STUDIO L’ORIENTALE, (Morocco), 2007-2008
Client : Kingdom of Morocco
Team : TAKTYK, ITAC Europ Alliance Protourisme
Program : Study
Location : Morocco
Surface Area : 80 000 m2
Cost : N/A
Date : 2007 – 2008
The project for the future of the Oriental region of Morocco is a journey across a vast and as yet undiscovered landscape.
The region, lying along the closed border of Algeria, represents 80,000km2, a territory approximately the size of Scotland. The project challenged the current touristic development in the region, as part of a national plan to increase tourism in Morocco from five to ten million visitors per year.
The specific nature of this commission questioned how to imagine tourism as a transformative force for a region, and possibly how to anticipate the future of the Mediterranean Basin. The main issue was to examine the potential and the impact of opening an international airport in the region. In a place under such pressure from tourism, it is vital to determine both the site’s capacity and its limits for accommodating change.
Our study looking though the prism of three ecological regions demonstrated that one of them leading to the “gate of the Sahara” would be altered by mass tourism. The strategic take was how to do less to enhance qualitative tourism forms. Beyond a speculative project, this commission was an opportunity to deal with the real forces that shape developing nations, such as Morocco.