“From the follies of Nice to modern villas” a conference by Christine Desmoulins at Cap Martin

From the history of the Folies de la Côte d’Azur, the conference will trace the filiation that links the architecture of the “Folies” of the French Riviera to that of modern villas in France.

After the annexation of the county of Nice by France in the 1850s, a new demographic is emerging: fashionable, easy-going, cultured, attracted by the good life of the Côte d’Azur and eager to show the world its richness. So architectural fantasies emerge everywhere on the coast, as witnesses of the opulence of this new local elite. The “Follies” were then born, one of the most emblematic still remaining the Château de l’Anglais on the heights of Nice, whose turrets, rotunda and lush ornaments evoke fantasized memories of its patron, a colonel in the British army who had made a career in India.

A few years later, the refined lines of villa E-1027 were created and Eileen Gray, Jean Badovici and Le Corbusier made Cap Martin a melting pot of modernity.

Once again, the links maintained between a wealthy and enlightened clientele and avant-garde architects are being forged or strengthened, and once again this region is becoming the breeding ground for a unique and historical architectural profusion.

Historian of architecture and curator, Christine Desmoulins works on contemporary architecture in its links with heritage aspects.

Curator and architecture critic for international journals, she also signs numerous scientific productions such as a monograph on Claude Vasconi, books on the work of Bernard Zehrfuss, on French museums or on the villaE-1027 with notably Jean-Louis Cohen and on the Modern Cape.

She is also an active member of the Eileen Gray association, Étoile de Mer and Le Corbusier.