Mossa

01 · Marseille, France

A floating research and leisure complex floating in a bay. Detachable modular barges merge scientific observation with public life

competition

Monaco Smart Marina 2024

Summer 2024

Partners

Adam Bissell, Bri Westbrook

Mediums

Rhino, Illustrator, Photoshop, Keyshot Render, 3D Printing, Woodworking, Houdini

program

Dining, Retail, Leisure, Research Facility

01: Research

What cellular lessons does Sormiou teach us?

Mossa sits in the Calanque de Sormiou, a bay between Marseille and Cassis where currents push west and funnel boat traffic along the shore. The inlet is sheltered from the open Mediterranean but not from the mistral, which drives straight down the valley. Currents, wind, and buoyancy shape the design before form does. Meaning that anything built here has to float with the water rather than resist it.

Site Map: How do we understand the flow of the bay within the concentrated marine organisms.

02: Observation

How does water become a floating form?

Radiolaria, single-celled marine organisms with silica skeletons, shape the project. Their presence signals a healthy reef, and Mossa’s chrome-plated arms are read as “lungs” for the bay: breathing in seawater, filtering it, and returning clean water, heat, and habitat below.

The marina’s form came from reading the bay’s currents and wind patterns. The arms were built parametrically, from a system of 5' radii with circles meeting at tangent points, turning the organism’s geometry into a buildable structure. Each connection point maximizes docking for boats, kayaks, and observation platforms. Hinges between barges let the structure flex with the water instead of resisting it, built as much for disassembly and repair as for stability.

Fig 1: Radiolaria’s silica skeleton reduced to the tangent-circle system. The origin of the 5'-radii geometry.

Fig 2: Branching openings that start to allow for points of interaction.

Fig 3: Circular points that create movement points in the structure.

Fig 4: General massing and shape organization for the Marina

Fig 5: Overall Barge construction. A floating structure that simulates wave movement.

Fig 6: Barge connection as a series of interlocking, overlapping parts.

03: Translation

How do these parts learn to work together?

Above water, the 3,000-square-foot program threads dining, retail, and water sports between a cafe, kitchen, bathrooms, shop, spa, and observatory, all arranged along the docks. The plan keeps circulation loose enough for staff and visitors to move between the public edge and the quieter research spaces at the center.

Overall Floor Plan: Dining, retail, research, and water-leisure threaded along the docks between the cafe, spa, and observatory.

04: Architecture

What keeps it whole and afloat?

The marina was tested at 1:12 scale using a peg-and-hole modular system, with each barge cut, pegged, and then lapped together by hand to prove the parts could lock, flex, and separate for repair.

In the final structure, each barge would float on a bio-polymer and hempcrete base, insulated and cushioned for a repairable platform rather than a fixed slab. The chrome-plated arms double as docking stations and solar thermal tanks, turning seawater, sunlight, and microplastics into freshwater, heat, and marine habitat.