Focus sur ce lieu étonnant situé à Marrakech, dans un domaine de 3,5 hectares cerné de remparts historiques avec, à l’intérieur, l’hôtel hors normes Royal Mansour composé de 53 riads. Une architecture impressionnante réalisée par les artisans marocains. Plus d’images du lieu dans la suite de l’article
News: the world’s largest free-standing museum dedicated to photography is set to be built in Morocco by British firm David Chipperfield Architects.
The Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Art (MMPVA) by David Chipperfield Architects will showcase a permanent collection of lens-based art and photography from the nineteenth century to the present and host a programme of contemporary art exhibitions.
The museum will cover an area of approximately 6,000 square metres in the west part of Marrakech, adjacent to the twelfth century Menara Gardens.
When completed the space will feature galleries, a theatre, cafe, bookshop, public spaces and educational facilities.
A large atrium will form a centrepiece to the building with a rectangular pool of water on the ground floor. Varieties of desert plants in a garden will surround the atrium on the third floor.
“With a rich program of exhibitions, education and cultural exchange the museum will be the first such institution on the African continent,” said the firm. “It will broaden the artistic experience across cultural boundaries to form greater understanding and tolerance.”
In the meantime, the Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Art (MMPVA) is temporarily located at El Badi Palace and its first photography exhibition opens later this month.
Other projects by David Chipperfield Architects include a gallery building at the Saint Louis Art Museum in Missouri, the Musée des Beaux-arts in Reims, France and the seafront Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate, East Kent.
See more projects from David Chipperfield »
See more museums »
See more Moroccan architecture and design »
Here’s some information from the architects:
The Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts
The Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts will be built at the edge of the historic 12th Century Menara Gardens in Marrakech. The Gardens – historically the link between the Atlas Mountains, life-giving water and the old walled city is a fitting place to build a museum which will surely become the 21st century link between the culturally diverse people of Morocco, her visitors and the international world of art and culture.
Marrakech, located in the heart of Morocco, hosts a vast and diverse pool of some 9 million international visitors annually and is the home of both the Marrakech International Film Festival and the Marrakech Biennale. The Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts will be a cultural epicenter in the region; its location will serve as the heart of a multi-point star drawing scholars, students, and visitors from around the world.
The Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts will be housed in a 6,000+ m2 state of the art museum facility designed by renown architect Sir David Chipperfield. This will be a transformative project for the Arts in Morocco and indeed all of Africa. When completed, MMP+ will house galleries, a theatre, café, bookshop, public spaces and extensive educational facilities – all of the components that create a lively innovative museum project.
Opening in January 2013 The Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts at the Badii Palace in Marrakech will be our temporary home while the permanent museum building is constructed. MMP+ at Badii Palace will have a rich, full program of exhibitions, education, cultural exchange and outreach. Functioning as a “project” space, the Badii Palace site will be a vibrant laboratory for the development of the programs and exhibitions that will be housed in the permanent building when complete.
The Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts will focus its collecting across 3 easily definable and broadly interpretive genres of photography and lens based media both static and moving. (a) Architecture / Design (b) Photojournalism (c) Fashion / Culture. Through tightly disciplined acquisitions MMP+ will build a collection that will allow diverse use both in its exhibition program and education. We will also retain the flexibly to exhibit a broad range of works of art across all media.
The Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts will form a hub for education across many areas of museum sciences. Our goal is to take students from Morocco and the region, whose interests are in curatorial studies, connoisseurship, museum operations, development etc. and teach them both within the confines of the museum, interaction within their local communities and by sending them abroad to work at some of the worlds great institutions and universities the hands-on practice of museum science.
With a rich program of exhibitions, education and cultural exchange the Museum will be the first such institution on the African Continent and will broaden the artistic experience across cultural boundaries to form greater understanding and tolerance.
The post Chipperfield to design photography
museum for Marrakech appeared first on Dezeen.
Beauty and decadent service at Marrakech’s palatial property
Anyone who books a luxury hotel surely wants the service to adhere to the old adage about being treated like a king, but Marrakech’s decadent Royal Mansour palace—originally intended to serve actual nobility—truly delivers such an experience. Overlooking the historic medina, Marrakech’s chaotic main marketplace, the hotel was personally commissioned by King Mohamed VI of Morocco to allow state guests. Completed in 2010, the perfect symmetry throughout the property represents the very best of Moorish architecture of Northern Africa, and every single item in the interior part of the space was handmade by a collaboration of local artisans whose decorative arts skills were passed down to them through many generations. Around every corner is another breathtaking example of geometrically chiseled sculptural cedar, zellige ornamental ceramic tile and smooth, shiny moulded tadelakt lime plaster work.
