“What marks this project is its wisdom that keeps the process open to future possibilities” – Holcim Awards Jury
-
3 / 5
Global Holcim Awards Gold 2009 prize handover
Winners of the Global Holcim Awards Gold 2009 prize (l-r), Takako Tajima, urban planner and co-founder, and Aziza Chaouni, architect and co-founder, Bureau EAST, Morocco/Canada/USA congratulated by Markus Akermann, Chairman of the Management Board of the Holcim Foundation and CEO of Holcim Ltd, Switzerland.
-
4 / 5
Global Holcim Awards Gold 2009 prize handover
Congratulating the winners of the Global Holcim Awards Gold prize 2009 (l-r): Haruko Hirose, Special and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Japan to Rabat; prize-winner Aziza Chaouni, architect and co-founder, Bureau EAST, Morocco/Canada/USA; Mohammed Gharrabi, Wali of Fez-Bouleman, Morocco; and prize-winner Takako Tajima, urban planner and co-founder, Bureau EAST, Morocco/Canada/USA.
-
5 / 5
Members of the Global Holcim Awards Gold 2009 winning team (l-r): Nicko Elliott, Takako Tajima and Aziza Chaouni, Bureau EAST, Morocco/Canada/USA holding the Global Holcim Awards Gold trophy and prize certificate. The icosahedron, a twelve-cornered polyhedron with an aspect ratio of the golden section, represents the objectives of the Holcim Awards because sustainability always strives for harmony – between today and tomorrow, between resources and consumption, and between needs and opportunities.
This is a multi-sited, multi-functional project that is centered upon the recovery of a river. Work on restoring it triggers a range of interventions in the Medina. Outstanding features of this project are the strong emphasis on process and on the use of what is there. Core components are the rehabilitation of the old city’s architecture, revitalizing public spaces and traditional tanneries, and creating new pedestrian zones.
Last updated: May 08, 2009 Zurich, Switzerland
Each step in the project is part of a longer chain of recoveries, which also allows for future interventions. And it all starts with what is there now. Recovery of the river is conceived of as an interactive process. At one end, river recovery includes a return to original ecologies, notably promoting the growth of wetlands and biodiversity.
At the other end, river recovery feeds into the rehabilitation of economic, social and civic activities: the potential for rehabilitating older craft industries, the sensitizing of the population to ecological issues and a clean city. This is a phased project, with an initial phase of river recovery under way and the support of the city (urban government) of Fez.
This phased approach opens up the project to the incorporation of further work. One critical aspect of further work that will have to be dealt with is the risk of flash floods that can surpass the absorption capacity of wetlands; there are simple and low-cost interventions that have been successful elsewhere. Given the open design of this project, such an addition should not be a problem: it would build on the river recovery work in process now. What marks this project is its wisdom: it works with what is there and uses it as a platform for upgrading and keeps the process open to future possibilities.