February 18, 2025 | VOL 17
LE SOLEIA:
a STORY SHAPED by the SUN
words Onur Baştürk
photos Alexandre Tabaste
On Avenue Victor Hugo in Nice, Le Soleia opens its doors with a quiet confidence. Not as a spectacle, but as a place tuned to light — the kind that shifts from pale morning to amber evening along the Riviera. The new hotel by Inwood Hotels, conceived by Oscar Lucien Ono and his studio Maison Numéro 20, is shaped around a single presence: the sun, treated less as a motif than as a guiding principle.
WE ARE INSPIRED BY THE SUN’S MYTHS AND ITS WARMTH
Step past the Art Deco façade and the atmosphere settles immediately. Volumes are generous but not imposing. Materials are natural, tactile, sun-ready. Ochres and sandy beiges recall façades bleached by years of coastal light. Marble in warm tones, wicker, ceramics, sheer fabrics and turned wood soften the geometry of the interiors. In the lobby, a plaster amphora by Thibault Perrigne sits in quiet dialogue with a globe-like lamp, while sculpted suns and discreet wave motifs appear like signatures rather than statements. The Mediterranean is present, but filtered — less postcard, more memory.
For Ono, this solar thread is not decorative; it is the narrative spine of the project:
“At Maison Numéro 20, every project starts with a story. We love writing a narrative for each setting, and especially finding a strong throughline capable of giving meaning to each choice. At Le Soleia, this starting point naturally presented itself: the sun. A concept that is both simple and universal, yet deeply symbolic. The sun inspires us both through the mythological imagery it evokes and through what it physically provides: warmth, softness, well-being – almost enveloping.
We wanted to translate this solar presence into the décor, not in a literal way, but sensibly. Upon entry, a solar fresco by Raphael Schmidt, enhanced with gold leaf, welcomes the visitor as a source of light. The spaces are designed like cocoons, with a soft colour palette that evokes the sun, but also the sea, the palm trees, and the Promenade des Anglais. The project thus echoes the most precious aspects of the Mediterranean: its light, its way of life, and that solar energy that shapes both landscapes and emotions.”
ECHOES OF THE RIVIERA
That sensitivity to light unfolds quietly from space to space. Stylised palms and sketched suns appear in frescoes like passing breezes. Overhead, a ceiling fresco imagined by Ono — laser-cut and painted wood — traces celestial lines that suggest sun, wind and motion without ever becoming literal. In the restaurant, layered greens evoke a shaded palm grove, with light filtered through glass as if through leaves. In the rooms and suites, ochres, terracottas and sea-washed tones create soft, protective interiors where texture does most of the talking: wave-shaped headboards, crumpled fabrics, ceramics, woven details. The feeling is calm, grounded, and gently sensorial.
Ono approaches the Riviera with the same restraint — not as a style to reproduce, but as a language to reinterpret: “At Maison Numéro 20, we never seek to reproduce the past or fall into nostalgia. Our approach is to reinterpret the codes of a place with a contemporary perspective.
At Le Soleia, the codes of the Mediterranean guided us: ceramics, the wave motif, plaster, wicker, but also a colour palette inspired by the landscape. Solar, mineral, and soft tones that evoke the light, the sea, the sand, the palm trees, and that very particular atmosphere of the Riviera. A region's heritage inspires us primarily through its uses, materials, and colours.
We research, observe, then translate these references into a current, refined language, paying particular attention to detail. Textures are reworked, patterns simplified, and colours nuanced to create spaces that are rooted in their environment while remaining resolutely contemporary.
It’s less about making references than making echoes – capturing the Mediterranean spirit, its softness, and natural elegance, and embedding it in a classical contemporary writing that is timeless and alive.”
