Halfway between a series of soap bubbles placed on the ground and the rounded shapes of planet Mars, Palais Bulles has earned, over the years, the title of the most unusual and spatial building in the world.
We are on the Côte d’Azur, in Théoule-sur-Me to be exact, overlooking the bay of Cannes. It was here that what is known as the Palace of Bubbles was built between 1975 and 1989. Designed by Hungarian architect Antti Lovag for French industrialist Pierre Bernard, the building became particularly famous after being purchased by fashion designer Pierre Cardin.
It was in fact the designer who transformed it on several occasions into the perfect setting for the fashion shows of his eponymous brand founded in 1950, but also as a location for private events. A unique house of its kind: 1200 square meters organized in bubble-shaped modules. There are no edges, corners or even straight lines: this globular construction, which at times resembles the surface of Mars, is characterized exclusively by curves and rounded shapes. Located on the edge of the Esterel massif, the building is considered the emblem of the futurist architectural movement of the 1970s.
The Hungarian architect’s aim was to reproduce prehistoric cave dwellings by creating a villa in which everything is round. Not only the external structure, bubbles in fact recur in the pools, tropical gardens and rooms that characterize the building.
The interiors contribute to the fabulous and spatial atmosphere attributed to the majestic house over the years. In fact, there is a bubble-shaped hall, a panoramic hall and an open-air amphitheater that overlooks the cliff, and that can accommodate up to 500 people.
