The bubble house with the big-money price tag

The hefty price tag of Le Palais Bulles is less surprising when you take into account its location (overlooking the Mediterranean at Théoule-sur-Mer, south of Cannes), its size (1,200m2 of habitable space) and its current owner (96-year-old designer, Pierre Cardin).

The Bubble Palace is a labyrinthine, futuristic house designed by Hungarian architect Antti Long for the Lyonnais industrialist Pierre Bernard in the 1970s.

It comprises multiple, interlocking, bubble-shaped pods, which have been layered into the hillside, and are interspersed with heated swimming pools, Jacuzzis, patios, sand-covered miniature beaches, and gardens. There is even a 500-seater open-air amphitheatre.

The Palais Bulles was the third building in the bubble style designed by Antti Long, who styled himself as a “habitologist” rather than an architect.
His idea was to engineer a return to the primitive cave and grotto homes of human ancestors.

The pods of the house are all painted a warm ochre, which makes them look as if they have been moulded from the red earth of the coast.
They are punctuated by round apertures, designed to look like natural openings rather than manmade windows and doors, and which give the exterior a lunar appearance.
Its current owner has described the form as “feminine”: “it’s the body of a woman” he has been known to say in response to any comment about the lack of corners.

If the bubbles of the Palais Bulles appear to float above the landscape this is because, in practical terms, they do.
They are constructed using a lightweight metal frame, which bears its own weight, and have no foundations. This frame is covered with a layer of concrete, and finished with plaster on the inside, and a further layer of reinforced concrete on the outside.
The spherical theme is continued throughout the interior, with custom-designed furniture that is often round. Each of the house’s 10 suites has been individually decorated by a different designer: Jérôme Tisserand and Daniel You are among those who have left their stamp on the building’s interior.

Pierre Bernard did not live to see the completion of his whimsical home. When he died in 1991, seven years after work had first begun on the site, only the first part of the project was finished. It was left to Pierre Cardin to complete work after he bought the building in 1992.

It was under his supervision that the amphitheatre was added, as was a panoramic reception room, which has subsequently been used to host celebrity parties, fashion shows, and exhibitions of Cardin’s work.
While the building and its inhabitants might seem anything but mundane, the Palais Bulles has been subject to some very run-of-the-mill constraints during its lifetime.
Under Cardin, work on the second phase of the project began before permission had been granted for the plans which were to more than double the size of the original mansion.
The courts intervened, fined Cardin, and demanded that the site be returned to its original condition. All work had to be halted while a solution was found.