Pierre Cardin “Ocean&Space for our planet” Bulles Awards

For a sustainable future

Palais Bulles, perched on a hill above Théoule-sur-Mer, hosts the second Pierre Cardin Bulles Awards ceremony on 17 May 2024. The event confirms the fashion brand’s eco-friendly trend.

By Christine Mahé

Rodrigo Cardin launched the first Pierre Cardin Bulles Awards in 2022, to honour future-oriented projects for the planet. “It’s utopian to believe that mankind, producing and polluting as it does, can respect the three-year countdown announced by the IPCC^* to halt climate change,” he warned. “It is our duty to encourage a dynamic, efficient, virtuous economy for the planet.” His eco-responsible approach underpins this major event, its 2^nd edition taking place on 17 May 2024 at Palais Bulles in Théoule-sur-Mer. It is sponsored by Bernard Piccard, a Swiss explorer, psychiatrist, and clean technology ambassador, founder of the Solar Impulse Foundation and winner of the top Bulles award in 2022. After completing the first round-the-world trip by balloon and then by solar-powered aircraft, he recently launched the Climate Impulse project, aiming for a non-stop, emission-free journey around the world aboard a hydrogen-electric plane.

Spectacular awards ceremony 

The awards event at Palais Bulles will include giant video mappings projecting images of the solar system, views of Earth from Copernicus Sentinel satellites, and design drawings of SeaOrbiter, the ocean sentinel designed by Jacques Rougerie, oceanographer, architect and fine arts academician. He will receive an honorary award for his projects based on biomimetic, bio-inspired, resilient, sustainable architecture. The “Space4 our Planet” and “Ocean4 our Planet” awards will be given to two startups encouraging the emergence of eco-friendly space and ocean economies. Rodrigo Cardin thinks that “now more than ever, the new space and ocean frontiers are the challenges for economic development and
the protection of our planet”. 

The evening will feature a tour of the labyrinthine Palais Bulles, special exhibitions, and speeches by noted guests in the 500-seat outdoor amphi-theater. Dutch astronaut André Kuipers and Claudie Haigneré, the first French woman in space, will talk about the ‘overview effect’ experienced by space travelers. An exciting evening, highlighting space and ocean exploration and their essential role in preserving the planet.

This year, Rodrigo Cardin will also reward the CoopeMollusChomes in Costa Rica, the country that took ecology seriously before any other. This cooperative is a community of women fighting daily to save the mangrove forest where they live and work (mangroves absorb more CO₂ than any other ecosystem). Present at the award ceremony will be Olivier Poivre d’Arvor, French Ambassador for the Poles and Maritime Issues, who will represent the French President at the 2025 United Nations Ocean Conference.

^* Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

Palais Bulles: Futuristic

This sculptural house, designed by Hungarian architect Antti Lovag, was a favorite retreat for Pierre Cardin, who acquired it in 1992. Everything here — walls, stairs, ceilings, porthole windows — is round, undulating, spherical. The ‘architectural folly’ nestling in the Estérel hills served as a living space and a cultural space, a unique setting for the couturier's contemporary art collections. Today, with its reception hall, panoramic lounge, ten suites, gardens, pools and outdoor amphitheater, Palais Bulles offers a futuristic backdrop for fashion shows, photoshoots, and events.