Prestigious heritage win in Fez, Morocco for architects mossessian & partners
British practice mossessian & partners has won an open international competition to regenerate Place Lalla Yeddouna, a strategic location at the heart of Fez, Morocco.
A long list of 176 design proposals was made from 1400 expressions of interest in an open international competition, part of the MCA-Morocco Program, a $697.5m Compact to reduce poverty in Morocco through economic growth, financed by the USA's Millennium Challenge Corporation. The international jury (see editors notes) short-listed eight schemes before selecting mossessian & partners with Yassir Khalil Studio, Casablanca/Morocco as the winning team. Ferretti-Marcelloni, of Rome (partnering with Bahia Nouh of Fez) and Moxon Architects of London (partnering with Aime Kakon of Casablanca) were awarded second and third prizes.
 The competition site of approx. 7,400 sqm is located in the Medina of Fez, designated a UNESCO world heritage site in 1981 and one of the world's oldest and largest Medina. The competition brief was for the urban design of Place Lalla Yeddouna at the heart of the Medina, the preservation of historic buildings as well as the design of new buildings that would sit comfortably in the traditional urban fabric, yet speak of the vibrancy and functionally diverse nature of the contemporary site.
The Medina is a mosaic of small-scale, modest, sand-coloured houses and its endless labyrinth of narrow streets are crammed with history. The area of Place Lalla Yeddouna, where the city was founded on the two banks of the main river in Fez ("Oued Al Jawahir"), used to be one of the key links between the two sides of the old city. Latterly the city has turned its back on the riverfront, creating a series of disconnected urban spaces. The key to mossessian's strategy was to re-connect Place Lalla Yeddouna to the riverfront and create a pedestrian route across the river and through the Medina, a series of continuous spaces in the rich urban pattern of the Medina's passageways.
 "In the future, Place Lalla Yeddouna will become a dynamic, mixed use, urban space that will benefit both residents of and visitors to the Medina. It will offer educational programmes, residencies, artisan workshops, boutiques, cafes and other recreational facilities, attracting young and old alike", explained the project initiators.
mossessian & partners recognised that Place Lalla would have to become a space that felt attractive to visitors and residents alike, that would function equally well as a public and a private place. The Islamic 'majlis', a reception room at the centre of the home, melds public and private space. The majlis mirrors the courtyard at the centre of a building, which in turn mirrors the public square. "This cellular network of spaces is the foundation for the unity of a neighbourhood. We think of the development as a single building with Place Lalla Yeddouna as an 'urban room' at its heart," says Michel Mossessian, Principal of mossessian & partners. He continues: "the key thing is to respect the spaces between buildings, since these are where the action happens. So Place Lalla is the perfect starting point for regenerating the life of Fez's Medina."
 A key requirement of the scheme is to preserve the historical references whilst using contemporary thinking and building techniques to unite the fragmented spaces. mossessian & partners have taken cues from the pattern, geometry and repetition that characterise Islamic design and introduced variation and accents on the traditional forms of Moroccan vernacular architecture. Outdoor galleries
and public spaces will be clad with colourful tiles, produced by local artisans, giving each space a specific identity, cooling the passageways and acting as an intuitive navigational aid. Traditional environmental strategies will be used, such as using wind, shade and mass, to create natural ventilation in the streets and buildings.
"With its unique architectural character representing the regional building tradition and with its surrounding urban fabric, excellent accessibility and functionality, Place Lalla Yeddouna is expected to be a cultural site exemplary of our time and the region, and a stimulator and generator for the development of other projects in Fez, its region and Morocco," says organising body, the Agency for the Development and Rehabilitation of the city of Fez.
|
