Marseille Creativity Center MC2

The MC2 Creativity Center at École Centrale de Marseille is a unifying space: a bridge between education, research, and the business world. By renovating its existing building to project the school into an evolving architecture, the MC2 is betting on the future! Discover, learn, undertake, innovate, experiment, share… these are the unifying maxims of this project. To achieve this, a collaborative effort involving users, architects, and scenographers has enabled the program to be structured around an auditorium, a FabLab, a learning center, a learning lab, and an incubator. These synergistic entities are interlinked in a cross-functional and porous system. More than just classrooms, these workspaces are hyper-flexible. Equipped with multimedia networks, hanging and projection devices, they have modular infrastructures that facilitate group work, cross-disciplinary research, the presentation of results, and the sharing of knowledge. The existing amphitheater, which was considered impersonal, frontal, and impractical, was completely restructured, with the stage rotated 90° to open up onto the exhibition space and the outside. This has improved access and stage logistics. The new concentric seating arrangement facilitates conferences and debates with its hemicycle shape. Mounting systems, networks compatible with the latest protocols, and new audiovisual equipment—including lighting—enable École Centrale to further advance its projects and influence.