This 200-page book, featuring nearly 300 original drawings, is the result of three years of urban explorations to unearth the most beautiful gems of Nice, hunt down unexpected anecdotes, and revive the flavor of forgotten details…
Sensitive to the “off” side of architecture, the kind that does not shine with all its lights, Luc Svetchine advocates for the recognition of the small masterpieces of the ordinary Nice, those very ones that need to be seen and appreciated.
After revealing the hidden charm of the Niçoise hills (On the Hills of Nice, Selected Walks, Gilletta editions, 2012), he recounts his journey in search of the poetic and architectural emotion of Nice in its entirety, uncovering the images and joyful atmospheres of an unexpected “urban parenthesis.”
The soul of a city is felt through a mosaic of images, conveying sensations and emotions. These watercolor sketches, captured on-site by architect Luc Svetchine, reveal another vision of Nice, known too superficially for its tourist attractions and iconic summer resort landmarks.
Visiting the medieval old town is a must, whether you are a local or a tourist. Getting lost in the maze of alleyways and being guided by a sketch artist who hunts for images in the most improbable settings provides a sensitive approach to history.
Under his guidance, we then discover a site that remained modest until the end of the 17th century and intended to stay that way, but the city could not resist changes… In the 19th century, the layout of an ambitious urban plan was superimposed upon farm paths, creating a most capricious plot that sometimes generates extravagant volumes. From the absurdity of these constraints arises a poetry that escapes the “daily view” of the setting, but that the author hunts down, collects, and reveals through nearly three hundred original sketches. Never has Nice been so well represented as in this architectural repertoire, a true unexpected “urban parenthesis.”
