In Mareterra, size and physical continuity make this new, 6-hectare district feel like a natural peninsula. Designing the area as the “landscape unit” that it is calls for the meticulous recreation of a native Mediterranean landscape – like those found around Monaco. Cultivating a naturalistic environment in a wholly human-made setting requires installing a layer of substrate across an area big enough to sustain an entire natural landscape, while accounting for the highly complex architectural and marine infrastructure sharing the underground space.

The Hillside is a constructed landform built above an exhibition center, its topographic variation providing the fertile soil necessary to support the landscape. Precise grading shapes soil depth, as the sloping outlines of the hill rise and fall in harmony with the surrounding Mediterranean landscape. This creates the conditions needed to arrange and plant large trees according to on-structure vertical load distribution, while simultaneously incorporating systems for drainage and runoff management. Echoing wild landscapes, each layer of vegetation is densely planted so as to form an increasingly natural environment as the greenery grows. Together, the engineered slopes, constructed ground, and lush greenery form a cohesive whole.

The extended construction timeline enabled vegetation to be planted and grown off-site initially, in preparation for on-site transplantation in the final years of construction. Certain species were planted in seaside nurseries through a growing contract, allowing them to mature and acclimate. Aleppo pine and stone pine trees were already over 10 meters tall by the time they were transplanted on-site. The MDP team, alongside nursery gardeners and engineers specialized in botany and soil, oversaw the growing and selection process for this preliminary planting project. The naturalistic design of the Hillside and the gridded design of the Port complement one another in perfect harmony.

The Fountain

Even as the landscape is lush and wild, it also forms the fabric weaving together Mareterra’s public spaces. Waterfront promenades, plazas, terraced stairs, streets, and pedestrian concourses, all surfaced in a uniform limestone hardscape, stretch one after another over 3 hectares. The Fountain at the highest point of the Hillside celebrates this rock in another form: a block of rough limestone, shaped by millennia of erosion, sits just below the surface of the water like a window onto the Earth’s crust. Cascading watercourses flow from this quarry rock, down the human-made slopes and toward the sea.