MaybOurne riviera

Côte d'Azur

Aerial view of the Maybourne Riviera hotel built into the cliff at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, with stepped glass-fronted terraces, infinity pool and pine-covered hills dropping to the sea.

 Bryan O’Sullivan Studio and Pierre Yovanovitch

Sheltered by Mont Agel and suspended above the Côte d’Azur, the Maybourne Riviera is one of those rare hospitality projects where architecture, interiors, landscape and bespoke furniture all pull in the same direction. Built into the cliff at Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, between Menton and Monte Carlo, the hotel is a white, mineral and graphic presence that feels grown from the rock rather than placed on it.

 
Hand-drawn architectural sketch of the Maybourne Riviera, showing the hotel stepping down the rocky cliffside with terraces, cypress trees and the Mediterranean stretching away to the horizon.
 

For interior designers and hospitality teams, it is a living blueprint: 83 rooms, including 16 suites, tiered down the hillside, wrapped in terraces and Mediterranean gardens, covering over 9,461m² with every element choreographed around an extraordinary sea view.

Wide panorama of Monaco from above, with towers, Port Hercule, beaches and cruising yachts set against the curve of the coastline and the deep blue Mediterranean Sea.

From the Maybourne Riviera, Monaco stretches out like a miniature city below. The hotel looks straight onto Port Hercule and the curve of Monte Carlo, with the harbour, casinos and the Grand Prix circuit all clearly in view. By day it’s a sharp blue tableau of sea and towers; by night it turns into a glittering field of lights cascading down to the water.

Origins

Before it became the Maybourne Riviera, the site was home to the Vista Palace hotel, itself the evolution of a modest tearoom perched on an outcrop above the sea. Over time the building grew into a solid, somewhat uncompromising mass of concrete, prized for its panorama rather than its architecture.

Aerial construction view of the Maybourne Riviera, the new terraced concrete structure clinging to the cliff with cranes, access roads and surrounding hillside villages visible.

When Maybourne Hotel Group acquired the property, they did not see a tired hotel to rebrand; they saw a cliff-top stage. Apart from the original triangular footprint, the old structure was largely dismantled. In its place, Maybourne pursued a far more ambitious idea: a contemporary homage to Riviera modernism that could stand confidently alongside Claridge’s, The Connaught and The Berkeley within the group’s portfolio.

Closer construction shot of the Maybourne Riviera, with the main block and cascading wings partially built, scaffolding to the cliff and cranes rising above the rocky landscape.

Hotelier Paddy McKillen was instrumental in driving that vision – closely involved with the design and project teams, championing the bolder architectural moves and pushing for a level of craft, art and detailing that would make the hotel feel genuinely new rather than simply renovated. The result reads very much as a passion project: a highly personal, modernist, art-filled take on the Riviera.

Construction detail of the main tower of the Maybourne Riviera, with exposed floor plates, glazing in progress and the hillside town and pine forest behind the cliff.

Architecture

French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte was commissioned to reimagine the hotel from the ground up. The result is a striking composition of horizontal planes, deep overhangs and sheer glass – a white, mineral and graphic hotel in symbiosis with the cliff. The architecture is organised into three intertwined entities – Vista Aéro, the Cristaux and the Corniche – which lock together to form a single, coherent figure in the landscape. Together they heighten the sensation of vertigo, giving the impression that the building is lightly poised on the cliff edge, its pronounced overhangs and cantilevers sharpening the drama.

Dramatic image of engineers working on suspended platforms fixed to concrete anchor blocks on the cliff face below the hotel, stabilising the rock high above the coastline.

The main building sits on the site of the former triangular block, but the hill has been completely recomposed. A series of terraces step down the slope, recalling the traditional restanques of the region. Below, seven faceted “crystals” – suites partially carved into the rock – are anchored directly into the cliff wall, linked to the Corniche below by a panoramic path.

Close-up of the cliff engineering beneath the Maybourne Riviera, showing concrete anchor blocks, steel cables and workers on hanging rigs with Monaco’s coastline far below.

From a distance, the hotel reads almost like the prow of a ship cut into the hillside. Close up, the layering of levels becomes clear: platforms, gardens, pools and balconies sliding over one another, every line quietly calibrated to keep the sea in view. For designers working with challenging topographies, it is a masterclass in using structure and circulation to turn a complex site into a legible, exhilarating journey.

Minimalist view of a projecting white suite balcony at the Maybourne Riviera, cantilevered out from the rock with glass balustrade, sun lounger and open sea beyond.
Low-angle view of the Maybourne Riviera tower, showing stacked, blade-like balconies, large glazed façades and sunlight reflecting off the building against a clear blue sky.
Another upward view of the Maybourne Riviera’s faceted suites, glass-fronted boxes jutting from the cliff with sharp overhangs, emphasising the hotel’s dramatic cantilevered form.
Evening view of the Maybourne Riviera tower at dusk, with warm perimeter lighting tracing each floor and suites glowing above the rocky base and planted terraces.
Dusk view of the Maybourne Riviera from the opposite angle, the illuminated balconies wrapping around the cliff while the rock base and soft sky frame the building’s geometry.

