Dmitri, a successful Russian businessman who has just moved to Marseille and loves fast cars and beautiful women, is obsessed with his newest business project - an F1 racing circuit, the Moscow Raceway, in his home city. Not being able to be at the site every day, he wants to be as close to the track as possible - perhaps even live in it? The racing track, an obsession of his ultra-fast lifestyle, becomes the driving organizational and formal concept of the house.
As the European Capital of Culture 2013, Marseille is planning to redevelop most parts of its historical centre - but instead of providing communities with initiatives to improve their neighbourhoods the projects tend to solve their problems by gentrification; instead of preserving Marseille’s character of a historical and diverse city, they seem more than likely to create a generic ‘global city’. This project is intended as a critique of these projects, sketching an exaggerated future scenario where the rich overclass live in absolute permissiveness and impunity.
Status: School Project
Location: Marseilles, FR
My Role: Project Architect
Additional Credits: The project was developed within the framework of University of Edinburgh Master of Architecture studies, led by Suzanne Ewing, in fall 2009.