AGORA22

Emergency Climate Architecture

After  the COP21 held in Paris last year, the Conference of the Cop22 takes place this year in Marrakech, on the site of Bab Ighli.

This international and unavoidable event is organized under the aegis of the UN, and is aiming to solve the various problems related to climate changes.

Our architectural and scenic proposal to COP22 was conducted in collaboration with Oualalou+Choi, including the construction of restaurants buildings and the monumental stage design installation of the Plenary Hall.

Before everything, our approach is local ;a perspective of Moroccan handicraft’s expertise, emphasizing ecology in a fundamental way.

Indeed, the Morocco is full of traditional ancestral skills, so we aim to offer a real valuation of these techniques here. A kind of reinterpretation that allows to merge all these contemporary sciences in an unexpected way.

Restaurants merging with a large Agora.

Restaurants are places located outside the tents, a luxurious oasis along with long pools. The agora stretches perpendicularly to the main axis of the canopy, creating a large place animated by Moroccan craft shops.

Framing these places, we designed two symetrical restaurants buildings,  economic and ecological architectural entities, built in the rural Moroccan architectural tradition.

The buildings are equipped with multiple patios, skylights and terraces.

As in the Moroccan tradition, meetings happens in multiple inner patios to preserve freshness and intimacy.

The plan is harmonized according to multiple systems provided with few openings for better thermal insulation, defining a shared interiority between wide public areas and also in smaller places, intimate terraces on the ground level or on the roof, allowing unprecedented views of the surrounding landscape.

The structure is done with structural sustainable wood, made from wood chips and shavings, which allows lightness and flexibility in term of construction. Easy to disassemble, the modules will be dispatched in mobile units after the conference;

This mutant Berber Moroccan habitat is a deeply rooted pragmatic vernacular architecture; these constructions allow to reintroduce within the COP22 short circuits, local, experienced in the practice of traditional construction.