CMA CGM Headquarters by Zaha Hadid photographed by Hufton + Crow
Zaha Hadid's 142-metre tower for French shipping company CMA CGM in Marseille is documented in these new images by London photographers Hufton + Crow (+ slideshow).
The 33-storey structure, which was completed in 2011, is currently the tallest building in the city and features a glazed facade with a seam of tinted glass running up through its centre.
The darkened glass tapers outwards at the top, creating the illusion of swelling upper storeys although the building actually has a rectilinear body that only curves outwards at its base.
Located within Marseille's 480-hectare Euroméditerranée development zone in the north of the city, the CMA CGM Headquarters functions as the primary offices for the transportation company, bringing together over 2400 employees that had previously been located on seven different sites.
Zaha Hadid Architects also designed a 135-metre-long annex building, which is joined to the tower with a curving glass bridge.
In 2010, when the project was nearing completion, Marseilles studio Exmagina shot a time-lapse movie showing the surrounding activity over the course of one day - watch the movie.
Zaha Hadid Architects has recently unveiled designs for a few new projects, including a cultural complex in Changsha, China, a cluster of towers in Bratislava and a masterplan for the site of an old textile factory in Belgrade.
In recent months the studio has also completed the 330,000-square-metre Galaxy Soho complex in Beijing and a museum of contemporary art at Michigan State University. See more architecture by Zaha Hadid Architects.
See more photography by Hufton + Crow on Dezeen, or on the photographers' website.