Architectures of the common good – book presentation @Dar Bellarj
Architectures of the common good. Ethics for preservation. From legacy to contemporaneity.
On the occasion of Harvest Festival Marrakech Spring Edition 2023, Dar Bellarj, in dialogue with LE 18 & QANAT, hosts Salima who will present her research and book on Greniers collectifs de l’Atlas.
This discussion will be in French, Darija, and Tamazight where appropriate in the discussion.
Confronted with a certain wasting of the world, it is possible to draw lines of resistance that implement a dynamics of local adaptation, thereby avoiding damagingly global approaches, notably the ubiquitous use of concrete, whose most obvious expression can be seen at sites in Morocco where the geological landscape is so striking. This also involves proposing, in conjunction with users, architectural productions on an appropriate, often modest, scale, one truly concerned with the well-being of everyone: building toward the common good, in a way, which favors the social conditions of construction, which reconsiders its use, which restores our attachment to places and specific spatial practices. Associating the anthropological dimension of heritage is today the only answer to our heritage, still “alive”. Oases and collective granaries have the particularity of establishing microclimates over the long term, allowing a rich and perennial form of life to be established. In these sentinel places, in the face of climatic extremes, the modalities of a complex living environment linking humans, plants and animals to maintain a multisecular fertile metabolism are tested.
Salima Naji has been working on projects aiming at protecting the oasis heritage of southern Morocco for the past 20 years. She has designed, restored or built over 30 bioclimatic buildings in unfired clay and/or stone. She founded in Morocco in 2004, a studio specializing in the innovative use of sustainable raw materials and biosourced technologies earth and stone, palm tree fibre). In addition to her architectural practice, she also participates in international environmental research-action programmes/sustainable research and action programmes for environmental development in collaboration with local communities.
