venture further south, punctuated with color.

19. La Muralla Roja is truly a gem in our eyes, and given its layered planes, it’s no shock that it was designed by Bofill. Blurring into the postmodern era but built six years before Walden 7, La Muralla Roja is a housing estate of fifty apartments, some shops, a restaurant, and alleyways for pedestrian transportation throughout the numerous structures. It is always especially neat to see a community-driven, economical way of residential living, similar to this tour’s earlier locations like La Cité Radieuse and Edificios Banco Urquijo. A big difference is that this place is brimming with visual vibrancy. There are a few units available as a vacation rentals through Airbnb. 03710 Calp, Alicante, Spain

NOW,

if you made accommodations to stay at La Muralla Roja, your car can now find its final stop. Climb into this warm-hued, geometric castle and please enjoy the sunset over the majesty that is the Mediterranean Sea. You deserve the relaxation.

THANKS FOR THE RIDE!