Architects:
Nick Gowing Architects
Location: Ouirgane Valley,
Morocco
Interior Décor: Nick Gowing Architects
Project Year: 2015
Photographer: Various
Nick Gowing's L’Amandier Hotel emerges from the rich, red earth of the L’Amandier Plateau. So, whilst remaining true to the natural colour palette, he juxtaposed the buildings’ bold and striking geometric lines with the contours of the surrounding hills and mountains.
Set in the mesmerizing Ouirgane Valley, about an hour’s drive from Marrakech, is an inspiring modernist take on Moroccan architecture, with geometric earth-hued buildings that melt into the landscape.
The contemporary vernacular is complemented by the use of traditional, local building materials to spectacular effect. Narrow handmade bricks are symmetrically laid in the external feature stair towers to counterbalance the smooth plastered and rendered exterior walls.
The architectural marriage of international and local dialects is continued with the modern residences’ courtyards. Inspired by the traditional riad, where the courtyard is the epicentre, at L’Amandier each detached villa is open to the spectacular landscapes the length of its most private aspect and enclosed on the others.
The interior architecture is similarly rich in studied contrast. The doors are intricately carved in traditional geometric patterns, and then finished to striking appeal painted in an international Matt black, with burnished steel handles. Seen throughout, the smooth plasterwork, known as tadelakt, is a Moroccan specialty that when combined with a carefully selected color pigment creates a effect that would look equally au fait in Marrakech or Mayfair as it does L’Amandier.
The overall effect the architectural design has on one’s senses is, we believe, to leave one feeling both of the moment and place and yet also connected to the familiarity and comfort to which one is used. Come visit us, to sit awhile in one of our architectural jewels.
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