Marrakech Villa

The project sits on an extensive 1 hectare site on the outskirts of Marrakesh, in full view of the Atlas Mountain range. The villa comprises a 1500m² central family villa, an inter-connected guest wing, and extensive leisure and staff facilities. The project seeks to successfully synthesise cutting-edge design, with local fabrication skills and available materials.

Regional environmental parameters, planning restrictions and manufacturing traditions are utilised to enrich the scheme and anchor it firmly within its context. An interplay of sunken courtyards, protected atria, and selective solar exposure, moulds the architectural form, its comfort zones, and a diversity of lighting conditions.

The residential volumes are arranged as a series of shells, tinted with local pigment, each comprising an articulated array of insulated concrete ‘planks’. These form an opaque thermal mass due south, and open up a generous façade towards the north, where a vast landscape unfolds.