Marseille 1st - Reconstruction of the Old Port
- department: Bouches-du-Rhône
- municipality: Marseille
- naming: Reconstruction of the Old Port
- authors : André LECOMTE, Auguste PERRET, Fernand POUILLON, André DEVIN (architects)
- date: 1947-1956
- protection: unprotected building
- label patrimoine XXe: Commission régionale du patrimoine et des sites (CRPS) du 20 November 2000
The demolition of the north shore of the Old Port during the Second World War was organized by the Vichy government after the evacuation of about 20,000 people in 1943, with the aim of decongesting the old city.
The Ministry of Reconstruction and Urban Planning (MRU) pre-finances and directs the work. Eugene Claudius-Petit, at his head from 1948 to 1953, decided on major changes to the projects and appointed new chief architects, with a view to novelty and economy.
A compromise between modernity and tradition, the master plan takes care of the site, prioritizes public spaces with a main track on the dock, coupled with a network of secondary roads and semi-private plots. The program, which included two towers under construction, was reduced after Pouillon’s appointment. The whole, homogeneous, is implanted parallel to the dock, exposed to the south. It consists of units separated by transverse axes opening the view on the vast body of water and the opposite bank. The major gap, clearing the monumental complex formed by the Town Hall and the Hotel-Dieu, is the only flow of greenery of this mineral space. The progressive grading of the roofs, alternating tiles and terraces without exceeding the crest line of the old quarter, inscribes the volumes with simplicity and highlights the surrounding monumental device, dominated by the Accoules bell tower. The Tourette Hill, on the bias, closes the site at sunset with innovative buildings where the only 14-storey tower stands in counterpoint to the vertical lines of the Saint-Laurent Church and Fort Saint-Jean. The construction of about fifteen blocks is divided between the operation teams. The Ministerial Directives are aimed at rationalization and standardization, which is limited to the height of the floor, the frame of the standard windows and carpentry elements. Stone and concrete are good together: Pouillon and Devin prefer stone, Castel and Rozan-Chirié associate it with concrete, Dunoyer de Segonzac chooses raw concrete, Crozet uses pink slab panels of washed gravel. The star construction of this harmonious ensemble is undoubtedly the masterful urban sequence of nearly 600 m framing the City Hall, made of an alignment of regular blocks in massive stone, releasing a public gallery on the ground floorand completed to the west by a building providing the transition with those of the hill. The architectural vocabulary and the integration of works by renowned sculptors should be emphasized.
- Editor: Agnès Fuzibet, architect, 2000
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