A hanging garden paying tribute to the Calanques, 135 meters above sea level

At the top of the Tour La Marseillaise, designed by architect Jean Nouvel, the Sky Center occupies the 30th floor in an exceptional setting, offering a 180° panorama of the Marseille harbor and the Phocaean city. The project aimed to make the roof garden accessible to the public, transforming this belvedere into a sensory and immersive experience.

Inspired by the geology of the Calanques, the landscape design blends subtly into the existing architecture. It demonstrates a mastery of the constraints inherent in high-rise buildings, while making them invisible to the eye. This hanging garden, carved out of stone and covered with vegetation, is distinguished by its precise assembly, grafting, and adaptation to the built environment.

The route is organized as a mineral crossing: from the interior stone and glass bar, a canyon guides visitors to the outside. It follows the existing structure, accompanies gravel ramps, widens onto paved esplanades, winds around preserved trees, and offers monolithic seats where visitors can contemplate the view in the shade of the pine trees.

This project is the result of close collaboration between two young Marseille-based agencies—Tristan Architecture (architect) and Champ Libre Provence (landscape architect)—and draws on the region’s artisanal and technical expertise. It combines the manual precision of stonemasons with digital design. Finally, this project embodies a relationship of trust between a committed client and a multidisciplinary team united around a common vision that is ambitious, contextual, and poetic.