Rabat Souissi Campus
Status:
Year:
Type:
Size:
Client:
Location:
Located in the Souissi District—a cultivated plateau where villas dissolve into gardens and light accumulates in slow, warm layers—the campus positions itself not simply as an institution but as a topography of learning tuned to the microclimatic intelligence of Morocco. Rather than imposing a singular object, the project unfolds as a porous constellation of brick and timber strata, calibrated to mediate the oscillation between Atlantic breezes, seasonal dryness, and the measured serenity of Souissi’s landscape. Its three- to four-storey profile is intentionally recessive; the architecture behaves less like a building and more like a quiet instrument, registering shifts of shadow, temperature, and social presence throughout the day. Brick forms the project’s atmospheric core—its mass and porosity echoing Morocco’s earth traditions while simultaneously operating as a contemporary environmental device. The perforated brick screens do more than temper sunlight; they create a luminous granularity, a patterned field of filtered radiance that becomes part of the campus’s spatial identity. Timber, used in pergolas, colonnades, and internal galleries, introduces a tactile softness that mediates between the heavier masonry volumes and the vegetal canopy of Souissi. Concrete frames, slender yet deliberate, provide a rigorous structural syntax, allowing the architecture to remain open, thin-edged, and climatically articulate.
Located in the Souissi District—a cultivated plateau where villas dissolve into gardens and light accumulates in slow, warm layers—the campus positions itself not simply as an institution but as a topography of learning tuned to the microclimatic intelligence of Morocco. Rather than imposing a singular object, the project unfolds as a porous constellation of brick and timber strata, calibrated to mediate the oscillation between Atlantic breezes, seasonal dryness, and the measured serenity of Souissi’s landscape. Its three- to four-storey profile is intentionally recessive; the architecture behaves less like a building and more like a quiet instrument, registering shifts of shadow, temperature, and social presence throughout the day. Brick forms the project’s atmospheric core—its mass and porosity echoing Morocco’s earth traditions while simultaneously operating as a contemporary environmental device. The perforated brick screens do more than temper sunlight; they create a luminous granularity, a patterned field of filtered radiance that becomes part of the campus’s spatial identity. Timber, used in pergolas, colonnades, and internal galleries, introduces a tactile softness that mediates between the heavier masonry volumes and the vegetal canopy of Souissi. Concrete frames, slender yet deliberate, provide a rigorous structural syntax, allowing the architecture to remain open, thin-edged, and climatically articulate.
The spatial strategy is organized around a sequence of courtyard chambers, each tuned to a different thermal and social condition. Some are introverted, cool, and resonant; others are terraced, outward-facing, and quietly animated by student movement. These courtyards are not voids but microclimates, generating slow air currents that move through shaded breezeways aligned with the prevailing Atlantic winds. Circulation becomes a form of environmental choreography: an elevated timber spine arcs across the site, maintaining shade while offering intermittent glimpses into planted patios and distant treelines. Rooftop gardens—light, sparse, and textured—extend the courtyards vertically, forming a vegetative skin that insulates the buildings and links them to Souissi’s characteristic green horizons. The program is conceived as a heterogeneous ecology of learning environments: flexible studios, research ateliers, open-air seminar terraces, landscape-embedded amphitheaters, and secluded study patios inspired by the intimate proportioning of riad gardens. These spaces encourage both intellectual concentration and informal drift, creating a campus where the boundaries between research, repose, and encounter are intentionally indistinct. The material and spatial systems support a climate-responsive ethic: thermal-mass brick walls, deep overhangs, evaporative microzones, photovoltaic integration, and water-conscious planting strategies position the campus as a sophisticated climatic organism rather than a mechanical system.
The spatial strategy is organized around a sequence of courtyard chambers, each tuned to a different thermal and social condition. Some are introverted, cool, and resonant; others are terraced, outward-facing, and quietly animated by student movement. These courtyards are not voids but microclimates, generating slow air currents that move through shaded breezeways aligned with the prevailing Atlantic winds. Circulation becomes a form of environmental choreography: an elevated timber spine arcs across the site, maintaining shade while offering intermittent glimpses into planted patios and distant treelines. Rooftop gardens—light, sparse, and textured—extend the courtyards vertically, forming a vegetative skin that insulates the buildings and links them to Souissi’s characteristic green horizons. The program is conceived as a heterogeneous ecology of learning environments: flexible studios, research ateliers, open-air seminar terraces, landscape-embedded amphitheaters, and secluded study patios inspired by the intimate proportioning of riad gardens. These spaces encourage both intellectual concentration and informal drift, creating a campus where the boundaries between research, repose, and encounter are intentionally indistinct. The material and spatial systems support a climate-responsive ethic: thermal-mass brick walls, deep overhangs, evaporative microzones, photovoltaic integration, and water-conscious planting strategies position the campus as a sophisticated climatic organism rather than a mechanical system.
