Marie & Alexandre x La Cité Radieuse: When Design Forces Meet in Marseille

It’s a must-see for all design lovers who have the chance to be in the South of France this summer. The iconic Apartment 50 at Cité Radieuse in Marseille (it’s the very same building, where the Chanel Cruise show took place in May, imagined by French architecture legend Le Corbusier), is getting a makeover by Parisian design duo Marie Cornil and Alexandre Willaume, or Marie x Alexandre in short, who are represented by signé gallery in Paris.

Classified as a historical monument, Apartment 50 is a duplex that has a long tradition of design collaborations. When he restored it in the early noughties to its original condition, its current owner Jean-Marc Drut decided that every two years he would ask a designer to rearrange the space with their furniture and show the result to the public during a summer exhibition. This way, between 2008 and 2018, the stars of modern design, such as Jasper Morrison, Ronan & Erwan Bouroullec, Konstantin Grcic, Pierre Charpin, Alessandro Mendini, and Normal Studio have all presented their vision of the space. And now, after a six-year hiatus, the iconic Apartment 50 opens its doors to the public once again with a unique exhibition imagined by Parisian duo Marie & Alexandre.

So what’s on view? Visitors will have an opportunity to see the Végétasia vases and lounge chair that Marie & Alexandre created in 2022 in collaboration with botanist Marc Jeanson, making the plant’s development visible. There are also the Berries lightning series (2023), crafted from blown glass speckled with red dots and edited with the gallery signé, the Horizon lamps (2022) made of Salernes clay and the Iris mirrors (2023) blown from lava, that all found their place in the iconic space. These objects are complemented by several pieces that were created specifically for the exhibition and that mirror Courbusier’s vision of colour and space: for example, the ever practical glass boxes with colourful bands, a large rectangular coffee table with blown glass legs, and ceramic chairs that are playfully set on the concrete terrasse of the duplex.

The exhibition Marie & Alexandre, La Cité Radieuse, Apartment 50 will be on view in Marseille until August 15, before travelling to Paris, where it will be adapted for the minimalist signé gallery space on the Left Bank. It will open its doors during Paris Design Week on September 5 and run through October 21. ​​

Courtesy: Marie & Alexandre

Text: Lidia Ageeva