Earthbound

The main concept behind the project is to build a modern gathering point for people from all over the world, that can be adaptive to different contexts. Idea is to provide an innovative atmosphere where new technologies play a very important role and try to inspire people to live in a more sustainable way and be aware of our environment. The strategic positioning of the center is to give the oasis view to the public to utilize the full potential of the site. The spaces are arranged around a central axis - the most common organizing principle among all architecture principles. Major spaces like exhibition galleries are placed in the center and the other spaces are divided on the basis of loud and quiet spaces and are grouped together to avoid any disturbances. Numerous iterations were tried before arriving at the final outcome and finally, the spaces were arranged considering the sun path and wind path to make the space thermally comfortable. The material was chosen considering the availability of materials in Morocco. The most common type was rammed earth, brick, stone and mud bricks. Among these, we chose compressed stabilized earth block with stone cladding for the walls of the cultural center. The project is built keeping passive strategies in mind and making use of new technologies to set an example of a green cultural city. The cultural center demonstrates great responsibilities in terms of sustainability while at the same time celebrating the culture of the region.