The history of architecture and urbanism is classically represented as a sequence of major movements and doctrines. However, the factual evolution does not have this kind of linear character. The well-known architectural "isms" are chained together with productions of the so called "transitional" periods, the legacy of which deserves special scientific interest. Thanks to its unique mix of previous and present tendencies, as well as techniques and compositional approaches these architectural

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... ers form a base for the future movement. A significant number of this kind of interesting "in-between produce" in the field of social housing has been built during the 60th and the 70th. These ensembles were constructed between the periods of Modernism and Postmodernism, when the postulates of modernism (particularly the ones embodied in the social housing groups) were severely criticized for having poor urban and architectural design. Since the end of 1980 in many European countries, particularly in France, massive renovation processes started and continue to this day. Due to political, social and aesthetic changes, a great part of post-war residential heritage has been radically reconstructed or demolished. This process touches not only ordinary residential groups (so-called "grand ensembles") realized right after the Second World War with very limited means and techniques, but also harms some of the interesting ensembles. Many of them are undervalued, not rehabilitated since their creation and are often doomed to disappear. The current paper is an attempt to analyze the historical, urban and morphological aspects of "Maurelette" residential complex, built in the northern suburbs of Marseilles during 1963-1965. The interpretation of the landscape, as well as the particularities of space organization, proportions and choice of materials in "Maurelette" complex demonstrates the ambition to create the "non-ordinary" ensemble by ordinary inexpensive constructive means and elements. As opposed to the great number of post-wa [...]