A form composed by the superposition of three figures: a rectangular base that is implanted on the entire plot, an intermediate U-shaped body facing the sea, a crown of two floors that develops around a courtyard. This tripartite volume is a compact parallelepiped with a face dug by a large opening towards the sea.

This morphology offers several advantages.

First of all, for each program it sets up the best operating conditions. On the ground, the wide base makes it possible to make coexist the businesses, the school, the space of La Méridionale as well as the independent entrance of the offices.

The U-shaped volume maximizes the sea views and offers offices of variable thickness, with the aim of offering tenants all possible configurations. The last two floors, headquarters of La Méridionale, have an exceptional character where all the spaces benefit from a lighting on the first day including the circulations. The volume also allows passive solar protection, natural. Office floors protected by the coronation can look out over the sea without having to obscure the views. The volume is finally evocative of a universe related to travel. Like a semicircle, it recalls the figure of the ancient amphitheatres of the Mediterranean basin. With the play of lights, it evokes a sundial where the light indicates the time it is, the time that passes.

The bias of having a compact architecture led us to the emergence of an immaterial object, changing, with an architecture made of lightness, glazing and finely screened aluminum. The game of this architecture consists in blurring the tangible limits of the building by making superfluous the reading of a solid volume, in a poetics of the blur and the evanescence.

The project is therefore defined through reflection, shadow and light, following two devices corresponding to two facade systems.

The first facade is in brushed aluminum. In addition to its very good reflection in the light, aluminum was appreciated for its durability and its ability to resist the corrosions of salt and mistral by the sea. The second system of facade is that of the urban window. It is a screen-printed glass façade that combines a graphic work with the thermal requirements to sublimate this window in a sensual play with light.

Client: Grand Port Maritime de Marseille / Budget: € 21,2M excl. VAT / Surface: 7000 m² / Team: LAN (Lead architect), AT Architectes (Associate architect), ATEVE (Roads and other networks), IGB (Structure), PhD Ingénierie (Economy), Espace temps (Fluid)