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Marseille, France

Lead architect: TAUTEM Architecture 

Associate architect: BMC2 Architectes
Client: Euroméditerranée 

Owner: Ville de Marseille

Project team: BEST Portefaix (Structure), Elithis (M&E Engineer), Even Conseil (Environmental consultants), Gui Jourdan (Acoustics), Seri (External Works), Ekos (soil decontamination), Alpha I Eco (Scheduling, Piloting & Coordinating), Dicobat (Economist) 
Landscape Architects: TAUTEM Architecture

Design team: TAUTEM: Adrian Garcin, Dominique Delord, Corentin Seyfried, Florence Rommel, BMC2: Eric Hardy, Arnaud Bical

Photographer: Luc Boegly

Project Description: Housing 22 classrooms, this mineral monolith features strict geometry and spectacular volumes. 

Its light-colored concrete façades are sculpted, and the openwork of this thickness forms a colonnade on the port side and a grand staircase on the city side, creating the interplay of light and shadow in its embrasures. 

In contrast to the building’s envelope, the interiors are warm and comfortable thanks to the use of color and wood.

The monumentality is the condition guaranteeing its existence in this dense and high-rise district. The number of architectural and technical components is limited to guarantee simplicity and longevity and to ensure easy maintenance. 

Built with “low carbon,” light-colored concrete, the building was poured in place and without joints. The painstaking work of the “skin” has produced alternating parts of coquina and smooth, mat, and shiny surfaces and an interplay of light and shadow in the embrasures.