Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse Rooftop to Host Contemporary Art Center
When the gym and solarium on the 20-century’s most famous rooftop terrace – elevated 18-stories above Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse - went up for sale in 2010, French designer Ito Morabito of Ora-ïto immediately jumped on the opportunity and purchased the space. With the support of the Foundation Le Corbusier, Ora-ïto initiated a campaign to restore the 1950‘s structure to its original state, by removing an addition that blocked the spaces 360-degree views of the city, and transform it into a contemporary art center, named the MAMO for “Marseille Modulor” – as a nod to New York’s MOMA.
More about MAMO after the break…
Zaha Hadid Architects’ First Built Tower: CMA CGM Headquarters
Zaha Hadid Architects’ first built tower, the CMA CGM Headquarters in Marseille, France, is most immediately notable for its vertical form.
As the stunning images from Hufton + Crow show, the tower’s disparate volumes (generated from gradual centripetal vectors) gently converge towards each other and then bend apart to create an elegant “metallic curving arc that slowly lifts and accelerates skywards into [...a] dramatic vertical geometry.”
Read More about CMA CGM Headquarters, after the break…
Vieux Port Pavilion / Foster + Partners
Saturday in Marseille, France, pedestrians and city officials joined Foster + Partners to celebrate the completion of the Vieux Port Pavilion at the mouth of Marseille’s World Heritage-listed harbor. Minimal, yet effective, this “discreet” intervention provides a new sheltered events space on the eastern edge of the port. With six slender pillars supporting its razor-thin profile, the polished 46 by 22 meter stainless steel canopy amplifies and reflects the surrounding movement of the harbor, creating a spectacle that encourages pedestrians to linger.
More on Foster’s Vieux Port Pavilion after the break…
Proposal for an Urban Itinerary / Comac Architects
The proposal for an urban itinerary, designed by Comac Architects, presents an urban path to extend “Marseilles 2013″ European Capital of Culture throughout the entire city. A total of 13 key-districts will be connected by the path and interspersed with urban pavilions, each focused on a famous artist from Marseilles. Each unit will offer a certain perspective of Marseilles, and will offer tourists a new way to discover our city and its emblematic districts. More images and architects’ description after the break.
La Grange de Mon Père / MJ Architectes
Architects: MJ Architectes
Location: Marseille, France
Architects: Marielle Camoin, Jonathan Inzerillo
Restructuration: 35 sqm
Extension: 63 sqm
Year: 2012
Photographs: Michael Jan
Masterplan for Marseille’s Vieux Port / Foster + Partners
One of the greatest Mediterranean Ports is about to be transformed. Work has begun on the Old Port of Marseille as part of a series of regeneration projects to be completed in time for the city’s inauguration as European Capital of Culture in 2013. Based on French landscape architect Michel Desvigne’s and London-based architects Foster + Partners’ competition-winning master plan, the project will reclaim the quaysides as a civic space, creating new informal venues for performances and events, while traffic is relocating traffic to a safe, semi-pedestrianised public realm.
Lord Foster stated, “I know the harbor at Marseille well and it is a truly grand space. This project is a great opportunity to enhance it using very simple means, to improve it with small, discreet pavilions for events, for markets, for special occasions. Our approach has been to work with the climate, to create shade, but at the same time to respect the space of the harbor – just making it better.”
Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse damaged by Fire
Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse has been severely damaged fire. The nine-story “vertical village” in Marseille, France became a historic monument in 1995 and serves as one of the most important postwar landmarks of modernist architecture.
The fire began Thursday afternoon in a first floor duplex. Firefighters fought over 12 hours to tame the blaze and were able to bring it under control earlier this morning. Many reports state at least eight to eleven homes were destroyed and twenty to thirty were damaged by smoke. All residents were evacuated late on Thursday. Thankfully, no one was critically injured and only five people were treaded in the hospital for minor injuries.
Le Corbusier built the social housing complex between 1947 and 1951. About 1,600 people live it its 334 famous duplex apartments. Some residents have resided in the complex since its inauguration. Many of the inhabitants include middle-class teachers and architects.
It remains unclear on how the fire was started.
Find more information on Unite d’ Habitation here on ArchDaily.
Reference: Le Huffington Post, The Guardian
Netcenter / François Leclercq and Zakarian-Navelet Architectes
Architects: François Leclercq and Zakarian-Navelet Architectes
Location: Marseille, France
Project team: Romain Dufour, Olivier Navelet, François Leclercq, Stanislas Zakarian
Engineer: Sotec ingénierie
Project year: 2008
Project area: 5,000 sqm
Photographer: Céline Michelon