Architecturally, the campus aspires to a condition of quiet complexity—a layered, almost geological presence where shadows act as structure and courtyards serve as the primary interface between culture and climate. The earth-toned masonry binds the ensemble to its terrain, while the fine-grained timber latticework modulates perception, producing a sensorial interplay between solidity and porosity. What emerges is a campus that resists monumentality in favor of nuanced atmospheric depth: an academic landscape where learning happens in thresholds, in filtered light, in the cadence of shaded passageways, and in the slow breathing of spaces attuned to their environment.
Architecturally, the campus aspires to a condition of quiet complexity—a layered, almost geological presence where shadows act as structure and courtyards serve as the primary interface between culture and climate. The earth-toned masonry binds the ensemble to its terrain, while the fine-grained timber latticework modulates perception, producing a sensorial interplay between solidity and porosity. What emerges is a campus that resists monumentality in favor of nuanced atmospheric depth: an academic landscape where learning happens in thresholds, in filtered light, in the cadence of shaded passageways, and in the slow breathing of spaces attuned to their environment.
Located in the Souissi District—a cultivated plateau where villas dissolve into gardens and light accumulates in slow, warm layers—the campus positions itself not simply as an institution but as a topography of learning tuned to the microclimatic intelligence of Morocco. Rather than imposing a singular object, the project unfolds as a porous constellation of brick and timber strata, calibrated to mediate the oscillation between Atlantic breezes, seasonal dryness, and the measured serenity of Souissi’s landscape. Its three- to four-storey profile is intentionally recessive; the architecture behaves less like a building and more like a quiet instrument, registering shifts of shadow, temperature, and social presence throughout the day. Brick forms the project’s atmospheric core—its mass and porosity echoing Morocco’s earth traditions while simultaneously operating as a contemporary environmental device. The perforated brick screens do more than temper sunlight; they create a luminous granularity, a patterned field of filtered radiance that becomes part of the campus’s spatial identity. Timber, used in pergolas, colonnades, and internal galleries, introduces a tactile softness that mediates between the heavier masonry volumes and the vegetal canopy of Souissi. Concrete frames, slender yet deliberate, provide a rigorous structural syntax, allowing the architecture to remain open, thin-edged, and climatically articulate.
The spatial strategy is organized around a sequence of courtyard chambers, each tuned to a different thermal and social condition. Some are introverted, cool, and resonant; others are terraced, outward-facing, and quietly animated by student movement. These courtyards are not voids but microclimates, generating slow air currents that move through shaded breezeways aligned with the prevailing Atlantic winds. Circulation becomes a form of environmental choreography: an elevated timber spine arcs across the site, maintaining shade while offering intermittent glimpses into planted patios and distant treelines. Rooftop gardens—light, sparse, and textured—extend the courtyards vertically, forming a vegetative skin that insulates the buildings and links them to Souissi’s characteristic green horizons. The program is conceived as a heterogeneous ecology of learning environments: flexible studios, research ateliers, open-air seminar terraces, landscape-embedded amphitheaters, and secluded study patios inspired by the intimate proportioning of riad gardens. These spaces encourage both intellectual concentration and informal drift, creating a campus where the boundaries between research, repose, and encounter are intentionally indistinct. The material and spatial systems support a climate-responsive ethic: thermal-mass brick walls, deep overhangs, evaporative microzones, photovoltaic integration, and water-conscious planting strategies position the campus as a sophisticated climatic organism rather than a mechanical system.
Architecturally, the campus aspires to a condition of quiet complexity—a layered, almost geological presence where shadows act as structure and courtyards serve as the primary interface between culture and climate. The earth-toned masonry binds the ensemble to its terrain, while the fine-grained timber latticework modulates perception, producing a sensorial interplay between solidity and porosity. What emerges is a campus that resists monumentality in favor of nuanced atmospheric depth: an academic landscape where learning happens in thresholds, in filtered light, in the cadence of shaded passageways, and in the slow breathing of spaces attuned to their environment.
Building physics:
(Other works)
