Location: Marseille, France.

Architect: Studio Fuksas.

The Euromed Center is a part of the Euroméditerranée urban project, which aims to renew Marseille’s commercial and industrial harbor. The project involves various international architecture competitions, and in 2006, architects Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas won the competition for the Euromed Center. The center provides an urban mix of office buildings, a hotel, a pedestrian street with shops and services, a public green area, and a cinema complex. The whole project, led by Studio Fuksas, involved consultancy services with various practices. The Golden Tulip hotel has a façade facing the Mediterranean Square and consists of a volume originating at the base of the tower, providing a base for the office building. The office building consists of two elements: the tower and the bar building. The Jardin d’Arenc is equipped with the capacity to welcome pedestrians and city users in arrival for events of interest. The environmental quality is integrated into the design of the structures and their skin. The façades of the office and hotel buildings are treated with solar protection and acoustic protection systems. The Multiplex participates with its sculptural cover to give the architectural ensemble a strong visual presence in the redesigned urban landscape. The entire complex seems to be participating in this desire for a city in motion, always “in progress”. The interior spaces are equally dynamic with the striking design of the public and private spaces. The project aims to contribute to the architectures that constitute the city and have always nourished and enriched it, with urban mixity and architectural variations. Beyond reality and constraints, the project seeks to endow it with a poetic dimension.

Photo credit: Roland Halbe.