Villa Tempe a Pailla

Villa Tempe a Pailla stands on the hills above Menton, France, as a modernist villa designed by Eileen Gray. Built between 1931 and 1934, it combines concrete, brick, and broad glass panels overlooking the Mediterranean. You enter through the garden, climb an outdoor staircase, and cross the terrace before reaching the living room.

Gray planned the house for reflection and work after E-1027 in nearby Roquebrune-Cap-Martin. Open-plan rooms, strip windows, and free façades express modernist ideas from the 1930s. Three old water tanks shaped the raised level: one became a garage, another a cellar, and the third remained a reservoir. She also designed the furnishings, including movable elements and a ceiling disk controlled mechanically from a bed. After wartime looting, Gray restored the villa between 1950 and 1953, adding terraces and replacing shutters and the garage door.

Graham Sutherland bought the property in 1954 and added a large studio where the garden had been. The house, garden, and grounds became a listed historic monument in 1990. A circular opening in a bedroom ceiling still shows how Gray linked light, movement, and everyday use.