It was initially to build a hut in which to store his fishing tackle and picnic equipment for his family that Thomas Rebutato, a plumber from Nice, bought a plot of land on the terraced hillside next to Villa E-1027, below the customs officers’ footpath along the railway line. In 1949, he gave up his plumbing business and converted the hut into a snack bar and later a restaurant. Le Corbusier, who was one of his first customers, quickly became a regular visitor to the establishment where he painted several murals that were much appreciated by the owner. They decorate the façade and the bedroom.

THE MINIMALIST
DWELLING

The original design of the Etoile de Mer is testimony of what a minimalist dwelling by the sea could be.

Built by Thomas Rebutato on the basis of plans by F. Pietra, of Nice, the original Etoile de Mer comprises a main room with kitchenette, WC and a bedroom. On the sea side, the French windows open out on to a wide terrace  on which the bedroom window also looks out. Between the rear wall and the railway embankment, access is by a wooden door and a passageway. On the lower terrace, a wooden hut houses a shower.

This lightweight prefabricated construction with a frame consisting of wooden beams rests on concrete supporting blocks. The walls are made of fibre-cement panels and the sloping corrugated fibre-cement roof rests on wooden joists. The ceilings are made of hardboard sheets and the flooring is wooden parquet.

When he built his cabin, Thomas Rebutato originally intended to build another five nearby which he would have sold after setting up a small estate on his land.

EXPANSION
AND EMBELLISHMENT

Thomas Rebutato thus enlarged and embellished his house, installing a kitchen at the rear and cementing the staircase in order to create a new entrance at its foot. Once the main room had been converted into a bar, he decorated the counter and the walls with his paintings and the terrace wall with one by Le Corbusier.

Outside, all of the spaces go to make a real garden, in which Thomas’s taste for art brut expressed itself in borders formed of broken bottles, low walls and plant containers made of brick fragments and pebbles picked up on the beach. The terrace and arbour have now become a large summer dining area.

A WELL-HIDDEN
SAFE

Yvonne, Le Corbusier’s wife, was married to one of the world’s most famous architects. And she had a most unusual safe!

As Le Corbusier took all his meals at the Etoile de Mer, there was a communicating door between the bedroom of the Etoile de Mer and the Cabanon. Hidden in the thick panel of this door there was a tiny safe where his wife kept her jewellery.

Both in Eileen Gray’s villa and on the walls of the Etoile de Mer and his Cabanon, the murals painted by Le Corbusier reveal a man truly inspired by the Mediterranean.

SEE THE BOOK “LE CORBUSIER, PEINTRE A CAP-MARTIN”

THE ETOILE DE MER
A SIMPLE FISHERMAN’S THAT BECAME A RESTAURANT

On opening day Thomas Rebutato, aided by his 12-year-old son Robert, sees his first customer arrive. A guest of Jean Badovici, he has come to negotiate board for about ten persons for a week. That man was none other than Le Corbusier who was working with his team in E1027 on his Bogota city project..

In August 1950, he painted, on a wooden panel, a portrait of Thomas in a cap and cook’s apron, opposite André, the sea-urchin fisher. “At the Etoile de Mer friendship reigns” was to be the title of the work which he gave his friend, who hung it up on the wall of the bar-restaurant. 

In July 1952, Le Corbusier installed his Cabanon on the adjacent plot; it had been prefabricated in Corsica by the joinery firm Barberis. After securing the Rebutatos’ consent to its being placed right up against the Etoile de Mer, the architect installed a communicating door between the two buildings.

Once the Cabanon had been completed, Le Corbusier painted a mural at the entrance. On the other side of the wall in which the communicating door had been installed between the Cabanon and the Etoile de Mer, another of his paintings depicts the Rebutato family. Le Corbusier offered to buy from Robert the plot on which he had built the Cabanon in exchange for the construction of 5 holiday cottages on one of the pétanque pitches on the Rebutatos’ land. These are spartan but functional dwelling units whose design was based on the same principles as the Cabanon. They were erected on stilts, by Barberis, during the summer of 1957. The notarial transfer-of property-act was signed in January 1961.

