Tanger House of Architecture
Our vision for the Maison de L'Architecture project is based on a double ambition: to preserve (local) authenticity while promoting (global) modernity.
The project proposes to create points of contact between its two temporalities.
The House of Architecture is inspired by the traditional architectural and landscape culture of Tangier, a Mediterranean city par excellence.
The project is based on a detailed study of the Medina de Tanger, which we have translated the inherent principles while adapting them to the specificities of the site, to sustainable construction standards (described in detail in Part 3 of this presentation note) and has a SMART phasing strategy.
Our ambition is to rethink ancestral principles specific to Tangiers, which are perfectly adapted to the local climate, the genus loci, using it as a starting point to generate an innovative and contemporary architecture. This architecture will not only better serve the mixed and dense project of the House of Architecture, but will create a new cultural identity for the city of Tangier.
Thus, the design of the House of Architecture is based on these invariants.
Reveal the integration of the building and the landscape with its context a) by embracing the steep topography, rather than refuting or flattening it, and b) by incorporating our project in the continuity of the master plan of Malabata Hills while valuing views of the great territory.
Update the urban morphology of the medina, composed of a dense matrix of courtyard buildings of different sizes, and served by narrow alleys. The volume of the medina of Tangier, which is also characteristic of the vernacular villages in the Mediterranean, is composed of parallelepiped volumes, almost abstract, which intertwine, and have introverted facades with limited openings and homogeneous tones, although striking subtle variations in white tones.
The courtyard building is in fact the founding module of the urban fabric of the medina. This typology suits the climate because its courtyard allows to refresh the inhabited spaces. Moreover the courtyard building is very flexible it allows to house various programs including residential units, institutional buildings
Thus, we offer terraced gardens planted with local species, sometimes embellished with placettes with water vapor activated in summer, in order to generate micro-climates in the outside areas of the project, and thus allow adequate outdoor comfort. The best reference of this landscape typology is the famous café Hafa.
The guidelines of the project are the external report and the desire to generate public space; either by creating pedestrian circuits woven through the building, or by investing the roofs of the house in order to allow dynamic and versatile public extensions of the outdoor.
CREDITS
Architects : Clément Blanchet Architecture and Aziza Chaouni Projects
Client : Confidentiel
Nature of the operation : Competition
Realised in : 2015
Site : Tanger, Marocco
Program : offices, exhibition rooms, flats.
Budget : NC