Marseilles is connected to its sea, the Mediterranean, through an axis that connects north to south there where its harbour turns towards east and looks west.
To the west, the horizon and many other that are created during the day according to the parabolic trajectory of the sun that accompanies us until sunset. The harbour, with the characteristic profiles of its port infrastructures, concentrates to the west its most emblematic structures, of which J1 is one of the last extraordinary examples.
The project is a continuous research for dialogue with the light that turns towards the horizon, penetrating between J1’s structure and the suspended volume of the underwater space. J1’s horizon is that of the sea merging with the sky and of the sky merging with the sea. Feel it, discover it, experience it at different levels, through different worlds, from the city to the harbour and from the harbour to the sea; these are the feelings that guide all the phases of our project, always looking for this suspension between water and air or between sea and sky, in an always clear relationship between the value of heritage, of the « existing », of J1, the public space, the harbour, the exploration space and the underwater one.
Finally, this project minimizes the amount of ground occupied by the building. The new project is partly conceived as a “underwater” volume, with more intimate spaces destined to discovery and contemplation. And then, a suspended space destined to a more collective dimension, always exploring the horizon and the city. In the middle, the empty, transparent and permeable space brings continuity with the public space of the city.

• PROJECT VIDEOS:
> J1 L’odyssée. Naissance d’une cité subaquatique