1.0101 - The Building - Canebière
Canebière, Belsunce, 1st arrondissement
Literature references: 20th century heritage, domestic architecture
n° répertoire édition X: 0101, p 4. 2005
Heritage label of the 20th century, 2000
Conception & writing T. Durousseau arch. 2007
designation: Building Canebière
73-75 La Canebière, Belsunce district. 13001
Lambert 3: latitude 3.04346; longitude 43.2974
Access: metro no. 1: Noailles
Owner: Syndicate of co-owners: Accord Compagnie Immobilier, 3 cours Joseph Thierry, 04 91 08 08 85
program: Set of 18,000m2, with offices, shops and group of dwellings. Car park.
Contracting authority: S. A. de l'Étang de Berre et de la Méditerranée (Technical Director: Galibert, arch.).
Set of 2 Canebière and Thubaneau buildings. Proximity to central facilities.
dates, authors: Studies from 1947, Completion of works 1952.
F. Bart, P. Borel, R. Egger, J. Estienne, L. Pierre, F. Pouillon, J.-L. Sourdeau, architects.
Company: S. A. de l'Étang de Berre et de la Méditerranée, builders.
site: Opposite the old Hotel Noailles on the edge of the Belsunce district. Grounds of the old New Galleries burned down in 1938. Altitude between 10.45 and 9.50 m. Central sector (Housing A) of the Master Urban Planning of 1949.
mass plane: Occupation of a plot with two buildings linked together. Volume determined by the rules of construction. Horseshoe court.
Spreading: R+10 on Canebière, bleachers on Thubaneau street.
frame: Concrete structure post/slab, concrete facades with vertical blades. On the ground floor covered gallery assigned to shops. Good general condition.
sources: AD: 2071 W 5 (17.617), 165 W 21, 65, 65 J 3, 330, 337, 504; 101 J 324, AM: 832 W 5
F. Pouillon, Electa Moniteur, 1986, Imbernon, 2001
R. Egger, European Publications, 2001
Architecture Guide, Marseille, 1945-1993 : M. H. Biget, J. Sbriglio, Parentheses, 1993
Background:
On October 28, 1938, the fire of the New Galleries located in front of the Hotel de Noailles where took place the radical congress in the presence of the President of the Republic Edouard Herriot, highlights the negligence of urban services from hospitals to firefighters. A total of 73 victims were put under guardianship in 1939, which was not lifted until the Liberation. The reconstruction of the building will contribute to the renewal of Marseille, the ruins of 1944 blurring those of 1938. Also the building will be relatively well received.
One can understand that several names of architects appear on the cartouches of the 1947 documents. J.- L. Sourdeau, co-signatory, is president of the Order of Architects, and F. Bart is an esteemed colleague.
Perhaps Fernand Pouillon, 30 years old, graduated in 1942, a young communist architect under the Christofol town hall, and associated with René Egger, is considered inexperienced, despite the benevolence of A. Perret.
Description:
In fact the case will prove to be complicated: part on an office program, inducing the parking lot, one ultimately finds a building urban haussmannant that floor of shops with mezzanines, offices and housing.
The plot being crossing, one builds to the alignment which gives a profile on the Canebière to what is opposed a prospect in steps on the street Thubaneau from where, on this North face, a plan in front-body whose wings are regularly staggered in the manner of Henri Sauvage. In this way, the northern building is getting closer to that of the Canebière, so they will be connected to each other by a central body where the vertical circulations are located. This central body clears two courses east and west. The particularity of these courses is to marry the form of a horseshoe, reduction of the Berlin Britz Siedlung of B. Taut and M. Wagner in 1922. Due to the thickness of the building, the courtyard allows to cross the island and access the stairwells and elevators.
The curved layout of the main gallery connects Vincent Scotto Street to the Canebière. Its height, more than 7 metres, gives it an urban character. It had to operate with offices and shops, invaded by employees at fixed time, the dominant residential will make a space a little deserted. The shops will close, replaced by others less well known to finally be occupied by a police station... The gallery, even in this state of decay, evokes the idea of a world building, a modern universe evoking American buildings. We could almost run into American detective Lemmy Caution.
In this universe modeled by curvatures and profiles, the architecture of the facades, considered here as walls, refers to the modular principle in the "building" sense of the term: that is, as a substitute for the curtain wall developed in the United States during the war. Everything here joins the grid of the facade with glass pane, except that the fishnet is concrete. We don’t know who from F. Pouillon or R. Egger - the latter being very American - will develop these vertical concrete blades placed every metre. However, the idea of a hanging fishnet framing glass surfaces is that of the "wallcurtain". The two architects will happily reuse the device: R. Egger for the high school housing Marcel Pagnol and F. Pouillon on its Parisian operations, the attic of Pantin, the top floors of Buffalo, the Point du Jour etc...
From the noble facade, the one overlooking the Canebière, we can say that "the least of the difficulties will have been to install apartments behind a facade woven of offices, the one that will house the premises of the architects, here we find the opportune way of the authors" (Jacques Sbriglio).
The facade follows the alignment of the plot with the public space, in a continuous curve, it reflects the staging of the various programs. The ground floor interspersed with shops is both autonomous by the use of glass pavers and dependent by the various urban aplombs. The houses repeat their concrete braces dimensioned to the finest of 7 cm, tapered but fragile. Only withdrawals from the urban profile interrupt this texture.
But the most unusual situation remains that of the offices on the first floors where the question of the curtain wall is manifest. On two floors, the concrete slats are replaced by a series of riveted metal ribs and bands celebrating a maritime and artisanal craftsmanship of the material. Thus the curtain wall is represented on the facade, designating the liberal activities of the architects' workshop.
These devices are found on several Marseilles buildings of reconstruction as for the post office of Rome of Charles Lestrade where one finds a double floor appearing a curtain wall.
Authors:
Jean-Louis Sourdeau (1889 - 1976),
After graduating in 1922, he moved to Marseille the same year.
Author of the church of Saint Louis in 1935, president of the Order of Architects after the war, he is co-signatory of the Cité Radieuse in 1947, of the Petit Séminaire in 1959.
Fernand Pouillon (1912 - 1986),
1929-1936, School of Fine Arts,
1942, diploma, works for E. Beaudouin in Marseille,
1944 -1953, association with R. Egger,
1949-1953, reconstruction of the Port,
1953 -1961, chief architect in Algiers,
1961, conviction following the CNL case,
1965-1984, works in Algeria.
Associated files:
- Map of the 1st district of Marseille
- Documented Monograph Record
© Thierry Durousseau, 2004-2005
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