Archinect - News

MVRDV and The Why Factory present urban study of Marseille in new book

2020-08-31T13:35:00-04:00

MVRDV and The Why Factory at TU Delft have announced the release of Le Grand Puzzle, a book showcasing the result of intensive research of Marseille. The project was made from 2018 to the beginning of 2020 by an international team of architects and urbanists from MVRDV and The Why Factory in collaboration with Manifesta 13.

"Le Grand Puzzle shows the incredible urban possibilities and impossibilities of Marseille, through conversations, analyses, maps and ideas," said Winy Maas, co-founder of MVRDV and director of The Why Factory in a statement. "It forms an urban portrait of Marseille; a constructive mirror to Marseille."

The study was commissioned as the foundational base of the Manifesta 13 Marsielle art exhibition. "Marseille is a city of flux, transit and trade. It responds to a diversity of contradictory connotations. So it offers a rare prism we can use to investigate multiple questions that are crucial to Europe’s future and current crises," Maas added. "Our research was a...

French agency questions Foster + Partners' Marseille airport expansion and its environmental impacts

2019-08-08T18:22:00-04:00

The Autorité Environnementale (AE) has issued a statement saying a future scenarios study by the airport had underestimated the project’s environmental impact and overestimated its economic benefits. The new Terminal 1 extension is scheduled to open at the start of 2023 [...] However, it appears those plans clash with France’s new target to be carbon neutral by 2050, prompting the environmental agency to demand clarification.

In 2017, Foster + Partners' competition submission beat a proposal by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners for the opportunity to design the new extension to Marseille Provence Airport in France. More recently, France's environmental agency has raised questions concerning the project, arguing that the project's backers had understated the environmental impact of the expansion while also overstating its potential economic impact, The Architect's Journal UK reports.

The journal shared a statement from Foster + Partners addressing their environmental intentions and plans for the expansion that reads, "We have been appointed by the Aeroport Marseille Provence to design a terminal extension on a brownfield site adjacent to Marseille Airport's terminal 1. Our sustainable design proposal will exceed the existing French HQE standard, to align with the new E+C- standard, ensuring further energy and carbon efficiency. This new standard is currently being trialed in France and is expected to come i...

Here's your chance to own an apartment in Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse

2018-03-13T13:50:00-04:00

A duplex apartment in Le Corbusier’s Modernist icon La Cité Radieuse has hit the market for €598,000. [...] This 140 sq m apartment sits on a high floor of the colourful Modernist landmark, built from béton-brut concrete and declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016. The Marseille property is on the market via 20th and 21st century architecture specialists Architecture de Collection.

Photo © Architecture de Collection

Be it the béton brut appeal or the prospect of owning an appartement in the South of France, now's your moment to get both: a 1,500-square-foot unit on a higher floor in Le Corbusier's iconic Unité d’Habitation housing block in Marseille just hit the market, and it's pretty sweet. The asking price is €598,000 ($741,000).

Photo © Architecture de Collection

More interested in Corb's pre-Modernism oeuvre? Check out our From the Ground Up episode about his very first completed architectural design: Villa Fallet, completed in 1906-1907 in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland.

Foster + Partners win Marseille Airport extension design competition

2017-11-30T14:37:00-05:00

The competition for the new Marseille Provence Airport extension recently revealed Foster + Partners as the winning entry. The firm's project will allow the airport to serve up to 12 million passengers per year (excluding the MP2 terminal). Originally built by Fernand Pouillon in the 1960s, Foster + Partners' new design revitalizes the original layout while also adding a link to the 1992 extension by Richard Rogers and tying the group of building together.

Marseille Provence Airport extension design by Foster + Partners. Photo: Foster + Partners.

With articulated interfaces between the new and old buildings, the firm's design features a new ‘Coeur’, French for heart, as phase one of the project. Connecting the flow of movement through all parts of the existing buildings, the Coeur creates a more intuitive arrival and departure progression for passengers. This extension is entirely top lit accomplished by a continuous glass skylight grid clad in stainless steel. Located above the exi...

The Bust of Le Corbusier at MAMO Marseille France

2013-08-09T13:34:00-04:00

A turn of events took place for Cité Radieuse in 2010, when the building’s rooftop gym and solarium went up for sale. Designer Ito Morabito, who goes by Ora-Ito, purchased it as a collector might. “Like you buy a piece of art, but architecture,” he noted. After the acquisition, it became Ora-Ito’s self-appointed mission to honor the iconic structure. Ora-Ito transformed the rooftop of Cité Radieuse into MAMO, a contemporary art center dedicated to exhibitions and creative ateliers.

Corbu's Marseille's Cité Radieuse damaged by fire

2012-02-10T11:22:00-05:00

One of France's most important landmarks of modernist architecture, La Cité Radieuse housing estate in Marseille, built by the architect Le Corbusier, has been damaged by fire. Fire services fought for over 12 hours to put out a blaze that began on Thursday afternoon in a first floor flat in the nine-storey concrete complex which is protected by special heritage status in France.