The Royal Mansour grounds form a labyrinth of paved marble paths lined with olive trees that lead to 53 unique riads, each built in the traditional style of a Moroccan home. Fortunately room keys are housed in a wallet with an accompanying map so you won’t get lost. The ground floor of each riad has a courtyard with a fountain, as well as a drawing room with a seating area covered in bespoke furniture and an abundant pile of elegant silk pillows. The second floor comprises a bedroom, dressing room and study. The top floor of each riad also has a private terrace with a fireplace and a plunge pool, perfect for enjoying breakfast with a view of the sunrise over the Atlas mountains. We recommend traditional Moroccan pancakes, Beghrir and Msemen, lightly fried dough served with the Mansour’s homemade spreads: almond butter with honey, apricot preserves and chocolate cream.
The rich three-bedroom riads include a library, private hamman and professional kitchen, and the complex houses one four-bedroom riad for those seeking a truly palatial experience away from home. There are no buttons or switches inside the riads—everything is controlled by a master touchscreen control panel.
For dinner, two restaurants overseen by Michelin-starred chef Yannick Alléno represent the dichotomy of Morocco’s rich culinary traditions.
La Grande Table Marocaine offers outstanding versions of local specialties like sheep’s head, while La Grande Table Française serves traditional dishes like couscous and tagine for less daring diners. The restaurants have made the Mansour a top foodie destination in Africa, where innovative dishes like prawns and game meat with local seasoning are paired with an equally impressive wine list.
The highlight of the Mansour is an unparalleled spa, which envelops guests in a rare sense of calm as they enter through a giant white wrought iron atrium reminiscent of a majestic birdcage. The experience begins in the “wellness lounge” with fresh lemon and ginger juice or a raw appetizer, from which guests can then choose between a traditional hamman for a scrub with black soap or an argan oil massage tailored to an individual’s needs. Guests can also enjoy deep steam baths or the covered greenhouse pool overlooking the gardens designed in the style of those on the grounds of the Alhambra Palace in Granada.
The Royal Mansour complex becomes a different entity at night, scored by the sounds of running water throughout the numerous fountains lining the candlelit walkways. Although there are 500 staff members, about 10 for every riad, you’re not likely to see the majority of them. The compound operates through an underground city where 24-hour butlers have access to each riad. This level of attentiveness may take some getting used to, but if you’re seeking a getaway where anything you desire is reachable with the touch of a button, you’ll find comfort in the Royal Mansour’s legendary service.
Rue Abou Abbas El Sebti
40 000 Marrakech
Morocco
+212 5 29 80 80 80
A Belgian film director resides in one of the four white boxy structures of this residence near Marrakech by Guilhem Eustache.
Alongside the main home, the Fobe House also comprises a pool house, a caretaker’s residence and a garage, which are dotted around the two-hectare site.
Two overlapping concrete walls screen the front of the house itself, while a concealed staircase between leads up to a terrace on the roof.
Patterned openings pierce these walls, as well as others around the house to create lattice-like shadows on the interior walls and floors.
The opposite side of the house opens out to the swimming pool and faces across to a stepped diving board and the pool house behind.
The project was completed in 2007.
We’ve only published a couple of projects from Morocco before – see projects there by Zaha Hadid and Foster + Partners by clicking here.\
Photography is by Jean-Marie Monthiers.
The text below is from Guilhem Eustache:
The land is located about ten kilometers south of Marrakech.
Flat, mostly drowned under a heat veil that hides horizon.
It is only from December to March that the snowy atlas appears.
In this 2.5 hectares area the buildings occupy only 240 sqm.
The volumes and their arrangements permit to avoid a floating effect in this empty space.
Before discovering the layout we first need to go along the clay walls, which remote the neighbours away while allowing the sight of whites geometries.
Once we cross through the metal gate, earth tinted, we are suddenly plunged into a strange world.
Three white steles frame and seek the longitudinal axis of the house in the center of the field.
On the right side, the Guard house, two mixed cubes, is close to a totem fireplace and faces the double garage all in length studded with small openings.
These simple elements articulate the vacuum around and focus the eye towards the house itself.
Paradoxically simple and complex: a foliation of longitudinals sails between which stages the project program; tall windows; sets of geometric cutouts; framing, especially from the living room across the pool and its bleachers toward the atlas.
Program: House
Location: Tassoultante, Marrakech / Morocco.
Address: village of Tassoultante / Amizmiz road – 9.2 km from Marrakech
Completion: 2007
Project area:
Private residence: 171,96 sqm
Guard house: 20,20 sqm
Garage: 35,08 sqm
Pool house: 13,12 sqm
Total: 240,36m² on 2,5 ha
Plantations: 23 olive tree, 10 palm, 450 eucalyptus, 200 mimosa, 20 fruit trees
Commisioner: private, Belgian film producer
Architect: Guilhem Eustache (Born in Nîmes / south of France)
Moroccan correspondent: Hicham Belhouari, architect / Marrakech / Morocco
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