Ilex Paysages & Urbanisme: St Charles station is one of Marseille’s major infrastructure facilities. Its dominant location was recently accentuated by the addition of a monumental concourse, which enhanced its scale, image and functions. The design had to take into account the numerous functional constraints that are inevitably associated with such projects. But this has not prevented the treatment of the space from remaining on the human scale. Vegetation has been reintroduced into what was a somewhat arid cityscape, providing shade for a vantage point that looks out over the city, with spaces for rest amid bubbling fountains. The project uses local limestone in a homogeneous manner, conferring sobriety, elegance and distinctiveness on a space characterized by fluidity.
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- © Eric Saillet
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- © Eric Saillet
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- © Eric Saillet
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- © Eric Saillet
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- © Eric Saillet
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- © Eric Saillet
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- © Eric Saillet
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- © Eric Saillet
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- © Eric Saillet
Landscape Architecture: Ilex Paysages & Urbanisme
Project name: Front square of St Charles Station
Project’s address: Gare SNCF de Marseille St-Charles, Esplanade St-Charles Square de Narvik 13001 Marseille FRANCE
Participating offices and function: MA Studio –lighting / Atelier Kern – Architect / Ingerop – engineering
Completion: 2009
Client : Euroméditerranée
Main materials : Limestone
Area: 1.8 ha
Photographer: Eric Saillet.
I’am living near this area. I thought the landscaping deal was a easy pedestrian connection from the railway station to the new booming business district of La joliette. The connection with the University located just opposite works with monumentality but further to the sea, it doesn’t work and the goal of the project seem to have been forgotten.