The Principality’s homegrown mineral water brand has launched a limited edition carrying the celebrated architect’s own sketch of the Yacht Club de Monaco.
There is something quietly radical about the idea. A bottle of water, everyday and functional, carrying the hand-drawn sketch of one of the world’s great architects. Not a print, not a photograph, but the raw pencil work of a mind in the act of imagining. From Thursday, April 9, that is precisely what Monacqua is offering with its new limited edition in collaboration with Norman Foster.
The image is Foster’s own sketch of the Yacht Club de Monaco, the 204-metre waterfront structure his practice completed in 2014 and which has since become the symbolic centrepiece of the Principality’s harbour. Conceived as “a city in microcosm”, the building houses a ballroom, restaurants, guest cabins, a sailing school and event spaces across tiered terraces that step down to the Mediterranean. Photovoltaic cells, solar thermal panels and a sea-water cooling system power it using Monaco’s own natural resources, and the building is widely regarded as one of the finest examples of sustainable architecture on the French Riviera. It now appears on both of Monacqua’s formats: carton and glass.
The collaboration is the second of its kind for Monacqua, following a 2025 edition with American artist George Condo. For founder Geeta Kalwani, a mother of three who launched the brand in 2022 with the ambition of replacing plastic bottles with paper cartons, the move into architecture felt like a natural progression. “After the privilege of working with George Condo, an artist whose generosity and brilliance left a lasting mark on Monacqua, I wanted to introduce a new genre of culture,” she explains. “Architecture felt like the natural next step. Norman Foster is held in the highest regard, and when I discovered that his birthday falls on the same day as mine, I took it as a sign.”
Foster, now 90, is among the most decorated architects alive. Born near Manchester in 1935, he studied at the University of Manchester before winning a Henry Fellowship to Yale. He co-founded Team 4 alongside Richard Rogers in 1963 before establishing Foster Associates in 1967. Over six decades his portfolio has come to span continents: 30 St Mary Axe and the Millennium Bridge in London, the Hearst Tower in New York, Apple Park in Cupertino developed with Steve Jobs, and a vast retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in 2023. He was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1999 and holds the Order of Merit, one of the most exclusive honours in the world, limited to just 24 living recipients. His connection to Monaco extends beyond the Yacht Club to last year’s unveiling at the Monaco Yacht Show of the Outlier I, an 88-metre megayacht concept developed with naval specialists Lateral.
Bringing Foster on board was not without its challenges. His team had many questions, and a period of reflection preceded his agreement. One small exchange has since become part of Monacqua’s story: when Kalwani’s team used “Lord Norman Foster” in their materials as a mark of respect, Foster made a single request that the word “Lord” be removed. “It was a small gesture, but it spoke volumes about his character,” Kalwani recalls. “For someone of that stature to choose such simplicity was a profound lesson in grace and humility for our entire team.”
Monacqua Founder Geeta Kalwani
That spirit of purpose runs through Monacqua itself. Kalwani, born in Liberia into an Indian family and displaced by war as a child, went on to live across a dozen countries, study eight languages, and earn a double masters from Sciences-Po Paris and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in Singapore. She launched Monacqua guided by the Japanese philosophy of kaizen, the belief that small, continuous changes lead to lasting impact. The brand’s water is sourced from ancient European springs traceable to Roman times, contains zero nitrates and zero arsenic, and is offered in glass and paper-based carton formats, the latter 75 per cent biodegradable. The company is on track to sell one million bottles annually, each one a plastic bottle that was never made. Since its founding, Monacqua has also partnered with the Princess Grace Foundation, directing a share of every sale toward medical equipment and housing support for families of terminally ill children.
The Principality has embraced the brand with warmth that has, at times, exceeded all expectation. When Kalwani informed His Serene Highness Prince Albert II of the Foster collaboration, she received a personal letter expressing his conviction that it would honour Monacqua’s bottles while supporting the brand’s commitment to Monaco’s cultural influence. Then, just two weeks before this launch, during the historic visit of Pope Leo XIV, the first papal visit in five centuries, the Government of Monaco chose Monacqua to provide 15,000 bottles for those gathered at the stadium. “We learned of the State’s choice only after the fact, when friends and clients began sending us photographs of the bottles in the crowd,” Kalwani says. “We were numb with joy.” Art dealer Simon de Pury captured the moment with characteristic wit: “In less than two years, and in no small part thanks to its stellar artist collaborations, Monacqua has already attained cult status. It took Château Mouton Rothschild a little longer.”
As for the sketch itself, Kalwani is unambiguous about why it was chosen. “There is something very personal about a hand-drawn image, a closeness to the mind at work. It speaks to the meeting of two things I hold dear: the sea and sustainability.” The limited-edition bottles are available now at select cafés, restaurants and supermarkets across Monaco, priced at Monacqua’s regular rates, a deliberate choice to ensure that an encounter with great architecture remains, like a bottle of water, something for everyone.
