1.0844/45 - King of Spain
La Pointe Rouge, 8th arrondissement, south of Marseille
Literature references: 20th century heritage, domestic architecture
X edition directory no. 0844 & 0845, p. 17. 2005
Label Patrimoine du XXe siècle, 2006
Conception & writing T. Durousseau arch. 2007
designation: Parc du Roy in Spain
Velasquez Boulevard, Albeniz Lane, Granados Lane, La Pointe Rouge 13008
Lambert 3: latitude 3.05059; longitude 43.2412
Access: metro no. 2 - Prado roundabout
bus no. 44: Prado roundabout - Floralia, bus no. 23: Prado roundabout - Beauvallon
Owner: Syndicates of co-owners, federation chaired by Mr. Yves Mathis, Bât. Biscaye, 92 allée Granados, 13009
Trustees: Urbania Sagec: 04 91 13 36 00, Foncia Sagi: 04 91 15 15 15 15
program: Neighbourhood unit, housing group with shops, schools, business sector.
Client: Société provençale de la Construction Immobilière - SCIC and Société Civile Immobilière de Mazargues.
Program 1,525 units in three units, 1st and 2nd units 836 units, 3rd unit 689 units. PM: 60 villas. Integrated school, commercial, sports and cultural facilities.
dates, authors: Tranche 1 & 2: Initial P.C. 1959. Certificate of Conformity: 1968. Tranche 3: 1974.
Guillaume Gillet, Louis Olmeta, C. Lestrade, A. Figarella, architects.
BET SCET, Betérem. General enterprise, Société Auxiliary d'Entreprise.
site: At the foot of the northern slope of the Marseilleveyre massif, Musso and Roy d'Espagne, inscribed site of the creeks on November 24, 1959. Altitude between 24.00 and 80.00 m. Initial land 30 ha. Sector G: Residential area in discontinuous order and Rural area outside the agglomeration perimeter of the Master Town Planning Plan of 1949.
mass plane: Initially, large plan of composition. Slices 1 & 2: blocks grouped around patios R+2 to R+4. 60 villas in the pine forest. Third tranche 10 laps spread over 1 km.
Grading from R+17.
frame: Constructions on refends from 2.65 to 3.40O.C. maximum. Facades vary according to type, good performance. Good general condition.
sources: AD: 2071 W 15 (45.710), 165 W 890-892
Prado Magazine No. 7, 1971
Technique & Architecture: 24° series no. 1- 1963, no. 5-1964, 25° series no. 3, 1965
Architecture Guide, Marseille, 1945-1993 : M.H. Biget, J. Sbriglio, Parentheses, 1993
Background:
The Marseilleveyre massif that separates the city from the calanques has prompted various projects, starting with that of Gaston Castel, a first project in the perspective of the Porte d'Aix - Obelisk of Mazargues, then Le Corbusier, which distributes 23 housing units for 50,000 inhabitants along a ring road. This is where the SCIC will establish a neighbourhood unit, the most elaborate form of housing projects, whose characteristic is to combine public and private services, tertiary activities and housing. For this, the Prix de Rome, Guillaume Gillet, already commissioned on the ZUP n° 1, will realize a grandiose composition by the occupation of the piedmonts of Marseilleveyre and the creation of a high city in the hills. The project is widely published and the Calanques site will be protected from 1959.
Description:
The grounds of the King of Spain and the Musso countryside are vast pine forests. This little urban setting will direct the project towards the model of garden cities yet so criticized by the charter of Athens. To be precise, this is a more northern model, the one that Alvar Aalto described in the 1930s as the "forest town" by introducing the idea of a scattered and discontinuous city that extends towards the countryside, the air, the light and the nature. It is the model of the new city of Tapiola, garden city at the gates of Helsinky begun in 1950, a travel place of all the French designers of the moment, and which will become one of the models of the new Parisian cities.
The first slices of the King of Spain will be made in the wooded hills whose open spaces in glades contain small groups isolated from each other. Small groups of small scale, about ten clusters of 3 to 7 blocks of 2 to 3 floors assembled at angles, and at different levels to cope with the topography. The layout is attentive to the exhibition, with a methodical disposition not to destroy the vegetation on the ground. The result is a scattered mass plan that reminds us of the video games of the first hour all in pixels associated by the tip. The facades that seek to break the alignments and the workings are also pixelated. Architecturally, the quality of these small blocks, organized in half levels, is to open the ground floor largely by porticos forming continuous galleries, very bright under the groups of buildings organized around open patios. These models of villas will be recognized by the hand of L. Olmeta, associated with G. Gillet, whose previous projects announce similar organizations.
These first tranches have of course their school groups and their small shopping center close to three towers, but the main part is made up of this proliferating fabric of blocks rather low. One of the extensions will even be a group of isolated pavilions, not fenced, organized on patios half open and whose good quality has not changed over time.
Things will be more ordinary if G. Gillet had to revise the height of the project built in the Marseilleveyre massif: the lower part was centered on a 100m tower, from the same family as those he had planned on the ZUP n°1. This tower of the 4th slice will not be done, and the density will be transferred to the 3rd slice. A first study of 9 towers spread over 1km long, between the ring road R2 and the first foothills of the hill made up of rock masses will be carried out.
The towers form three detached elements gravitating around a central core in which are grouped vertical communications. The objective of this distribution is to give the best conditions of views on the harbour while allowing double and triple orientations. The project also published but whose building permit was refused in 1966.
The final project avoids uniform heights by a degressive spreading towards the West and proposes an organ pipe composition that harmonizes with the busy lines of the Marseilleveyre massif.
The series of towers will be built on the basis of buildings that try to form various profiles by arranging apartments combined differently. The variations remain small, but the towers at the foot of the hills remind us of previous projects.
Surprisingly, it is not for the heroism of its composition that the district is recognized today but for these small collectives heirs of the "forest town" whose organization has allowed to maintain the wooded area of the pine forest. It is now a popular address for retired architects!
Authors:
Guillaume Gillet (1912-1987),
Prize of Rome in 1946, realized The Cathedral of Royan and the French pavilion of the Expo of Brussels in 1958.
At MarseiIle, he is the author of the overall plan for ZUP #1. He was also the architect of the Ministry of Justice with the École nationale de la Magistrature de Bordeaux, the detention centres of Fleury-Mérogis in 1969 and Fresnes in 1970.
Louis Olmeta,
born in 1906, student of Paul Tournon, carries out various experimental operations (Le Canet, La Pomme, 1950). He was associated with G. Candilis for the Viste program in 1964.
Associated files:
- Map of the 8th district of Marseille
- Documented Monograph Record
© Thierry Durousseau, 2004-2005
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