BAB ZAERS
MOROCCO

BAB ZAERS
MOROCCO

BAB ZAERS
MOROCCO

ISSUES
CAPACITY | RESILIENCE | SPACE
KEY ASPECTS
PLANNING | DESIGN
MASTER PLANNING FOR A DESERT COMMUNITY
Any engagement on tabula rasa can be both exciting and forbidding. Without the guiding lines of human imprints on a land, one is forced to acknowledge the strength and depth of natural forces in shaping any future the land may hold for human occupation. A very large site in the semi-arid landscape of Morocco, Bab Zaers is envisioned as an ecologically sustainable urban settlement. The carrying capacity of the entire development is premised on a closed loop utilisation of the scant rainfall the region receives. Rather than rely on engineered solutions, a framework of natural systems-based water management creates the armature for both the physical and morphological nature of the development. 
Colonisation of land guided by hydrological systems - extant and created
Productive lands programmed in response to natural systems
Ecological & Productive landscape as green infrastructure
Exploration of patterns of urbanisation
Morphological relationship between the built & unbuilt
Vignettes of open space development
Vignettes of open space development
An iterative process allowed for definition of densities – for every kind of occupation of the land – to address all aspects of resource management including water, energy, food and waste. After examining and discarding several models of urbanization, the most desirable patterns of development coupled with the most efficient hydrological systems forms the core of the master planning process. The settlement pattern is a direct expression of natural processes inherent in the landscape with disaggregated clusters of urbanised pockets within a large productive landscape. A third of the development are reserved as ecological spaces and managed exclusively for their ecosystem services while another third is dedicated to and designed as productive landscapes; these are developed with specific vegetation and biodiversity characteristics to address nutrition, productivity and economic viability. The remaining third of the land is dense urban settlements, that feed off and feed into the productive and ecological spaces. 
Development controls and management strategies are applied equally stringently across built and unbuilt spaces; this is critical to ensure the wholeness of the ecosystem of the development. All the unbuilt, non-urbanised spaces act as a single, integrated and ecologically productive green infrastructure, maximising the ecosystem services potential of the landscape.
The master plan process was in collaboration with m/s. Kilo of Paris and Casablanca. Bab Zaers is located less than an hour’s drive south of Rabat in the Kingdom of Morocco.

FOR PROJECTS BY TYPOLOGY

CLICK HERE
ISSUES
CAPACITY | RESILIENCE | SPACE
KEY ASPECTS
PLANNING | DESIGN
MASTER PLANNING FOR A DESERT COMMUNITY
Any engagement on tabula rasa can be both exciting and forbidding. Without the guiding lines of human imprints on a land, one is forced to acknowledge the strength and depth of natural forces in shaping any future the land may hold for human occupation. A very large site in the semi-arid landscape of Morocco, Bab Zaers is envisioned as an ecologically sustainable urban settlement. The carrying capacity of the entire development is premised on a closed loop utilisation of the scant rainfall the region receives. Rather than rely on engineered solutions, a framework of natural systems-based water management creates the armature for both the physical and  
morphological nature of the development.
An iterative process allowed for definition of densities – for every kind of occupation of the land – to address all aspects of resource management including water, energy, food and waste. After examining and discarding several models of urbanization, the most desirable patterns of development coupled with the most efficient hydrological systems forms the core of the master planning process. The settlement pattern is a direct expression of natural processes inherent in the landscape with disaggregated clusters of urbanised pockets within a large productive landscape. 
Colonisation of land guided by hydrological systems - extant and created
Productive lands programmed in response to natural systems
Ecological & Productive landscape as green infrastructure
Exploration of patterns of urbanisation
Morphological relationship between the built & unbuilt
Vignettes of open space development
Vignettes of open space development
A third of the development are reserved as ecological spaces and managed exclusively for their ecosystem services while another third is dedicated to and designed as productive landscapes; these are developed with specific vegetation and biodiversity characteristics to address nutrition, productivity and economic viability. 
The remaining third of the land is dense urban settlements, that feed off and feed into the productive and ecological spaces. 
Development controls and management strategies are 
applied equally stringently across built and unbuilt spaces; this is critical to ensure the wholeness of the ecosystem of the development. All the unbuilt, non-urbanised spaces act as a single, integrated and ecologically productive green infrastructure, maximising the ecosystem services potential of the landscape.
The master plan process was in collaboration with m/s. Kilo of Paris and Casablanca. Bab Zaers is located less than an hour’s drive south of Rabat in the Kingdom of Morocco.

FOR PROJECTS BY TYPOLOGY

CLICK HERE
ISSUES
CAPACITY | RESILIENCE | SPACE
KEY ASPECTS
RESEARCH | DESIGN
MASTER PLANNING FOR A DESERT COMMUNITY
Any engagement on tabula rasa can be both exciting and forbidding. Without the guiding lines of human imprints on a land, one is forced to acknowledge the strength and depth of natural forces in shaping any future the land may hold for human occupation. 
A very large site in the semi-arid landscape of Morocco, Bab Zaers is envisioned as an ecologically sustainable urban settlement. The carrying capacity of the entire development is premised on a closed loop utilisation of the scant rainfall the region receives. Rather than rely on engineered solutions, a framework of natural systems-based water management creates the armature for both the physical and morphological
nature of the development. An iterative process allowed for definition of densities – for every kind of occupation of the land – to address all aspects of resource management including water, energy, food and waste. 

After examining and discarding several models of urbanization, the most desirable patterns of development coupled with the most efficient hydrological systems forms the core of the master planning process. The settlement pattern is a direct expression of natural processes inherent in the landscape with disaggregated clusters of urbanised pockets within a large productive landscape. 
Colonisation of land guided by hydrological systems - extant and created
Productive lands programmed in response to natural systems
Ecological & Productive landscape as green infrastructure
Exploration of patterns of urbanisation
Morphological relationship between the built & unbuilt
Vignettes of open space development
Vignettes of open space development
A third of the development are reserved as ecological spaces and managed exclusively for their ecosystem services while another third is dedicated to and designed as productive landscapes; these are developed with specific vegetation and biodiversity characteristics to address nutrition, productivity and economic viability. The remaining third of the land is dense urban settlements, that feed off and feed into the productive and ecological spaces. 
Development controls and management strategies are 
applied equally stringently across built and unbuilt spaces; this is critical to ensure the wholeness of the ecosystem of the development. All the unbuilt, non-urbanised spaces act as a single, integrated and ecologically productive green infrastructure, maximising the ecosystem services potential of the landscape.
The master plan process was in collaboration with m/s. Kilo of Paris and Casablanca. Bab Zaers is located less than an hour’s drive south of Rabat in the Kingdom of Morocco.

FOR PROJECTS BY TYPOLOGY

CLICK HERE
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