Gardens

The gardens by Jean Mus give the project its softness and soul. Working with an exceptional Mediterranean promontory, he set out to knit the new building back into its setting rather than simply surround it with planting. A cypress grove now punctuates the approach and gives the hotel a distinctly Riviera silhouette, while a layered canopy of Aleppo pines, holm oaks and cork oaks re-establishes the native structure of the hillside and casts dappled shade across paths and terraces. Fruit trees – citrus, olives, strawberry trees, pomegranate and carob – are woven through the restored terraced fields, recalling the site’s agricultural past and bringing the landscape down to a more intimate, domestic scale.

Distant hillside view of the Maybourne Riviera embedded in Mediterranean planting, with layered terraces, cypress avenues and the hotel emerging above dense green slopes.

Within these terraces, Mus has created a series of quieter moments: a vegetable garden dedicated to heirloom herbs and vegetables, and a children’s playground discreetly tucked into the greenery so families can inhabit the landscape as naturally as the interiors. For guests, the result is experienced as a chain of fragrant, shaded pauses and long, framed views; for designers, it is a quietly exacting piece of landscape architecture that balances ecological sensitivity with the demands of a five-star hotel.

Design Teams

Inside, the Maybourne Riviera is the product of a deliberately plural design strategy. Maybourne’s in-house team, led by Michelle Wu, set the overall direction: a luminous, art-led Riviera modernism with a strong sense of craft. Around this, a constellation of studios were invited to contribute, each taking responsibility for distinct zones while working within a coherent brief.

Bryan O’Sullivan Studio shaped many of the public spaces and restaurants, including the Riviera Restaurant. Their interiors are described as timeless yet contemporary, with custom furnishings, sculptural forms and exquisite craftsmanship. The language is soft and generous: rounded seating, joyful but controlled colour, and a strong emphasis on comfort.

Rigby & Rigby designed suites in the Aero Wing and a number of panoramic rooms. Their approach is tailored and quietly restrained, pairing clean-lined joinery and pale finishes with those huge, cinematic windows. The aim is serenity and ease within an architecture that is undeniably dramatic.

Bright, contemporary bedroom at the Maybourne Riviera, with bespoke timber bed, blue patterned rug and terrace beyond furnished with striped chairs, parasol and sea-facing lounger.
Light-filled suite interior with floating bed, curved bedside tables and pale textiles, opening onto a terrace with loungers and a pine-framed view of the Mediterranean.
Calm bedroom with large picture window over treetops and hills, bespoke bed and bench, and softly arched wardrobe doors in pale timber joinery giving a tailored, residential feel.
Detail of suite joinery at the Maybourne Riviera, showing open shelving, dressing table, wardrobe and marble-framed bathroom with freestanding tub and framed sea view beyond.

Hong Kong–based André Fu Studio conceived the wellbeing floor and spa, drawing on the shifting tones of the sea and sky. The result is a calming sequence of spaces – tonal blues, layered textures, lowered light levels – that feels like a retreat hidden within the hotel. Additional suites and spaces were developed with other collaborators, including Pierre Yovanovitch, who’s designs we produced. Despite the diversity of voices, the hotel reads as a single, confident narrative.

Behind the scenes, Rainey & Best provided quantity surveying and FF&E project management services for the project – steering the extensive renovation, restructuring and cliff-edge extension, and helping to coordinate the complex FF&E packages for guestrooms, public areas and the multiple pool decks. Their role in planning, budgeting and delivering the highly detailed FF&E scope underpins much of what guests experience as effortless luxury.

Interiors

Walk through the Maybourne Riviera and several interior themes quickly become apparent. Colour is used with precision. A base palette of stone, sand and sun-bleached timber provides calm continuity. Onto this, richer tones are dropped where they matter: cobalt blues in dining chairs, rust and tangerine at poolside, soft corals in textiles that catch the last light of the day. The effect is fresh and Riviera-specific rather than trend-driven.

Form is carefully softened. The architecture may be sharply geometric, but the interiors lean into curve and tactility. Banquettes sweep around corners, table edges are eased, and armchairs invite you to sink in rather than simply perch. That residential softness is critical in a luxury hotel of this scale; it turns a potentially intimidating building into somewhere genuinely liveable.

Materials are layered, not piled on. Travertines and limestones sit alongside lacquer, pale and mid-tone timber, textured plaster and finely woven textiles. Many surfaces feel designed for the hand as much as the eye: door pulls, balustrades and tabletop edges are resolved with the same care as grand staircases or double-height windows.

