Explore the Phoenician City to discover its recent transformations, and its architectural history

The grand finale: Le Corbusier’s “vertical village”, the Cité Radieuse

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High lights: 

• A guided walking tour in the Vieux-Port, lead by Jean-Lucien Bonillo, a specialist in Marseille’s post-war reconstruction and professor at Marseille’s Ecole Supérieure d'Architecture. After the Vichy government demolished the northern side of the Vieux-Port in 1943 with the intention of easing congestion in the old city, Marseille’s reconstruction period began, which would last from 1947 to 1956. A marriage of stone and concrete, modernity and tradition, multiple architects would work on the project: Pouillon, Devin, Dunoyer-de-Segonzac.

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• Guided tour of Le Corbusier’s Cité Radieuse. Access the model apartment tucked in the heart of the Unité d’Habitation, and the MAMO, an open air art center founded by the French designer Ora-ito, recently opened on the building’s roof.

 

• Discover the Musée Regards de Provence, which brings together nearly 850 works connected to the Mediterranean, in Marseille’s former immigration center that is today designated a 20th Century Cultural Heritage site.

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•  Visit Stefano Boeri’s Villa Méditerranée, which is just next to the Musée des Civilisations de l'Europe et de la Méditerranée (MuCEM). On this esplanade, the contrast between the lacy, organic cement mesh-like exterior of the MuCEM and the pure, clean lines of the Villa is striking.

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• Guided tour of the Fonds Régional d'Art Contemporain Provence Alpes Côte d'Azur, designed by the Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, who is known for ethereal, light-filled buildings and for using natural materials.

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• Guided walking tour in the docks district and a tour of the Silo d’Arenc, a grain silo transformed into an ultra-contemporary performing arts space designed by Roland Carta and C+T/SHL.