Technology School of Guelmim / Saad El Kabbaj + Driss Kettani + Mohamed Amine Siana

Architects: Saad El Kabbaj, Driss Kettani, Mohamed Amine Siana
Location: Guelmim 81000, Morocco
Area: 6883.0 sqm
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

Design Team: Yassine El Aouni , Rachid El Maataoui
Engineering: Bepol Sarl
Contractor: Zerkdi & Fils

From the architect. The project of the Technology School of Guelmim is part of the development policy of academic institutions in the southern regions of Morocco.

The project consists of an amphitheater, classrooms, workshops, laboratories, administration, library, teacher’s offices and office staff housing.

The starting point was to provide a strong architecture, contemporary but inspired by the context in which it occurs. The challenge was to recreate a certain mood, a certain scale with modern tools and architectural vocabulary.

Thus, the architecture is voluntarily massive, powerful and plays with the contrast between interior and exterior. The various buildings are organized along a north-south axis through a partly covered path, and are organized on L-forms or indoor gardens.

This organization helps readability and clarity of the various entities of the project while maintaining a set of scales adapted to the diversity of the program.

Similarly, a reflection on the thermal quality results a work orientation, protection of openings and vegetation cover, thus conditioning part of the architecture vocabulary and principles.

At last, the project Research finally assumes a certain theatricality, a certain gravitas that meets the solemnity inherent to educational institutions.