Marseille: Blueprint for success

Being named 2013 European Capital of Culture not only attracted the crowds to Marseille but kick-started an architectural rebirth, discovers Jenny Southan On June 9, hundreds of thousands of onlookers gathered along the waterfront of Marseille to watch as 3,000 sheep were led by a woman standing astride three black horses. They were joined by cowboys and shepherds from Italy and Provençe, many of whom had travelled hundreds of kilometres with their livestock to take part in the procession. Representing the seasonal migration of animals to new grazing grounds, Transhumance was one of hundreds of events that took place during the French port city’s year as European Capital of Culture. While hundreds of exhibitions, installations, concerts and performances filled the cultural calendar, pulling in hordes of excited tourists – five million were expected by the end of 2013 – the city also unveiled a host of cutting-edge architectural landmarks as part of Europe’s biggest urban renewal project. It was as far back as 2008 when Marseille heard that it had won its bid to be one of two Cultural Capitals in Europe for 2013 (the other was Kosice in Slovakia), and it knew it would need a dramatic facelift if it were to reposition itself as a destination city. In 2011, Foster and Partners won the bid to transform the Vieux Port (Old Port), restricting traffic and opening it up to pedestrians who could walk alongside the bobbing boats or stop for a coffee at one of the many streetside cafés. Now you will find neat wooden boathouses and jetties, and an expansive, kerb-free waterfront of pale granite leading all the way around to Fort Saint-Jean. But the highlight is Foster’s 1,000 sqm Ombrière, a giant stainless steel canopy supported by slender polished pillars, which acts as a mirror of life passing underneath – fishermen by day, tourists at sunset, fire jugglers by night. France’s second-largest city, with a population of about 800,000, Marseille has been an important Mediterranean port for centuries – as far back as 600BC, in fact, when it was known as Massalia by the Greeks who founded it. Because of its location on France’s southern coast, it has been a magnet for numerous waves of immigration – people from Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, the Middle East, Italy, Greece, Armenia and Romania. Today, almost a quarter of the population is North African, and about one in three people are Muslim. Alexandre Sorrentino, head of international relations and metropolitan projects for Marseille’s dedicated development agency, Euroméditerranée, says: “There was a time when we had a shipping line to pretty much every continent in the world. For years people arrived in Marseille because they had family here. It was like New York for the Irish, Italians and Polish. Nowadays, most immigrants are second or third generation but we are still a very traditional, colourful place because of the meeting of populations. It’s a bit different from the rest of France – we have our own slang, which is a mix of Italian, Arabic and French.” Marseille has had a bad time of it over the years, falling into decline after being bombed in the Second World War, losing its power as a key part of the French colonial empire in the 1960s, and developing a reputation for violence and poverty. Its downtrodden areas have been compared with the favelas of Rio, while unemployment in the region has dipped as low as 40 per cent among young people in recent times. Despite this, the city has been fighting hard to counter its social and economic problems with improvements to its infrastructure and public spaces, specifically around the Vieux Port and renovated docks – a move that has been increasing tourism, stimulating investment and boosting civic pride. The entrance to the old harbour is guarded by the 17th-century Fort Saint-Jean (now used as an exhibition space), which, since 2013, has been connected by walkways to the striking new MuCEM (Museum of European and Mediterranean Civilisations). These not only take visitors around the fort via its sea-facing side, but through it, and then up on to aerial footbridges – one brings you on to the roof of the museum, while the other leads 70 metres to Saint-Laurent Church in the charming hilltop Panier district on the other side of the road. La Joliette is Marseille’s second arrondissement, and the main road running through it is Boulevard du Littoral, which joins the fort to the new Joliette Docks. Once the largest industrial port in Europe, many of its warehouses have been restored, with the 19th-century Docks Marseille building now home to more than 200 companies and majority owned by JP Morgan Asset Management. One of three Urban Development Zones (the other two being Saint-Charles and Cité de la Méditerranée), at the heart of La Joliette is the magnificent new J4 Esplanade. This is home to both the Rudy Ricciotti-designed MuCEM and the equally cutting-edge Villa Méditerranée by Boeri Studio, which has a 36-metre cantilevered exhibition hall above a shimmering pool, and an underwater conference centre. The futuristic structure is a kind of inverted L-shape, with two sides made entirely of glass, reflecting the water and light