The villa Méditerranée < > the Docks

From the J4, "Marseille's new cultural centre" to the Place de La Joliette, at the heart of the new Euroméditerranée business centre, this tour provides an understanding of the difficulties of opening the commercial port up to the city, and the solutions that were implemented.e



villa Méditerranée < > les docks Villa méditerannéee la station sanitaire aménagement de la place de la Major l'évéché Villa d'Este siège de la SNCM le J1 Les docks de la Joliette
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The La Joliette Docks

Marseille's Industrial Port as the Basis of a New Commercial and Touristic District

This imposing complex is the starting point of the Euroméditerranée business district project, which is nearing completion. The Docks form a succession of five large building linked to one another, which were former warehouses for merchandise brought in by the Port's ships. They were built between 1858 and 1863 and designed by Gustave Desplaces, who drew inspiration from the English docks model, at the time the world standard for commercial and industrial activity. In 1991, a renovation project began, and the warehouses were converted to offices. Eric Castaldi's vision was to preserve the brick arches, widening the windows, replacing parts of the roof with skylights, thus creating atriums, and splitting the complex along its length with an interior street. The objective was to preserve the historical buildings' soul and aesthetic integrity while giving them a new mandate. A more recent renovation of the ground floor, the work of 5+1AA architectes, opened the building onto the new, port-side, Avenue de la Méditerranée, facilitating the circulation of pedestrians and highlighting the ground-floor retail spaces.
Architect :
Eric Castaldi (réhabilitation)
Year : 2003
Type : office, shops
Address:
10 place de la Joliette, 13002 Marseille
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