If the investigations on architecture of the second twentieth century are now about ten years old, this heritage remains largely less recognized by the edility and the public, hence the interest of the censuses and monographs proposed here. Logically, after the census phase, which delimited the corpus of ensembles and residencies in Marseilles in its extension, the aim was to reduce their contours in order to develop a greater understanding, formalized by the monograph sheets. By definition, they reflect only one object of the corpus, but all the monographs thus constitute a collection covering a series of similar objects allowing the construction of typologies, classifications and comparisons.
1.0926 - Château Sec
Mazargues, 9th, south of Belsunce Michelet axis
Literature references: 20th century heritage, domestic architecture
X edition directory number: 0926, p 19. 2005
Label Patrimoine du XXe siècle, 2006
Conception & writing T. Durousseau arch. 2007
designation: Château Sec Residence
51, chemin Joseph Ayguier, traverse de la Gaye, quartier de Mazargues, 13009
Lambert 3: latitude 3.07244; longitude 43.2553
Access: metro 2 Sainte-Marguerite Dromel
bus no. 46 & 48 Dromel - Rouvière and Dromel - Valmante
Owner: Syndicate of Co-owners
Trustee, Cabinet Paul Stein, 29 boulevard Paul Delpuech, 13006, 04 96 20 72 07
program: 512 housing units, garages, school, shops and social center, tennis.
dates, authors: PC: 1962. Completion of works: 1966-68.
Mario Fabre and Bernard Laville, architects.
Company, G. Laville, structural.
site: Large wooded properties in the south of the city. Terrains Boisseson and Greling , 8.3 ha. Northern hillside, altitude between 36.00 and 42.00 m. Dwellings of discontinuous order, sector E of the Master Urban Planning of 1949.
mass plane: Organized in the north-west around a slab that brings together three buildings including the R+25 tower, and three others that converge towards this R+4 point. The outdoor areas are fitted out, slab with social center.
frame: Structure concrete slab posts, refends and load-bearing walls single frame of 4,00m. Grey and white concrete facades. Very good general condition.
sources: AD: 2071 W 19 (53.396), 165 W 629, 150 J 123-131
Prado Magazine no. 2, 1966 and no. 4, 1968
Architecture Guide, Marseille, 1945-1993 : M.H. Biget, J. Sbriglio, Parentheses, 1993
Background:
There is, on the site, a previous project related to the Cité Radieuse; an authorization had already been filed in 1960 by André Wogensky on this land. He planned four identical buildings of the simplified type of the Radiant City: 14 levels, three small blocks of four floors and equipment intended to be a place of worship. The orientation followed then the references of the Radiant City, and although the repetition of the same element, the composition evokes the one that will be realized.
The land comes from two properties, two wooded countryside and surrounded by walls as was then found in the south of the city. These campaigns will be urbanized without more constraints than the theoretical alignment of the fast ways; here the crossing of the second ring road and the ring road of Jarret - R2 and R4.
The promotion of the new project was ensured by Georges Laville, builder and father of Bernard Laville, architect associated since 1961 with Mario Fabre. The cartouches do not mention an address for architects who had to work in the offices of the Laville company.
Description:
With more than 500 units, the program will be equipped with an elementary school on the church square, a few shops and a social centre with a meeting room and library. The architects seek to avoid the model of the dormitory city, and respond to it with exterior fittings and equipment, but above all by the architectural design of the project.
The composition differs from the previous project first by a strong variation in the spreading of buildings from R+4 to R+25. The buildings arranged in windmill wings, build a propeller ending at the top of the tower. Another care taken to the space, the slab brings together three of the six buildings and stages the tower on a sort of podium, closing the perspective from the main entrance. The mass plan revolves around volumes so adjusted that we can say that the realization resembles its model.
Each volume is a building of unique nature and very distinct typology. The architectural variety is undoubtedly the focus of the project.
Only one building remains of common design: that of the main entrance. It assembles blocks with central staircase distributing two apartments through each floor, only a loggia crowns the top floor.
Two other buildings are distributed by passageway, which is unusual for this type of residence. The passageway is offset by 0.50 m in height from the private areas in order to give them some privacy of the apartments.
The H-tower with a central distribution is similar to those drawn in the Devin branch (Saint-Nicolas, Frais Vallon) with vertical slits that point to its slenderness. But the twin shape of the vertical bands, of the gables, which are not very open, evokes of course the Parliament tower of the Three Powers Square that O. Niemeyer realized in 1958 in Brasilia.
The second tower is much more cubic, it contrasts its horizontal perimeter balconies with the tower’s vertical ones. The balconies are supported by solid concrete brackets, forming a model straight out of the Japanese architecture of the time dominated by K. Tange or K. Mayekawa.
This strong difference between the types of distribution has undoubtedly been favoured by the realization in successive stages of work, but we are far from mass plans that distribute identical constructions in space.
The structure is also the common denominator of the operation drawn on the same structural framework of 4.00 m between axis which can function both as a module or as a standardised design of the building giving a demonstrative role to the Residence Château Sec.
Visually, the architectural unity is given by the white and grey bichrome which underlines all the graphic care given to the volumes by a system of division common to the various constructions.
The residence was originally designed to be a secondary centre serving as a relay for the surrounding diffuse dwellings, this will not take place and the residence will be removed from this type of open space leaving the dwelling group at the rank of object.
Authors:
Mario Fabre,
born in 1933 graduated in 1960, he joined Bernard Laville in 1961. They built several report buildings under the guidance of Georges Laville, builder. The Thalassa Gardens or La Réserve (1970) are the most "French Riviera" buildings of this production.
Bernard Laville,
born in 1928, trained in the N. Lemaresquier workshop and graduated in 1960. Initially associated with Mario Fabre, he will continue the production of high-end buildings with Berger Park or the Grand Pavois with Guillaume Gillet.
Associated files:
- Map of the 9th district of Marseille
- Documented Monograph Record
© Thierry Durousseau, 2004-2005