Selux

The place where the Greeks cast anchor and foun­ded their colony ​“Mas­sa­lia” 2600 years ago has become an invi­ting urban space that has recen­tly under­gone con­si­de­ra­ble reno­va­tion. Land­scape archi­tect Michel Desvi­gne toge­ther with teams from Foster + Part­ners / Tan­gram Archi­tects have com­ple­tely rede­si­gned the entire 100,000 square metre area. What had once been a quaint old port area had turned into a major traf­fic inter­sec­tion with mul­ti­ple lanes, and was cer­tainly not attrac­ting people to use the loca­tion as a lei­sure spot any more. The ring road around the har­bour has been scaled back, the dock area tran­sfor­med into a large square for pede­strian and events, and a moder­nist shel­ter from the sun that goes by the name of ​“Ombrière” added. Spen­cer de Gray, Head of Design at Foster + Part­ners in London, descri­bes the pro­jects as ​“an invi­ta­tion to the people of Mar­seille to again stage and enjoy events, mar­kets and festi­vals in this grand space”.

The lighting con­cept deve­lo­ped by Yann Ker­salé lends the space a new dimen­sion. Seven­teen 16.5 metre and eight 23.5 metre high custom desi­gned Olivio pole-top design lumi­nai­res struc­ture the space and at the same time illu­mi­nate the exten­sive pro­me­nade area right up to the water’s edge. The ultra-tall slim­line poles trig­ger asso­cia­tions with the masts on sai­ling ships. The lumi­nai­res are equip­ped with 90 Watt or 140 Watt Cosmo­po­lis lamps and arran­ged spi­rally around the upper sec­tions of the poles in dif­fe­rent sized groups. Their natu­ral, orga­nic design pro­vi­des a subtle con­trast to the geo­me­tric layout of the pede­strian square.

A major com­po­nent of Yann Kersalé’s lighting design are the 2.5 metre high “LED Skins”: ultra-flat, reflec­tive stain­less steel hou­sings with laser-cut desi­gns, and equip­ped with RGB LEDs. These clad the eight large poles in the centre of the port area, simi­lar to the bark on tree trunks. The resul­ting, amor­phous loo­king sur­fa­ces can be used as LED screens for display­ing video art crea­ted espe­cially for this loca­tion by the artist him­self. Dif­fe­rent videos are shown depen­ding on the time of year or the spe­ci­fic occa­sion. Images and pat­terns in light that evoke asso­cia­tions to flo­wing water under­score the intri­cate link bet­ween city and sea – and reflect the cen­tu­ries-old history of the citi­zens of Mar­seille and how they con­nect to the Medi­ter­ra­nean.