A specialist in the development of port city interfaces

François Kern est le fondateur d’une agence française d’Architecture et d’Urbanisme , Kern + associés, qu’il dirige avec ses associés Anne Lacazio et Matthieu Mercinier depuis 2004.

As an active and historic member of the AIVP, he was quick to embrace the themes of large scale and landscape in his work; He has also taken a strong interest in areas that are often ignored in architectural thinking, such as industrial port areas: “Our objective is to reflect on urban port interfaces and to think about the mutations of the cities and towns along the coast. The question of territorial sharing and the study of time-shared areas is a theme dear to our workshop. The future will be founded on the relationships that are maintained between territories”.

The realized projects of Kern + associés are located in Lyon, Calais, La Rochelle, Brest, Hyères, Toulon, Lorient, Porto Vecchio (France), and in other places in the world as Hobart (Australia), Bahia Blanca (Argentina), Bata (Equatorial Guinea), and Thessaloniki (Greece).

The transformation of the port city interface in Marseille: one of the flagship projects of Kern + associates

In Marseille, Kern + associates worked alongside Yves Lion, architect, and urban designer, on the project to recover the north shore of Marseille. The objective was to link the city and the port, set the scene for the components of the site (accesses and esplanades), and create new living spaces at the port city interface. These port-city spaces, handed over in 2013, have revealed Marseille to the whole world in a new light. Among its most outstanding achievements, the Cité de la Méditerranée and the Boulevard du Littoral won the 2015 Mipim Awards for the best international urban regeneration project, and the 2014 Urbanism Awards.

We’ve been working on urban and port areas in France and abroad for thirty years. I remember my meeting with Antoine Rufenacht in Sydney in 2006. I am very honored to participate in this prize’s work.

François Kern, about the AIVP Prize Antoine Rufenacht

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