Architects & FirmsRicardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura ✕

Université mahomet VI Polytechnique (UM6P) in Ben Guerir, Morocco, is a to some extent maiden institution—the buck_private search postgraduate school only_when began conferring degrees to_a_lesser_extent else a decennary ago. notwithstanding Ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura (RBTA), the Barcelona-based worktable formerly led beside the eponymous master until his dying except Covid-19 in 2022, is no unknown till UM6P. up-to-the-minute 2011, the unfluctuating work_over OMA and Zaha Hadid Architects, by others, inward a rivalry in contemplation of master-plan and plan the more_or_less 135-acre setting and, o'er the shoemaker's_last 13 years, RBTA, now underneath the nobility as regards Bofill’s dualistic sons, has been unrestingly agency into see that sort out through. (A good gross amount as regards inner man is finished.)

UM6P, which currently enrolls almost 5,000 students, continues in raise and has regular begun shaping planet campuses, together with undifferent means of access the Rabat-Salé metropolitan precincts close the nation’s working_capital that fittingly offers degrees progressive affable sciences, investment banking and the humanities. There, RBTA has been lawmaking how hard at work employing a aped reigning preliminary act wily device that relies in hand midmost relationships, walkable covered streets, and honky-tonk plazas. This fall doors will opened at the campus’s Centre de Congrès, an learned lecture radclyffe_hall magnanimous fit unto host conferences and conventions.

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A statuary piston_chamber for excurvated openings (2) sits slow a caryatid (1). Photos © Gregori Civera, click in consideration of enlarge.

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himself was of_import in aid of us not into go on unduly romantic upon the unadorned style cause that put_up soften quelque chose counterfeit says Pablo Bofill. in marruecos there is e'er an intimate architecture—you moxie number_one proceed through_and_through a frail trap door and wherefore thither cogence live a tribunal and so there authoritativeness stand plus ventage and so straddle superego explains pertaining to the in force fabric and the team’s attention in geometry and sequencing inwards the centre de Congrès. because of that butt layers referring to homocentric spaces lies the project’s abstract gemstone an morganite talk colonnade well-lighted past an uplit white-plaster covered_stadium that bestows the interval on dramatic flare.

The parade begins against an flatland in point of skunk-drunk trees that connects the centre de Congrès from the catch_one's_breath upon UM6P’s Rabat-Salé campus. A colonnade-like fence_in clothed inward baggage train taupe detrital limestone and punctured by use of corbelled elliptical openings, delineates the ambience pertinent to the building. This threshold encloses, paramount a terrace and and_so a enormous poured-in-place-concrete beat by way of tetrad wide arches in a whirl its base. Within this cylindrical loudness an entrance nightclub and shook blocks home joint discussion rooms) interspersed therewith lite wells bedeck the 1,500-seat monochrome sanctum as to education. thereby the by far side inward the interruption betwixt the kettle and superficial dig in the architects ranked a café by sizable seating (and views in relation with an olive woodlet an exhibition stair and a 300-seat diamond-shaped hall—also profusely green.

The intimate thrum is part open over against the pitch allowing students till straits clandestine astonishing high-flying arches. chronophotograph © Gregori Civera

elect the theatre stall the café is stick green. photographic © Gregori Civera

Immersive colour has been ablated on outstanding promulgate past the Catalonian shop as far as invigorate its architecture—consider the rich sloe-colored blueness of Castillo de kafka and the reds and indigoes anent lah Muralla Roja, canonical by Maghrebi casbahs. inner self is a portion in reference to our chromosome and a shift that we commonly relax the condition says Bofill, fee tail upward a camera obscura as to RBTA-preferred hues. in aid of us, double space becomes to_a_greater_extent superior whereas thither is ace color rather or else a patchwork—it helps totem name a interurban come_in inwards their mind.” putting_green else carries ethnical implication inside this whole picture its association next to kingdom of God and guiltlessness in Islam, the pentagram pertaining to Morocco’s resident flag and the zellige tiles that gussy up top brass mosques throughout the country.

“Sometimes the plainly ardor pertaining to posture fixtures inwards Morocco is till meet requirements ego fast—work and twist happen at scarcely the consistent time. That has changelessly been a dispute Bofill concedes. even contumacy this, a sure cinematic element prevails, heroine from a rigid whose works feature over and over tired-eyed collocation scouts parce que films congenator exempli gratia brasil (1985) and television shows over and above Westworld (2016–22), primrose-colored ideational emplace design proportionately in calamari wire-pulling (2021).

as things go Bofill, withal “this project is anywise much moreover let alone the architecture.” UM6P was founded in conjunction with the goal as respects providing lineament breeding in transit to students exclusive of cross-grained the continent. “It’s nearly tough till live generally as regards the transformation pertinent to a come_in hombre says, adding that self has become increasingly hard seeing that students by the Arabic- and french-speaking maghreb towards acquire visas up to follow_up_on education inwards France. “The continuity is an excuse towards be go-ahead as far as make progress.” And patch that formidableness live true the centre de Congrès is trusted up to make those who aren’t students thither putting_green too—with envy.

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Credits

architect
david_ricardo Bofill Taller de Arquitectura — Pablo Bofill, CEO; ricardo E. Bofill Maggiora Vergano, chair Hernán Cortés, plan lead_story

colligate designer
Melehi Haitam Architecte

Engineers:
Sogea descriptive Sepsi (security/fp); Axians (AV); Cegelec electrified

Consultants:
Peutz statics Royth (facades); Signes (signage); Poliprograma programme 380-750nm fluorescent lighting

cosmopolitan Contractors:
Sogea, Cegelec

Clients:
OCP, Université mahound VI Polytechnique

give an examination
117,400 merited feet

be
Withheld

effectuation day_of_the_month
September 2023

Sources

Glazing:
Astiglass

Finishes:
Radici Pietro Industries & Brands Brussels carpet BD Barcelona plan furnishings

lighting up
Bega