all around it. The two venues opened side by side in June 2013, and the e191 million MuCEM provides a startling counterpoint to the hard edges and lines of the Villa. Occupying the site of the former J4 Pier, it is surrounded by water on three sides. The front of the rectangular structure is a gleaming wall of glass, while the rest of it is encased in an organic mashrabiya latticework shell – a twisting, asymmetric honeycomb of black concrete that nods to the architect’s North African heritage. On the roof is an open-air eatery with panoramic views of the Med. In just three months, the museum welcomed one million visitors. All this is just part of Marseille’s e7 billion Euroméditerranée project to breathe new life back into the port, which was as sad and dilapidated as London’s Docklands before it was transformed. Although work began in the mid-1990s, with a TGV line added in 2001 to provide a three-hour connection to Paris, it was 2013 that saw all the work come to fruition. “It is now much more than culture. It is about regeneration,” Sorrentino says. Other landmark projects include the 147-metre-tall CMA CGM Tower, which was designed by Zaha Hadid and provides office space for the world’s third-largest shipping company. Completed in 2011, it is in the central business district and is the only modern high-rise on the skyline. Finished in 2013 was Japanese architect Kengo Kuma’s modern art centre FRAC (Fonds Régional D’art Contemporain). Residing in La Joliette, on Rue Vincent Leblanc, the six-floor building has a “floating” chequerboard of opaque glass panels on its exterior, creating a dramatic juxtaposition to the nearby Byzantine-Roman cathedral in black and white-striped stone. Not everything has been built from scratch. In partnership with the French state, local architect Ito Morabito (aka Ora Ito) undertook a e7 million rooftop restoration of Cité Radieuse, a concrete “housing unit” designed by Le Corbusier in the early 1950s. Located on Boulevard Michelet, 4km from Vieux Port, the iconic, Brutalist structure is now a sought-after place to live and, in summer 2013, its open-air roof was opened to the public. Protected on all sides by chest-high walls, there’s a paddling pool overlooked by artists’ studios, original yellow, green and white tilework, a wooden stage offering sweeping vistas in every direction, and a quirky giant sculpture of Le Corbusier himself. From the roof of Cité Radieuse, you can spot the Stade Vélodrome – previously one of the biggest football stadiums in the country, it is undergoing a e267 million revamp ahead of the UEFA Euro 2016 championships, when it will be able to seat 67,000 spectators. According to Maxime Tissot, director of Marseille Tourism, the project will also include an exhibition park and four hotels totalling 600 rooms. New hotel inventory is something the city will welcome, but it did well in 2013, with its most significant opening being the 194-room Intercontinental Hotel Dieu in May, the city’s second five-star property (the other being a Sofitel). Set a short distance back from the Vieux Port, it occupies a former 18th-century hospital (Hotel God) and was converted at great expense (more than e100 million) over eight years. Its majestic dining terrace offers views of the harbour and the hill beyond, upon which is perched the Notre-Dame de la Garde basilica. Madelijn Vervoord, the hotel’s general manager, says: “What has been great about this year is that foreigners have discovered Marseille and locals have rediscovered it. This is only a starting point, though – there is still a lot to be done. What is important is to keep the momentum.” Jeremie Trigano, co-founder and general director of boutique hotel brand Mama Shelter, which opened a Philippe Starck-designed property in the city in 2012, adds: “Marseille’s future is to become a Mediterranean hub again, made of exchange, diversity and meetings as it used to be in antiquity.” What’s coming up next? Euroméditerranée will see a second stage of development – Euromed 2 – run all the way to 2025. Sorrentino says that by this time, Marseille will have 1 million sqm of new office space and 18,000 sqm of apartments. Another major focus is the e400 million Arenc Quays, which will comprise four buildings designed by Jean Nouvel, Yves Lion, Jean-Baptiste Pietri and Roland Carta. There will be a luxury apartment block, a mixed-use tower with a 200-room hotel, a 135-metre-tall commercial structure and a retail site due to be completed by 2015. Also slated for a couple of years’ time is the e350 million Euromed Centre, which will be the new “cultural flagship of Marseille”, made up of a 220-room, four-star Marriott hotel, a convention centre, gardens, offices and a 15-screen multiplex cinema conceived by French director Luc Besson. Designs for the space-age complex of buildings, by Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas, take inspiration from the fluid shapes and forms of dolphins. How have the locals responded to all this change? Sorrentino says: “Marseille is an ancient city so this new architecture was, for some time, a shock. Now residents are very proud. The turning point was being European Capital of Culture. It was a mark of change in perception for everyone.”