On the eve of the 8th edition of the National Days of Architecture, the Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak inaugurated this Thursday, October 12, 2023 the Mediterranean Institute of the City and Territories (IMVT), a unique training place in Europe for future professionals in architecture, landscape and urban planning. The Minister also took part in a working session with all regional architecture stakeholders, gathered around the update of the national architecture strategy.
The result of a partnership between the State, the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, the Departmental Council of Bouches-du-Rhône, the Aix-Marseille-Provence Metropolis and the City of Marseille, IMVT brings together 3 higher education institutions: the Ecole nationale supérieure d'architecture de Marseille (ENSA•M), the École nationale supérieure de paysage de Versailles-Marseille (ENSP-VM) and Aix-Marseille University (AMU) through its Institute of Urban Planning and Regional Planning IUAR).
Multidisciplinarity is at the heart of this new teaching and research hub project, to enable these three institutions to develop interdisciplinary pedagogies and collaborate on research projects while maintaining their autonomy. The IMVT also aims to become a center of expertise and dissemination in the fields of urban planning, landscape and architecture, particularly on Mediterranean issues.
The Ministry of Culture has financed up to 27M € this project on a total budget of 48M € and delegated the project management to the Operator of heritage and real estate projects of Culture (OPPIC). The building, designed as an architecture opening largely to the city, was designed by a project management team composed of architectural firms (NP2F Architectes, Marion Bernard, Point Suprême, Odile Seyler/ Jacques Lucan) and landscapers (Atelier Roberta).
The Minister underlines the interest of the educational and scientific cooperation that IMVT shares with all its partners, particularly local. Participating in the development of its territory by its proximity to the various elected and professional actors, IMVT has also been thought to find a Mediterranean anchor. Its downtown location in a neighbourhood in full renewal allows the 1,300 students to be in touch with the reality of urban, social and environmental issues.
Rima Abdul Malak welcomes the involvement of all the partner communities and thanks all the actors who made this project possible. During the inauguration, she wanted to pay tribute to the architect Jacques Lucan, professor at the ENSA of Paris-Belleville and Paris-Est, who died on October 8, 2023, a member of the IMVT design team, a project to which he was particularly attached. He wrote, “The perception of IMVT is not that of a compact, self-contained whole that protects itself from the gaze of others. The perception of IMVT is that of an openwork ensemble, which wants openness, which reveals the diversity of its uses, which lets the interior breathe outwards, which resolutely opens to the city to receive all the echoes.”