While Mareterra plays it very safe in terms of the accommodation it offers, the district does stand out in one respect: its landscaping. Designed by Michel Desvigne, it eschews the Riviera tradition of exotic ornamental gardens for something much more understated and ecologically serious. “It’s not merely a decorative backdrop,” declares Desvigne. “It’s a new piece of coastal territory, featuring all the plant species you would find in the Mediterranean,” from underbrush to the umbrella pine. With soil depths that are unusually generous for the circumstances, a residents’ charter that imposes the same species on Mareterra’s private gardens, and a continuity with the seashore planting of the next-door Larvotto quarter, a green corridor is formed that should attract indigenous fauna. Moreover, the public spaces are beautifully designed, with blond Burgundy stone, in both rough and smooth finishes, that forms pool beds, piazzas, and pathways, while the numerous aquatic features include a seawater swimming pool, a 2,600-foot-long stream zigzagging down the hill, and sheets of reflecting water on the land side of Le Renzo, where the neighborhood meets the old shoreline. If any aspect of Mareterra should serve as an example for the future, it surely is this.
