One of the world's most prestigious yacht clubs deserved a flagship equal to its legendary status. On 20 June this was inaugurated.

5000m² of indoor spaces plus 4000m² of terraces, 204m long and 22m high, six floors – welcome to the Yacht Club de Monaco's superb new clubhouse that took six years to build. Six years excluding the excavations to reclaim from the sea the precious square metres essential to its construction. The image of a building poised over the water is no accident since the project was intended to evoke an ocean liner, a hi-tech, almost fourth-millennium vessel tied up at Quai Louis II, the work of famous British architect and 1999 Pritzker Prize winner Sir Norman Foster. "The building is a little like a city in microcosm [...] a continuation of Monaco's dense urban fabric. I wanted it open to the exterior. Its large deck-like terraces offer unrivalled views out to races at sea and inland over the Formula 1 Grand Prix circuit."

Contemporary elegance
The interior design was put in the capable hands of internationally renowned French interior decorator Jacques Grange, who in association with Fendi Casa has created a décor in complete harmony with the structure. Grange selected some the loveliest pieces from Fendi Casa's Contemporary collection, for example the iconic Margutta table in the office of HSH Prince Albert II, the Yacht Club's president, its ebonised sycamore top inlaid with satin-finish bronze, along with solid wood Serengeti tables and "strapped" leather Blixen chairs. This modernity is accentuated by spacious rooms with glossy white aluminium panels on the walls and furniture in soft hues such as ivory, sand and cognac. A special mention too for the sparing but effective use of noble materials such as leather and fine woods (oak, macassar ebony...).

Social and event spaces
So a wonderful building to home the Principality's two sailing clubs – the members-only Yacht Club and the Société Nautique – and a no less impressive array of facilities: shop, lounge, bars, panoramic restaurant, reception rooms, library stocked with 1600 nautical books, outdoor swimming pool with retractable bottom, sauna, hammam, fitness suite for yachters to tone up and five "cabins" for guests who stop over. Alongside these member-only spaces, others such as the ballroom can be hired for private yachting-connected functions. As can the Aquarama Riva Bar on the fifth deck, a tribute to Carlo Riva who invented a particular Riviera lifestyle, where you step into a world of luxury and glamour on a par with his "Rolls-Royces of the seas": sea-green leather upholstery, bar modelled on his famed motorboat, mahogany woodwork, sparkling chrome.

By Alexandre Benoist