The Parc Nationale des Calanques was defined as National Park in 2012. It is the only park in Europe encompassing peri-urban zones.

“The concrete towers were floating inside a green space very close to the limestone hills”

-Piece of text from one of the diaries produced during group work –

The peri-urban zone is considered a gap between the city of Marseille and the park; a place where the two factors thin out and merge.

The current proposal studies the peri-urban zone and redefines its role as a gateway into the park. Seven entrances are proposed along its length in key areas, resulted from a thorough investigation. These entrances aim to longitudinally connect the adjacent neighborhoods and transversally create a unique walking experience to the visitors. The program of each entrance mutates as someone moves from the coastline further in land to the city in order to adjust to their surrounding environment which becomes more residential. 

Each entrance consists from a series of platforms, paths and walls interventions. The interventions are minimal in order to highlight the surrounding landscape while the attention is drawn to their materiality, using limestone as the primary material. Each intervention is unique as the rock appears in different aggregation forms as the visitor moves from the city to the park.