Villa Andre-Bloc, also known as Villa Ex or Villa Bloc, is one of the most radical architectural statements on the French Riviera. Built in 1961 by the visionary French architect Claude Parent for Andre Bloc — architect, painter, sculptor, and founder of the influential magazine L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui — the villa stands near the Garoupe lighthouse on a steep, rocky site at the tip of Cap d'Antibes.
The project was born from Bloc's admiration for Mies van der Rohe. After preparing a special issue of his magazine devoted to the German master, Bloc asked Parent to create a structure inspired by the principles of modernist purity. The steep site was unsuitable for traditional construction with load-bearing walls, so Parent chose a steel I-beam structure combined with reinforced concrete slabs, giving the building its distinctive slender, linear silhouette. The villa is composed of two independent cubic volumes connected by a rotating external staircase with two circular flights — the lower volume housing an artist's studio and the upper containing the residence.
Despite its modest size, the Villa Andre-Bloc is considered one of Claude Parent's major works and was classified as a Monument Historique in 1989. It represents a synthesis of the principal architectural utopias of the 1950s and illustrates the fruitful cohabitation of architecture and sculpture, standing as a rare example of uncompromising avant-garde design on a peninsula better known for its palatial estates.