From 1957 to 1970, Thomas and Marguerite used the cottages as accommodation for holidaymakers

A man in black sits à la Matisse next to a recumbent woman; the footprints are those of Le Corbusier and Thomas Rebutato.

This painting, having been battered by the elements – sun, rain, salt-laden winds - has already been restored several times. 

Magda and Robert Rebutato kept the terraces and plants well maintained. They introduced a few new plants, with good results and in line with horticultural tradition. A few of these plants have matured but it is vital to preserve this dream-like world in its original state and merely plant a few extra flowers here and there.

The terraced garden of the Etoile de Mer and the Holiday Cottages, accessible by a narrow flight of concrete steps, is planted with thyme and rosemary, cacti and succulents, palms and olive trees. The paths are embellished with borders made of bottle fragments laid by Thomas Rebutato. Low walls and plant containers made of brick fragments and pebbles picked up on the beach reveal his taste for art brut.

Built on stilts by the joinery firm of  Charles Barberis, the Holiday Cabins illustrate Le Corbusier’s research on an economic modular holiday home suitable for mass seaside tourism. Each of them can accommodate two persons in an 8 m² space, and a window in the form of a “T” on its side, inspired by the modern concept of the elongated window, frames the seascape.

Before designing the Cabanon, Le Corbusier had devised the holiday home projects ROB and ROQ, one of them for his friend, Thomas Rebutato.

The ROB (for Robert) project was designed for Cap Martin in collaboration with his friend Thomas Rebutato (who preferred to be called Robert). These “Holiday Cabins”, which were originally intended to be built on the rocks below the Etoile de Mer, were an application of the ”226 x 226 x 226” patent derived from the Modulor. The idea was to create a honeycomb-structured living space made of steel sections, offering generous freedom of space for the dwelling. Study on the ROB project continued until 1953 when a storm showed how vulnerable the site was. Neither of the two projects was implemented but the Holiday Cabins, consisting of a series of five rooms for holidaymakers, are the outcome of continued research along similar lines.

SEE “THE CABANON”

BIOGRAPHY OF LE CORBUSIER

FROM RESTAURANT
TO HOLIDAY ACCOMODATION

The Holiday Cabins enabled Thomas and Marguerite Rebutato to add another dimension to their Etoile de Mer restaurant business.

From 1957 on Thomas Rebutato and his wife Marguerite were able to provide lodging as well as board for holidaymakers attracted by the prospect of a care-free summer by the seaside.

Quite apart from their architectural value, these cabins enabled Thomas Rebutato to profit from his land just as he had dreamt of doing a few years earlier. When he built his prototype cabin for the Etoile de Mer, on the basis of plans drawn up by the architect F. Pietra from Nice, he had at first intended to build and sell another five cabins alongside it as part of a small estate. Shortly after Le Corbusier died, he built three small kitchens under the cabins’ pilotis. After her husband died in 1971, Marguerite Rebutato kept the sandwich bar and continued to provide accommodation for holidaymakers in these furnished rooms until 1984.

From 1957 on Thomas Rebutato and his wife Marguerite were able to provide lodging as well as board for holidaymakers attracted by the prospect of a care-free summer by the seaside.

Quite apart from their architectural value, these cabins enabled Thomas Rebutato to profit from his land just as he had dreamt of doing a few years earlier. When he built his prototype cabin for the Etoile de Mer, on the basis of plans drawn up by the architect F. Pietra from Nice, he had at first intended to build and sell another five cabins alongside it as part of a small estate. Shortly after Le Corbusier died, he built three small kitchens under the cabins’ pilotis. After her husband died in 1971, Marguerite Rebutato kept the bar and continued to provide accommodation for holidaymakers in these furnished rooms until 1984.