EUROMÉDITERRANÉE : an urban regeneration project in Marseille city center

Launched by the French government and various local authorities (Ville de Marseille, PACA regional council etc.) in 1995. This huge 1,200-acre project is part of a global repositioning of the city’s image within the international landscape of dynamic cities.

One of its many architectural projects is the EUROMED CENTER, a 70,000 sq. metre complex of offices, shops, multi-screen cinema, 4-star hotel, park and car park. EUROMED CENTER will house the first office blocks with High Quality Environmental and BBC (low energy building) certification.

Our acoustics department carried out studies for the 846-space car park, the 210-room, 4-star “Golden Tulip” hotel and the 48,000 sq. metres of office space. We then proposed F2A solutions that met all the project’s different requirements.

Aeraulic requirements :

• For the car park the 24 ventilators required, which have an output of 7,200m3/h to 96,300m3/h, inevitably generate noise pollution. It was therefore recommended that an acoustics study be carried out to find solutions to reduce noise pollution. For this type of use, the splitters provided must also comply with smoke control requirements.

• The 4 office blocks are fitted with 7 air handling units (AHUs) with an output of 3,700m³/h to 14,000m³/h. The NF S31-080 standard sets out the acoustic requirements that must be met for this type of building – 30 to 62 dB(A) according to the type of office and the overall noise level required. Our acoustics experts also had to respect the NR35 noise rating of 40 dB(A) maximum.

• The hotel has 9 AHUs with outputs of up to 22,000m³/h, as well as a heat pump for its swimming pool and an extractor. The acoustic requirements set by the standard and acoustic instructions are NR25 limited to 30 dB(A). The fan coil units in the hotel bedrooms were dealt with specifically as certain objectives had to be met (installation of sound traps).

Selected solution :

We carried out pre-acceptance tests on every building and the acoustic design office in charge of the project carried out the final measurements which confirmed the efficiency of our solutions and the precision of our calculations.

The second highest tower in Marseille, the “Marseillaise” tower, designed by Jean Nouvel’s architecture agency, is also currently undergoing studies for the supply of splitters. The project is due to be delivered in mid 2018.