Water Plaza

Water Plaza
Water Plaza

Video: Water Plaza

Video: Water Plaza
Video: PLAZA - Water (Official Audio) 2024, March
Anonim

In 2013, Marseille takes on the role of the European Capital of Culture, and by this date a series of new public and cultural sites have appeared in the city's harbor. We have already written about the Norman Foster Pavilion, the main event remains ahead - the opening of the Museum of Civilizations of Europe and the Mediterranean (MUCEM) by Rudy Ricciotti, and the Villa Méditerranée center, located next to it, was inaugurated this month.

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This building is designed to host a variety of conferences and conventions, as well as exhibitions. All of them are dedicated to the Mediterranean as a community, where the sea since ancient times unites different continents, countries and peoples, its ancient cultures and modern problems and development prospects. The dual program - congresses and exhibitions - was expressed in the two-part structure of the building. The auditorium and accompanying rooms are located in the underground part with an area of 2500 m2, and the galleries (1500 m2) - in a 36-meter cantilever extension.

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Formally, they are united by an atrium, but the semantic connection is carried out by a small basin connected with the sea. This "water plaza" is located under the exhibition hall and above the underground tier, in its bottom there are glazed openings to illuminate the conference center, and on the lower surface of the console there are also windows looking out onto the water. This body of water can be used as a swimming pool, dock for small boats and even for fishing. This is not superfluous, despite the proximity of "real water" (Villa Méditerranée is located at the base of Cape Tourette): here Boeri offers the townspeople this element in a more intimate and "habitable" version.

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The console above the water reminds of harbor cranes and other industrial structures: for an architect, this is far from a new theme and motive; suffice it to recall his complex on the island of Maddalena near Sardinia. Here, the outrigger is supported by 4 trusses, which are stabilized by heavy concrete panels of the sea and urban facades, the surface of which is cut only by narrow strips of windows. But the end walls are fully glazed, providing, along with the openings in the roof, interior lighting.

N. F.

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