With its ‘‘Port of Empire’’ status, Marseille has been a major commercial center in the Mediterranean Sea since 6th century. The city has lost contact with the seafront over time, as more industrial piers were constructed. The last two decades have seen a slow retreat of maritime trade from the old port, and Marseille has begun to re-colonize the water edge with cultural and commercial buildings. The largest of these projects is Les Terrasses du Port, a shopping centre constructed above the port facilities for the ferries.

Project Details +

Project Details

LOCATION: Les Terrasses du Port, Marseille

CLIENT: Hammerson

DATE: 2015–2018

STATUS: Concept Design

SIZE: 95,000m² (40,000m² leisure, 9,000m² port facilities and 23,000m² public realm)

Credits +

Credits

ACME: Lizy Huyghe, Jon Iriondo Goena, Kevin Leung Friedrich Ludewig, Eleni Meladaki, Jan Saggau, Boni Yuen

With its ‘‘Port of Empire’’ status, Marseille has been a major harbour in the Mediterranean Sea since the 6th century. Since the 19th century, the city has increasingly lost contact with the seafront, as ever newer and larger industrial piers and warehouses were constructed along the seafront. The advent of container traffic over the last 40 years has made these piers and warehouses increasingly redundant, and Marseille has begun to re-colonise the water edge with cultural and commercial buildings. The largest of these projects is Les Terrasses du Port, a shopping centre constructed above the ferry port facilities.

The extension of the scheme seeks to transform it from an inward looking project into an urban, mixed-use destination connected to the adjacent public squares of the city and continues them to the edge of the port. The external façade of the building is created by a series of steel scales providing visual articulation and interest towards the inner city motorway. Uses include a casino, leisure, restaurants and cafés with a rooftop park that allows citizens to spend time again at the water’s edge watching the ferries arrive and depart.

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