Usually representing spirits, ancestors or the primordial couple, these figures were placed in shrines and treated with great respect. Through a wide range of style, scale, belief and function the couples depicted share a timeless, serene equality necessary to the continuity of their societies.

Villa Z / Mohammed Amine Siana

Architects: Mohammed Amine Siana
Location: Casablanca, Morocco
Project Team: Mohammed Amine Siana, Yassine El Aouni, Rachid El Maataoui.
Interior Décor: Mohammed Amine Siana
Project Year: 2014
Photographer: Double Space Photography

Area: 650 m2

- 30 May 2016
- Datum Editorial
Residential , Contemporary , Contemporary African Directory , Selected Works , Editor's Choice , Contemporary Arabic ,

The Villa Z is a product of very strict city regulations, ones that ultimately confined the building into a 15m distance in a tight square.

Villa Z / Mohammed Amine Siana

It is oriented westwards to capture the evening sun and face the prominent avenue. The careful interplay of blank facades and glazed edifice is one that slowly revels itself in time, as if timid yet buoyed on by a strong presence of massing and intricate balance of forms vis-à-vis spatial integrity.

Villa Z / Mohammed Amine Siana

It is an elegant sight, especially in the city of Casablanca where traditional modernism has been the norm in recent years and this Villa does well to not poke anyone in the eye while in the same breath maintaining a characteristic distinct plausibility to its integrity as a modern artefact in the city of Casablanca.

Villa Z / Mohammed Amine Siana

Mohamed Siana, now a nominee for the Aga Khan Awards for Architecture for 2016 with two of his Partners, sort to carefully integrate the client’s routine, a similarly challenging task of navel-gazing vis-à-vis outward embracing of light and views. Mohammed Siana quips, "Based on this, and on the basis of a cube, our work is done on the opening of such plans cube leaves and sculpture, providing fully veiled openings from the outside by planes games which direct them to good prospects on the outside while avoiding vis-à-vis and within the appropriate guidelines and sunshine."

Villa Z / Mohammed Amine Siana

Of importance was also the climatic integrity of the building towards passive cooling and heat retention and this has been qualified through a court that leads through a pool for controlled air movement on water. It is a building that feels good to the touch, excites the sight and ultimately embraces the heart

CLICK TO REVIEW LINKED STORY

Taroudant University / Saad El Kabbaj, Driss Kettani, Mohamed Amine Siana
Saad El Kabbaj, Driss Kettani and Mohamed Amine Siana tried to avoid the clichés of the context alone by adopting a very modern development which also adopts the massiveness, strength, relief and the poetic nature of the forms of developments in the South.

SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS

If you want your own avatar and keep track of your discussions with the community, sign up to archiDATUM >>

SELECTED WORKS

- Bloomsbury Waterfront Development/ NLé Works
- 21 Apr 2015
The project is a premium office space that maximises the great views across the city’s waterfront within a strategic site plan that incor...
- Azur Pavilion/ Koffi & Diabaté Architectes
- 26 Apr 2015
For this project, Koffi and Diabate Architects created a pavilion that mediates in a holiday home situated at the seafront. With three ma...
- Yves Saint Laurent Museum / Studio KO
- 09 Apr 2018
While studying the couturier’s archives, Studio KO became intrigued by the duality between curved and straight lines, and between loose a...

CONTEMPORARY AFRICAN DIRECTORY

- Mama Sarah Foundation School/Kere Architecture
- 22 Mar 2015
Mama Sarah Obama’s vision is to create a “cycle of life” that encompasses an early childhood education centre, a primary and secondary sc...
- Ecological house in Gambia / Virai Arquitectos
- 01 May 2017
At the seaside just outside Tujereng, west Gambia, a house has been built for a family of three children and some bungalows to accommodat...
- New Algerian Parliament / Bureau Architecture Méditerannée
- 27 Apr 2015
It is important to recognize the character of the Architecture of the North. This is where the New Algerian Parliament by Bureau Archite...