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.
24.1114 - Air Bel
the 11th arrondissement, east of Marseille, along the Huveaune
Literature references: 20th century heritage, domestic architecture
X edition directory number: 1114, p 27. 2005
Conception & writing T. Durousseau arch. 2007
designation: Air Bel Group
avenue Jean Lombard and chemin de la Parette, quartier de la Pomme 13011
Lambert 3: lat.3. 09029; long. 43.2919
Access: metro 1: La Rose - La Timone
bus no. 12: metro La Timone - Eoures, bus no. 40: metro La Timone - Gare d'Aubagne, bus no. 91: metro La Timone - Les Caillols
Owner: Four HLM organizations, collective structure in situ
program: Housing group of 1199 housing units.
Project owners:
SA Nouvelle d'HLM de Marseille Pilote, 321 homes,
SA HLM Logirem, 306 dwellings,
SA Phocéenne d'Habitation, 283 dwellings,
SA HLM Provence Logis, 289 units.
Set of buildings, shopping center, social facilities, schools, sports and associations.
dates, authors: Building Permits: 1968. Completion of works: 1971 to 73. Compliance: 1976.
Pierre Liogier, Robert Theric and Maurice Adrey, architects.
Design office, Foulquier.
Atmosphere, Bernard Lassus.
Landscape, Georges Lefevre.
Sociology, François Bray.
Financing, HLMO.
site: On a shoulder northwest of the village of La Pomme, on the edge of the Plateau la Fourragère. Land sloping towards the south and west, altitude difference between 80.00 and 37.00 m, land of 18 ha. Residential area E and G on the Master Urban Plan of 1949.
mass plane: Plan combining towers and proliferating fabric with octagonal mesh, leaving a large central green flow. At the foot of slope, layers of equipment. Spreading between R+4, R+10 and R+15.
frame: Low buildings in bars articulated by external cages with change of direction, vertical towers, profiled acrotères. All concrete constructions, tunnels. Good general condition.
sources: AD: 2071 W 38 (94.950)
Prado Magazine no. 1, 1965, no. 2, 1968, no. 4, 1968
Journal Architecture d'Aujourd'hui n° 124, 1966
Background:
Villa Air Bel in Marseille is known worldwide for having welcomed in 1941 the European Surrealists fleeing the police of the German Reich. Among others, André Breton, Max Ernst, Victor Brauner, Marcel Duchamp, Wilfredo Lam, René Char, Hans Bellmer, Benjamin Perret, Arthur Adamov.
Varian Fry, in charge of the artists' passage to the United States, gives a description of the villa: "I was delighted with the house. From the cellar to the ceiling, it was solid 19th century". Living room, dining room, bathroom, kitchen, library and several bedrooms, it will be renamed by its inhabitants the Chateau Espère Visa. Planners and sociologists will not be aware of this prestigious episode of the Villa.
The land on the north bank of the main bed of Huveaune was intended for a ZUP no. 2 studied by A. Chrysochéris, who did not live to see the light of day; the Air Bel project, called Opération Vallée de L'Huveaune, remains. With 1,200 housing units, four low-income housing companies, the special feature of the program is that it has been planned by a broad multidisciplinary team, with the contribution of a sociological reflection on the functions and spaces of use by the Alogec group and sociologist François Bray. The urban sociology approach sought to better design the new urban and architectural complexes to avoid the dissatisfaction of the inhabitants.
Programming goes beyond simple recommendations to allocate surfaces to specific functions. In general, the study advocated integrating housing into the city, within a form of neighbourhood unit, such as architectural entity identifiable by its inhabitantsIt is recommended to combat the effects of noise, to divide the residential collective premises between the feet of buildings and outside premises. The facilities are primarily social, and the outdoor spaces are specialized by age groups. Finally, the preservation of the campaign aspect is recommended to the point of thinking the mall as an animation element with a rural aspect (!).
Description:
The project seems to have responded well to the urban sociology program. Air Bel forms a typological unit, with a differentiation of scale of octagonal or rectangular squares, spaces of integration of housing to the city. The plan distinguishes, at the foot of the slope, a form of centrality with the presence of towers, connected to a tablecloth of communal facilities and shops. On both sides, a pattern of continuous and reticulated tissue determines a series of smaller squares, bordered by buildings of four to five floors. To the east, the plan is clearly organized around two closed places: an octagonal and the other rectangular. To the west, where the slope is steeper, a more modest octagonal pattern appears within an organization strongly marked by the slope and less legible. At the top of the slope, these two units are separated by a free space of construction little arranged, sort of little prepared countryside.
Villa Air Bel remained in the arrangement, at the bottom of the green flow in direct contact with the 19-storey towers. Only a few trees allow the building to survive near schools, under the somewhat emphatic title of castle.
The share of successive atmospheres in the courses and passages is hardly appreciable. There remain traces of original intentions but the visual weight of the typologies of buildings through their repetition erases any nuance including in the decorative interventions little on the scale of such a project. Intentions still in the toponymy whose only merit is to exist, but which only refers to a simple nature of things, residential space.
Despite all the preliminary analyses, the image of a citadel dominates, by the very form of the constructions, the social character of the facilities, and the low presence of private activities. Each plot seems to have been thought of as a village urbanity, but without trade, they remain difficult parking spaces. What will be criticized for sociological programming is to rationalize the use spaces by forgetting the urban components of activity, services and residence, the private and the public. The only programming of 1200 housing units in ordinary HLMO, even with several landlords, a sociologist and a landscaper, distance from a real urban space.
The absence of these elements prevented the urban integration of Air Bel, which was already disadvantaged by the obstacle of the railway line which limits access to the housing unit. There remain some signs of residential comfort: the generous surfaces of the apartments, the widespread presence of cellars worthy of the name, finally wooden sliding shutters, still in place today, which allow a varied use of loggias according to the seasons or habits. These are sustainable elements.
Authors:
Robert Théric,
today disappeared, was born in 1927 in Marseille and obtained his diploma of architect in 1953, he carries out housing projects in Jouques, Plan-de-cuques, Fos-sur-Mer, La Ciotat and Marseille.
Pierre Liogier,
his eldest son, whose son will also be an architect, carries out projects in Marseille:
La Timone,
La Canebière,
Saint-Mauront,
The Chartreux,
Bon Secours
or the Pharo.
Partners, they carry out in Marseille:
Bon Secours 13014, low-income housing, 1962,
La Cerisaie 13013, housing project, 1963,
La Timone 13005, low-income housing, 1964,
The Pharo 13007, Hhabitation, 1969,
La Solidarité 13015, housing project, 1974.
Associated files:
- Map of the 11th district of Marseille
- Documented Monograph Record
© Thierry Durousseau, 2004-2005