Art and sculpture are treated as structural parts of the design rather than afterthoughts. Curated works and site-specific pieces anchor corridors, lift lobbies and lounges, creating moments of pause and recognition within the flow of circulation.

Amenities

The Maybourne Riviera is generous in spatial drama. Every suite is orientated to frame the sea; many have corner glazing that turns the coastline into a wraparound panorama. The main infinity pool terrace is the hotel’s social stage. The pool appears to skim the edge of the cliff, its geometry aligned with the bay below. Terraces step away from this focal point into quieter pockets for dining and lounging.

Infinity pool at La Piscine with vivid orange loungers and towels, a single swimmer at the edge and an uninterrupted expanse of deep blue Mediterranean water.

At lower levels, the hotel reaches down to the water with Maybourne La Plage, a beach experience that re-expresses the brand in a more barefoot, sand-and-salt language while retaining the same commitment to crafted detail.

La Plage at the Maybourne Riviera, with rows of orange-and-white striped parasols and loungers set among rocks and planting directly above the glittering sea.

In the summer, Maybourne La Plage comes to life with the arrival of La Môme, the Cannes-born restaurant group founded by twin brothers Ugo and Antoine Lecorché. Starting with their original address just off La Croisette, La Môme has built a reputation for glamorous, high-energy Mediterranean dining that channels the golden-age Riviera – all sun-drenched plates, chilled rosé and late-night music.

 
Entrance vignette for La Môme at Maybourne La Plage, featuring the La Môme Riviera sign, lush greenery and a bright yellow Moke car in the foreground.
 

Their outpost at The Maybourne Riviera settles into the natural cove beneath the hotel, pairing that signature, joyfully social atmosphere with the raw beauty of Cap Martin’s rocks and crystal-clear water: striped parasols, daybeds and a low-slung open-air dining room where the sound of the DJ blends with the sea.

La Môme restaurant terrace at La Plage, with neatly dressed tables, canvas directors’ chairs and striped parasols lining the deck above the calm blue Mediterranean.

Surrenne, the wellbeing destination envisioned with André Fu, turns a full floor into a sequence of calm, immersive spaces combining spa rituals with advanced wellness programming.

 
Surrenne spa relaxation area at the Maybourne Riviera, with timber daybeds, softly upholstered cushions, round low tables and a rocky backdrop beyond sheer curtains.
Guest relaxing on a spa lounger at Surrenne, holding a cup of tea and looking out to the cliffside planting, with timber daybed and a tray of tea and fruit in the foreground.
 

La Piscine

At the upper terraces, La Piscine is where everything comes together most visibly: architecture, gardens, pool and furniture working in concert. The open-air restaurant and bar sits beside the main infinity pool, its stone floor running seamlessly into the pool surround and the cliff face rising almost vertically on one side.

Aerial view of La Piscine pool deck at the Maybourne Riviera, with angular infinity pool, orange loungers, white parasols and lush terraced gardens dropping down the cliff.

The brief here is relaxed but exacting. Guests drift between loungers, dining tables and bar seating in swimwear; staff need clear service routes; the view must remain uninterrupted. Every profile, height and gap matters. Low-slung furniture keeps sightlines open, parasols are placed to punctuate rather than clutter, and the rhythm of pieces along the water’s edge creates a strong graphic line when seen from above.

Higher aerial shot of La Piscine showing the main pool and lower terrace wrapped by rows of orange loungers and white parasols, perched directly above the Mediterranean.

For interior designers, the terrace is an open-air room where every decision is on display: heights, silhouettes, the spacing between pieces, how shadows fall during the day. Nothing can hide.

Bespoke Furniture

Our studio was invited to create bespoke furniture for La Piscine and the adjoining poolside areas, contributing to the wider choreography of the Maybourne Riviera’s exterior spaces. The ambition was to develop a family of pieces that felt inseparable from the architecture and gardens, robust enough for demanding hotel use yet refined enough to sit comfortably within this intensely photographed setting.

 
View down from the Maybourne Riviera towards Monaco, with the angular pool terrace in the foreground and the dense city fabric, harbour and coastline stretching into the distance.
 

We anchored the collection around Iroko, a dense hardwood with excellent dimensional stability and natural resistance to moisture. Its warm, golden tone sits beautifully against the pale paving and the cool blue of the pool, and it weathers elegantly under Mediterranean light.

La Piscine restaurant interior at the Maybourne Riviera, with rows of bespoke timber dining tables and chairs opening straight onto orange loungers, white parasols and the sea.

Working closely with the hotel and design teams, we developed a suite of outdoor timber elements that flows through La Piscine and beyond. There is a mixture of dining pieces, chairs and service elements for the restaurant terrace, along with discreet waiter stations and supporting joinery. Additional timber interventions appear across the wider external areas, helping to stitch different terraces and levels into a single, coherent story of bespoke furniture woven quietly through the hotel’s hospitality project.

