Where Barefoot and Black Tie Feel Equally Right

Humbert & Poyet renovates a Caccia Dominioni villa on Roquebrune-Cap-Martin — sculptured ceilings, terrazzo tributes, Azucena originals, and a home where glamour and ease are inseparable.

The Côte d’Azur has always possessed a distinctive understanding of domesticity — one in which glamour and ease coexist effortlessly, where an elegant dinner and a barefoot walk from the pool feel equally at home under the same roof. Emil Humbert of Humbert & Poyet embraced this sensibility when he undertook the renovation of Villa Pineda, a 1980s residence in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, near Monaco, designed by Italian architect Luigi Caccia Dominioni. Once owned by Humbert’s in-laws, the villa was deeply rooted in family memory. The brief was therefore both professional and personal: preserve its emotional history, bring the design forward, and deepen its connection to the surrounding landscape.

The region itself holds a cinematic quality — Greta Garbo and Jean Cocteau both passed through it — that Humbert sought to expand upon while respecting Caccia Dominioni's original vision. The building's vertical zoning, which contours the rocky topography to maximise sea vistas across three floors, was preserved. What changed was the atmosphere. Humbert approached the ceilings as a fifth façade — a structural element that defines the emotional quality of each space, frames perspectives, modulates light, and gives the villa its serene rhythm. Sculptured lower ceilings provide comforting proportions, disperse the sometimes harsh south-facing Mediterranean light, and improve acoustic quality through textured plaster.

"I wanted a home where you can host a beautiful dinner or walk in barefoot from the pool, and ensure both moments feel perfectly natural." — Emil Humbert

The material language is one of contrasts held in deliberate balance. Patterned terrazzo flooring — a direct homage to Caccia Dominioni's design for Galleria Strasburgo in Milan — anchors the dining room alongside a custom brass dining table by Humbert & Poyet and 1970s bamboo travertine drawers. The bar, sculpted by Atelier Tollis in patinated plaster and marble, is wrapped in original restored burgundy lacquered millwork wall coverings, its matte surfaces in conversation with glossy finishes and tactile vintage furnishings. Forest green 1960s bedside tables and original Azucena sconces designed by Caccia Dominioni himself inhabit the bedrooms alongside a 1950s brass dome ceiling light by J.T. Kalmar. A Verde Alpi marble bath sits beneath a 19th-century Etruscan-style marble bas-relief. A terracotta San Siro lounge suite by Caccia Dominioni for Azucena, white Catalina chairs, a bronze coffee table by Erwan Boulloud — each room is collected rather than curated.

Outside, an emerald travertine pool wrapped by geometric grass-fringed pavers beneath a timber pagoda, an alfresco terrace, a loggia extending from the grand salon, and a lounged patio adjoining the dining room through arched glazing complete a villa where, as Humbert puts it, luxury is first felt through the hand before it is spotted by the eye.

Key takeaways

• Humbert & Poyet treated the ceilings as a fifth façade throughout Villa Pineda — sculpting them lower to create comforting proportions, disperse harsh south-facing Mediterranean light, and improve acoustics through textured plaster, recalibrating the entire atmosphere of the original 1980s Caccia Dominioni design without modifying the building's footprint.
• The renovation is built around a dialogue with the villa's original architect: terrazzo flooring in the dining room directly references Caccia Dominioni's design for Milan's Galleria Strasburgo, original Azucena furniture and sconces he designed populate the bedrooms and sitting room, and his Nonaro blush pink garden lounge set anchors the outdoor terrace — making the renovation a tribute as much as a transformation.
• The design philosophy of contrasting materiality — statuesque staircase ceilings against expansive patterned terrazzo, matte plaster against glossy lacquered millwork in the bar, a Verde Alpi marble bath beneath a 19th-century Etruscan bas-relief — produces what Humbert describes as a home where luxury is first felt through the hand before it is spotted by the eye.