Constructing Memories - Transformative Spatial Practice in Oujda, Morocco

The demolition of old housing units rather than repairing and adapting them towards today's needs and challenges is an unsustainable part of our building practice. This project opposes this practice and aims to develop tools by analyzing different housing types to save one of the analyzed buildings by transforming it, taking into account the sustainability of the transformation and the contemporary needs of the buildings inhabitants. The process of the transformation and extension is designed as an alternative future scenario for the building.

The starting point of the design scenario were first negotiations about the continuing existence of a housing unit in the moroccan city of Oujda. The residential building was once the living space of all the actors involved in this process and for some it remains their residence until today. For many years now the house and its condition were not taking care of. But this space and its constructive substance need maintenance and care like many other buildings in the same old street. Todays inhabitants have a lot of old memories of this building. Rather than its demolition we can learn from these memories and spatial experiences the inhabitants had within these spaces. By critically reflecting upon them, the future transformation of the building can react towards the daily needs of its users and at the same time being a sustainable alternative to the demolition. To geographically situate myself, I catalogued a total of 3 buildings in Morocco during a field trip in and around the city of Oujda. I analyzed each one on their typology, construction, use and transformation process over time. The analysis would then serve as tool for developing a design scenario within one of the existing buildings. The first part of the scenario deals with transformations within the existing structure, which is by itself based on the idea of continuous expansion and adaptation. In particular, the concept of repair is considered, and its potential which unleashes a variety of design possibilities. In the second part of the scenario, the focus is on the continuation and reactivation of the space. Here, the project moves beyond the private sphere and visibly extends into the urban space through an extension, turning the neighborhood into a site for spatial reflections on how we build today.