While Zaha Hadid designs the yachts and art boats of the future, Sir Norman Foster has built a ship house for these futuristic ships in the present. A multifunctional complex for Europe's most influential yacht club, created in collaboration with Monegasque architect Alexandre Giraldi, located in the center of the renovated harbor in Monte Carlo. Built on reclaimed land as part of the development of an existing marina, it can accommodate a range of sailboats and mega-yachts up to 100m in length.
This piece of land reclaimed from the sea is essentially a microtown, and this town is very independent. Preserving its heritage and status, which, in particular, are manifested in the atmosphere created there by the cruise liner of the 1st half of the 20th century, the club is "powered" by renewable energy sources: there are photovoltaic panels, solar collectors and a cooling system using sea water. This autonomy is not surprising, because the main task of the project is to make the yacht club the center of the "community" with its own school, park, offices, restaurants and shops. Even the interior layout is based on a system of “streets” dividing the club's designated public and administrative spaces.
The glazed atrium (also known as the entrance group) contains a grand spiral staircase and passes the "ship" through and through, framing views of the harbor and the princely palace. On the ground floor there are club rooms, a bar and a restaurant. Below, at the level of the embankment, there is a rowing club and a sailing school, above it is a two-level banquet hall, and above it is the apartment of the secretary of the club and "cabins" for high-ranking guests. At the very top there are rooms for various events. Cantilever projections on each floor form open “decks” with views of the sea and the Formula 1 track. The fully glazed facades are protected from the sun by a system of external blinds, and the "decks" are awnings supported by "mast" and "spars". External "ladders" connect the main tiers of the building.
There is a landscape park on the roof of the school, adjacent to the exhibition hall and connected with the pedestrian paths leading from the embankment to the Casino Square. At the bottom of the building, at the harbor level, there are cafes and shops. All this helped the huge "liner" fit into the urban fabric of the principality, although given its status, it could have done without this gesture of goodwill.
The success of such a direct architectural statement as this project by Foster lies in the fact that, without needing to be interpreted, it will answer the request of the modern elite for a long time to come, and after years, apparently, it will become a monument to the traditions of luxury at the beginning of the 21st century.