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The Maybourne Riviera stands on a cliff above Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, between Menton and Monaco. French architect Jean-Michel Wilmotte designed the hotel from the ground up — the original Vista Palace largely dismantled, its triangular footprint retained. The building is organised into three interlocking entities: Vista Aéro, the Cristaux and the Corniche. Seven faceted suites are partially carved into the cliff face. Eighty-three rooms and 16 suites are tiered across 9,461m², in a composition of horizontal planes, deep overhangs and full-height glass. Every element is oriented to one thing: the sea.
Interiors were developed by a plural team under Maybourne's in-house director Michelle Wu. Bryan O'Sullivan Studio shaped the public spaces and restaurants. Rigby & Rigby designed suites in the Aero Wing and panoramic rooms. André Fu Studio conceived the wellbeing floor and spa. Pierre Yovanovitch contributed additional suites — furniture from his designs was among the work produced by our studio. Rainey & Best provided FF&E project management throughout the renovation and cliff-edge extension.
The gardens by Jean Mus knit the building back into the hillside. Cypress avenues, Aleppo pines, holm oaks and fruit trees re-establish the natural structure of the slope. Their planting provides the framework within which all the outdoor furniture sits — and the register against which every material choice is read.
Our studio was commissioned to design and produce the bespoke outdoor furniture for La Piscine, the clifftop pool restaurant, and the adjoining terrace areas. The brief: a family of pieces that felt inseparable from Wilmotte's architecture and Mus's gardens — robust enough for demanding hotel use, calibrated enough to hold their own in this setting.
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We anchored the collection in Iroko — a dense, close-grained hardwood with strong dimensional stability and natural resistance to moisture and decay. Its warm, golden tone sits against the pale stone paving and reads into the blue of the pool. Under full Mediterranean sun it holds its character; over time it weathers without losing it. We developed dining tables, chairs and service elements for the restaurant terrace, along with discreet waiter stations and supporting joinery elements for La Piscine and the adjoining areas.
Additional timber pieces extend across the wider external terraces, stitching different levels into a single material story. Against Mus's planting — cypress, Aleppo pine, holm oak, citrus and olive — and the pale stone of the terracing, the Iroko reads as a warm, deliberate presence. Not imposed on the landscape. Part of it.
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La Piscine is an outdoor room where nothing is hidden. The terrace floor runs flush into the pool surround, with the cliff face rising vertically on one side and Monaco visible across the bay. Guests drift between loungers, dining tables and bar seating; staff need clear routes through a space occupied in swimwear. Every profile, height and gap is part of the composition. The brief is relaxed but exacting.
The collection is intentionally spare. Sections are slim but sound — enough material to feel considered, not so much that the pieces read as heavy from across the terrace. Edges are softened throughout: the curving gestures of the interiors carry into the outdoor pieces, and they are kind to bare skin. Slatted construction allows water and air to move freely, cutting drying time without interrupting the line. Low furniture preserves the sightline. The spacing of pieces along the pool edge creates a horizontal rhythm that holds when read from above, from the restaurant and from the sea below.
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Pool furniture on a cliff terrace above the Mediterranean works harder than almost any other element in a hospitality project. Full sun, chlorinated splash, salt air and constant repositioning — the detailing reflects all of it. Joints are traditional and robust where conditions allow; concealed mechanical fixings are used where movement demands them. Bracing is calculated for staff handling rather than a fixed position. Every connection between piece and ground is detailed to prevent moisture trapping at the base.
Components are proportioned for ease of movement without losing substance. A chair a server can clear one-handed should still feel weighted and considered when a guest sits in it. Both are required of the same object.
Touchpoints receive particular attention. Armrests, seat fronts and table edges are eased and rounded — for bare skin as much as for aesthetics. Hardware that must remain visible is kept minimal and discreet, leaving the grain and geometry of the Iroko to carry the detailing. There is nothing decorative that is not also structural or functional.
The Iroko will silver-grey over time. That transition is expected and designed for — tying the collection more closely to the surrounding stone, the cliff terracing and the bark of the pine trunks above.
Iroko along the poolside and terraces — selected for stability, dimensioned for the setting, detailed for the demands of clifftop hotel service on the Mediterranean coast.
We work with architects, interior designers and developers on bespoke furniture for demanding hospitality, residential and commercial projects.
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