BRICK OF MARSEILLES.
A Participatory Landscape Infrastructure.

Brick of Marseilles is a constructive system designed to assemble dry walls that can function simultaneously as ecological corridors and as plug-in infrastructures, including arcades, benches, promenades, and picnic tables.
The project was conceived as a participatory factory aimed at disseminating artisanal construction skills while producing the bricks required to extend the factory itself. The project was developed within a regeneration initiative located at the border between a multi-confessional cemetery and a social housing area in northern Marseille. The initial goal was to design a landscape installation that local inhabitants could directly produce in order to enclose the cemetery, prevent vandalism, and define a clear spatial threshold between different urban conditions. Beyond enclosure, the wall provides environmental infrastructure by offering protection from wind, rain, and summer sun for cemetery visitors. Its design incorporates differentiated chromatic treatments toward the interior and exterior, responding to the distinct spatial and symbolic conditions on each side.

Mediate - Brick of Marseilles mediates by transferring artisanal and constructive knowledge into a system that can be learned, reproduced, and adapted by non-specialists. Rather than relying on expert-led construction, the project translates territorial, climatic, and social conditions into a shared constructive grammar embodied in the brick itself. Through 1:1 prototyping on site, involving students from Geneva’s HEAD – Genève, the project functions as a device for knowledge transmission. Construction becomes a means of translating design intent into embodied practice, allowing skills to circulate and persist beyond the duration of the project.

Activate - The project activates both inhabitants and students by positioning them as direct agents in the construction process. Participation is not framed as consultation or co-design, but as hands-on engagement through making, assembling, and extending the wall over time. By coupling learning with production, Brick of Marseilles activates a continuous process in which knowledge, material, and space co-evolve. The wall remains open to extension and adaptation, enabling future iterations to emerge from the same constructive logic.

Brick of Marseilles does not operate as a finished landscape object, but as a spatial and pedagogical infrastructure. Through the transfer of knowledge and the activation of collective building practices, the project constructs a condition in which landscape, education, and social use are articulated through form.