OUALALOU + CHOI has designed the Morocco Pavilion at the 2020 Expo in Dubai, showcasing traditional Moroccan design and construction techniques. The pavilion brings “rammed earth construction to new heights”.
Imagined by the award-winning international team of OUALALOU + CHOI, based in Paris and Casablanca, the Morocco Pavilion is scheduled to open in October 2020, with construction underway. Highlighting a pioneering work of rammed earth construction, the project puts in place a 4000 m², 33 m high rammed earth façade, the largest of its kind.
“Pushing the technical and creative limits of Morocco’s traditional building materials to new heights, while paying tribute to the country’s rich and varied culture and landscape”, the composition comprises twenty-two stacked rectangular volumes, including fourteen exhibition spaces, a traditional Moroccan restaurant, a tea room, a modern street food area, a shop, an event space, an office space, and a lounge. In fact, the traditional building material in Morocco plays a key role in passively regulating indoor conditions in hot and arid places.
Designed around an inner courtyard, a major spatial element in traditional Moroccan architecture, the different spaces of the pavilion are connected by a continuous “inner street”. The on-going path generates a “set route between sequential exhibition spaces, allowing visitors to come into contact with and experience the different regions and cultures of Morocco”, as they descend to the Pavilion’s ground level. In addition, people can navigate through the project from its eastern core, where a 15 m² elevating platform and exhibition space can bring up to 50 people at a time from the ground to the seventh floor.
In line with this commitment to sustainability, after the conclusion of the 2020 Expo, the Pavilion will be converted into a housing complex, with existing facilities thoughtfully adapted into apartments, an 80 m² swimming pool, a fitness club, and a shared lounge.
Morocco Pavilion – Expo 2020 Dubai
- Status: Under construction (expected completion October 2020)
- Client: Kingdom of Morocco Pavilion - Expo 2020 Dubai
- Program: Exhibition, Food and Beverage (Traditional Moroccan Restaurant, Tea Room, Modern Street Food Area), Lounge, Event Space, Office, Shop
- Site Area: 1467 m²
- GFA: 6057 m²
- Location: Dubai, UAE
- Architects: OUALALOU + CHOI (O+C)
- Design Principals: Tarik Oualalou, Linna Choi
- Design Team: Daniel Larré (Project Architect), Alia Ben Ammar (Senior Architect - Site Supervision), Chloé Zimmermann, Daniele Pasin
- Consultants: Earth Structures Group
- Perspectives: Metrochrome
- Engineering: e.construct, TESS
- Local Architect: e.construct
