Sidi Harazem

The workshop will take place at the the Sidi Harazem Thermal Station (SHTS), designed in the 1960’s by Jean-François Zevaco, a French-Moroccan architect of Corsican descent. 

 

SHTS  is not only an extraordinary architectural project, emblematic of Moroccan post-colonial, situated modernism that aimed to root modernist ideals within the country’s geographic and social contexts, but also a civic tour de force, imbued with a highly poetic series of public spaces. These public spaces, organized around a large courtyard, are significant for Moroccans as the Sidi Harazem’s water is considered to hold holy and healing powers and is treasured among Morocco’s oldest and most visited springs. Built and continuously owned by the same government organization, the Caisse de Dépôt et de Gestion, the SHTS has undergone a series of changes that have undermined both its architecture and functionality: the closure, and subsequent weather damage, of several its buildings, the inadequate rehabilitation of its hotel, and an ad hoc addition in front of its pool entrance. 

 

Started in July 2017 by Aziza Chaouni and supported by a Keeping It Modern Grant, the conservation management plan (CMP) of Sidi Harazem is currently underway. Its goal is to a detailed phasing rehabilitation plan for the entire station while sharing with both Moroccan professionals and the general public the importance of their post-independence modernist heritage through the showcasing and dissemination of the SHTS’s history, architectural significance and CMP.