Close view of a timber dining table and chairs at La Piscine, with neutral sofas, potted olive trees and orange-backed loungers lined up beneath sculptural white parasols.
Poolside dining table at La Piscine laid with white plates and orange glassware, overlooking rows of orange loungers and white parasols facing the infinity pool and open sea.
Intimate dining set-up at La Piscine with a timber table for two, simple white plates and orange glasses, beside the curved infinity pool, loungers and sail-like parasols.

The language is intentionally understated. Sections are slim but strong, with just enough material to feel reassuring without appearing heavy. Edges and corners are softened to echo the curving gestures of the interiors and to be kind to bare skin. Slatted details allow air and water to move freely, speeding up drying times and keeping the silhouettes visually light.

Craft And Durability

Clifftop pool furniture works harder than almost any other element in a luxury hospitality project. It is exposed to full sun, chlorinated splashes, sea air and constant movement. Our detailing reflects that reality.

 
Studio product shot of a square Iroko outdoor dining table on a white background, showing the slatted top, slim legs and clean-lined profile of the bespoke design for La Piscine.
Long bespoke banquette in striped orange and cream upholstery on a timber plinth, photographed in the workshop before installation at La Piscine in the Maybourne Riviera hotel.
Corner section of the bespoke striped banquette for La Piscine, with angled modular bases and bold orange and cream upholstery, shown assembled in the workshop ready for delivery.
Studio shot of a bespoke Iroko dining chair with open-frame arms, slatted back and upholstered seat, designed for the Maybourne Riviera’s pool restaurant and photographed on a red backdrop.
 

Joinery is engineered for long-term stability: robust traditional joints and concealed mechanical fixings where appropriate, bracing designed to cope with repeated repositioning, and careful attention to how pieces meet the ground to avoid moisture traps. Components are proportioned so that hotel staff can handle them with ease, yet they still feel substantial and purposeful to guests.

Interior of La Piscine restaurant at the Maybourne Riviera, with rows of bespoke Iroko tables and chairs, polished columns and an open bar, all overlooking the infinity pool and Mediterranean.

Touchpoints receive particular care. Armrests, seat fronts and table edges are eased and rounded for comfort. Any hardware that must remain visible is kept as discreet as possible, allowing the grain and geometry of the Iroko to take precedence. Over time, the timber will develop a gentle patina, tying it even more closely to the surrounding stone, terracing and pine trunks.

Another view of La Piscine’s dining room, showing timber tables laid for service, bespoke chairs, relaxed sofas and the glowing pizza oven and bar at the heart of the poolside restaurant.

For operators, the result is a collection of bespoke furniture that supports the rhythm of service day in, day out. For designers, it is a reminder that durability and beauty are not opposing forces; in the best hospitality projects, they are designed together from the outset.

Design Insights

The Maybourne Riviera offers several clear lessons for those working on hospitality projects. It shows how far you can go when architecture, landscape and interiors are all anchored to a single idea – in this case, the drama of the cliff and the endless sea view. Every decision, from the orientation of suites to the height of a poolside chair, reinforces that relationship.

 
Dramatic dusk aerial of the Maybourne Riviera cascading down the cliff, with illuminated terraces, suites and the infinity pool set high above the coastline and towns of the Côte d’Azur.
 

It demonstrates that multiple design studios can collaborate successfully when guided by a strong in-house vision. The work of Bryan O’Sullivan Studio, Rigby & Rigby, André Fu and others feels distinct yet connected, each chapter enriching the overall narrative rather than competing with it. Rainey & Best’s role on the delivery side – balancing budgets, construction complexity and FF&E detail – is a reminder of how critical the right consultancy team is in realising such an ambitious brief.

Evening view along the Maybourne Riviera infinity pool, lined with orange loungers and parasols, with the restaurant glazing behind and Monaco’s lights twinkling across the bay.

From its origins as the Vista Palace to its rebirth as the Maybourne Riviera, this cliffside property has become a touchstone for contemporary hotel design on the Côte d’Azur. It balances bold modernist architecture with lush gardens by Jean Mus, refined interiors by a roster of leading studios, and carefully crafted bespoke furniture that quietly underpins the whole experience.

Panoramic night-time view over Monaco and the Côte d’Azur coastline, with high-rise towers, hotels and the curving bay lit up against the deep blue of the Mediterranean Sea.

For interior designers and hospitality teams looking to create their own destination projects, the Maybourne Riviera is proof that when every layer – building, landscape, interiors and furniture – is treated as part of one story, the result can feel almost inevitable. Our contribution in Iroko along the poolside and terraces is just one thread in that tapestry, but it is a thread we are proud to have woven into this extraordinary hospitality project.

 
MAYBOURNE RIVIERA ◳
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