Installed at the Palais du Pharo in Marseille for the 2026 Mediterranean Season, Mar Nostro – Notre Mer – بَحرُنا is a site-specific architectural installation by UV Lab that transforms 486 hand-folded metal panels into a powerful exploration of memory, migration, and Mediterranean identity. Designed and constructed by Michael DiCarlo, Khaled Alwarea, Mohannad Shnsho, Layla Abdelkareem, Samra Bulbol, and Nour Alkhatib, with technical engineering and structural calculations by Quentin Alart and Laurent Gauthier, the project stands as both a public gathering space and a tribute to those who crossed the Mediterranean in search of a better life.

The installation’s defining feature is its intricate façade system. Composed of 486 individually folded metal panels, the envelope was first developed through advanced parametric design and fabricated with millimeter-level precision using digital manufacturing technologies. However, despite its computational origins, the structure was assembled entirely by hand on site. This deliberate combination of digital accuracy and traditional craftsmanship reflects the project’s respect for the historic setting of Palais du Pharo while emphasizing the human presence behind its construction.

Rather than functioning as a conventional façade with a clear front elevation, Mar Nostro rejects hierarchy and fixed orientation. The folded metal skin opens in multiple directions, creating a porous architectural landscape that visitors can enter from several points. Three principal passages symbolically orient the structure toward Africa, Asia, and Europe, acknowledging the centuries of cultural exchange, migration, trade, and shared histories that have connected these regions through the Mediterranean Sea.

The façade’s angular geometry plays a critical role in shaping the visitor experience. Each folded panel captures, redirects, and filters natural light, generating constantly changing patterns across the interior space. As sunlight moves throughout the day, the metal surfaces produce a dynamic interplay of reflections, shadows, and illuminated openings. The effect recalls celestial navigation, evoking the stars once used by sailors, travelers, and migrants crossing open waters.

From a distance, the installation resembles a ship’s hull, a temporary shelter, or a seashell emerging from Marseille’s waterfront landscape. Up close, visitors encounter a highly textured surface where every fold contributes to the structure’s visual rhythm and structural performance. The folded geometry increases rigidity while maintaining a lightweight appearance, demonstrating how façade engineering can simultaneously achieve strength, efficiency, and architectural expression.

Built collaboratively with participants from the Cascadeurs et Cascadeuses training program of the Cité des Arts de la Rue, the installation became a collective act of making. Weeks of cutting, folding, lifting, and fitting transformed construction into a participatory process, embedding human stories within the metal structure itself.

The title Mar Nostro deliberately echoes the Roman phrase Mare Nostrum (“Our Sea”), challenging historic notions of ownership and control over the Mediterranean. It also references the Lingua Franca once spoken across Mediterranean ports, a hybrid language shaped by Arabic, Italian, Spanish, French, and countless other influences. Like this shared language, the installation embraces plurality rather than division.

Through its parametric metal façade, multidirectional spatial organization, and ever-changing interaction with light, Mar Nostro demonstrates how contemporary façade design can transcend enclosure to become a living architectural expression of memory, coexistence, and human connection. Set against the backdrop of Marseille, a city built through centuries of migration and cultural exchange, the installation serves as a reminder that the Mediterranean belongs not to empires or borders, but to the people whose lives continue to shape its story.