Selux

Technically highly sophisticated lighting solution for the Old Port of Marseille, France

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 laser­cut 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.

Pro­ject: The Old Port of Mar­se­ille
Client: MPM Mar­se­ille Pro­vence Mét­ro­pole
Arc­hi­tect: Foster and Part­ners / Tang­ram arc­hi­tects
Lands­cape Arc­hi­tect: Michel Des­vigne
Ligh­ting Desig­ner: Yann Ker­salé – AIK
Elect­ri­cal Engi­ne­ering: Ing­é­rop Con­seil et Ing­é­ni­erie
Elect­ri­cal Ins­tal­la­tion: Citeos / Cege­lec
Pho­tog­rap­her: Xavier Boy­mond

Selux Pro­ducts: Olivio Flo­ra­cion. Sis­tema. Can­de­labra.

July 2013