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.
1.1422 - Larousse campaign
Le Canet, southwest of the 14th arrondissement
Literature references: 20th century heritage, domestic architecture
X edition directory number: 1422, p 40. 2005
Heritage label of the 20th century, 2006
Conception & writing T. Durousseau arch. 2007
designation: Larousse campaign
boulevard Larousse, rue Edmond-Jaloux, rue du Muret, quartier du Canet 13014
Lambert 3: latitude 3.0445; longitude 43.3302
Access: bus no. 89 Canebière - Le Canet
Owner: Marseille-Habitat, Espace Colbert, 10, rue Sainte-Barbe, 13001 Marseille
Christian Gil, Director
program: 390 units, collective parking, covered garages, patio dryers. School and shopping centre. Presence of Standardized Temporary Economic Housing on site.
Contracting authority: Société Anonyme Marseillaise pour le Développement du Logement (SCIC).
dates, authors: PC: 1956. Completion of work: 1958. Compliance: 1962.
André Devin, J.-L. Sourdeau, M. Scialom, architects,
A. Arbus, Technical Advisor.
Enterprise Chauvet GO.
site: East of the Canet, an industrious village, before the road to Gibbes. Terrains Brunet, 7 ha. Northern hillside, altitude between 48.00 and 33.00 m. Residential area of discontinuous order, E of the Master Town Planning Plan of 1949.
mass plane: Organized in R+4 blocks forming courses and alignments and bars including one of R+10. The plan includes the equipment, the crossing of the Rocade. The outdoor spaces are arranged.
frame: Mixed concrete structure: slab posts, split ends and supporting walls. Facades with stone facing. Very good general condition.
sources: AD: 2071 W 9 (32.093), 165 W 78-79
Marseille Magazine no. 29, 37 and 58
Technical and Architecture 19th Series, SCIC Special No.
Background:
The Canet, a village created at the beginning of the 20th century, will develop with the industrial growth: sulphur refineries, breweries, Valabrègues and Régis oil mills on the way to Gibbes. After the war, the Huilerie Nouvelle settled there. These activities make it a working-class district and, between Le Canet and Saint-Barthélémy, the countryside becomes a place of clustering precarious housing that will be the subject of multiple programs of resorption.
In 1953, J. de Mailly gave a town plan between Saint-Gabriel and the Larousse Campaign, where J.L. Sourdeau created the first Standard Temporary Economic Housing (LEPN) in 1954. It is probably for this reason that J.L. Sourdeau appears in some publications on the operation.
The Société Centrale Immobilière de la Caisse des Dépôts was created that same year, 1954, with the aim of creating social groups that avoid the dormitory effect. Urban planners and engineers seek to program and develop a real living environment. The architects of these operations are selected for their experience in the field: André Devin will be one of them. The Campaign Larousse program is implemented by SAMDEL, an offshoot of the City and the SCIC, experienced in the integration of housing and equipment.
Description:
All 390 Larousse Campaign housing units consist of blocks limited to R+4 combining two stairwells and bars up to R+10. No tricks in this plan, because of an easement related to the hypothetical airfield of Sainte-Marthe. The plan of J. de Mailly which provided here monumental bars will not be implemented.
The mass plan is rather inclusive, involving small units in precarious housing. But the passage of the Rocade between the Madrague Ville and La Rose separates the operation in two. It will be crossed by a pedestrian walkway that was provided for at the school; but will be carried out on the western limit of the operation, which imbalance the composition. In fact, a north-south path linking the two parts of the complex ran alongside the school and led to temporary housing.
To the south, the plan consists of existing dwellings that it reframes around a school group and a shopping center by open blocks. This set, well equipped from the beginning, is made of small separate units where can develop the outdoor life proper to the south of France: planted walks, terraces or games of balls. The presence of André Arbus as Technical Advisor for the city, is undoubtedly at the origin of the good quality of the treatment of outdoor spaces: generous plantations, fountains and decorative compositions are still in place on the site.
The buildings of 3 to 5 levels, have roofs with four slopes tiles still evoking the invoice HBM (cf. the White Navy). Yet the design of the houses is of very good quality, with in particular the grouping of the kitchen and the sanitary around a loggia forming dryer, all hidden by a wall of concrete claustras.
If one evokes at the exit of the Canet a village atmosphere, the whole takes a completely different dimension on the northern part, with two bars of 4 and 11 levels. The south facade, made of concrete covered with cut stones, repeats a pattern that condenses the glass sides of the openings (living room, bedroom) and loggias alternated with spandrels. The 3rd and 11th floors have shooting balconies drawing as many attic and basement registers. One can see a kinship with the urban towers of Le Havre (A. Perret, 1956).
On the north facade, the sanitary and kitchen facilities are taken over, the use space gives a particular shape to the facade.
The lighting strip is underlined by light concrete claustras, on which the kitchen window seems to be laid without a solution of continuity.
The structure is made up of segments of supporting façades combined with a network of three rows of posts, one of which is in the middle of the 8.60 m of the building thickness and on a 3.50 m centre-line leaving a large flexibility. The partitioning is light, sometimes doubled or tripled on some separatives.
The condition of the buildings and the environment is very good, the photographs of the blocks figure prominently in the images of the heritage of the current lodger.
Author:
André Devin (1905-1983)
graduated in 1928, in the Bigot workshop. Before the war, he worked with E. Chirié and then Y. Bentz. After the war he took part in the reconstruction of the Old Port, which later built residential buildings and large hospitals in Marseille. He trained several generations of architects in his agency.
Concerning housing, we will remember:
Sulfur City Towers, 1954 (#0504),
The Pharo, 1956 (#0707),
Beausoleil Residence, 1959 (#0402),
The Saint Nicholas, 1958,
Les Cyprès (#1368) and Paul Trompette (#1369), 1968.
He will participate in the major programs of the Industrial Sector:
The Blue Navy, 1958 (#1425),
Consolat Mirabeau, 1962,
La Rouguière, 1963 (No. 1121),
and Frais Vallon, 1964 (#1318).
It is best known for some buildings in the beautiful districts such as La Palazzine de la rue Jean Mermoz (1965).
Associated files:
- Map of the 14th arrondissement of Marseille
- Printable Monograph Record
© Thierry Durousseau, 2004-2005