Professor Ángela Ruiz Plaza (IE School of Architecture)
What do you do in the south of Marruecos?
I have a research and cooperation project. It is a project on sustainability in the M’hamid oasis, the last oasis in the valley of the Draa, in the Sahara desert. There are 7 kasbahs which reached great splendor at the time of the camel caravans and that now are in decadence. The project tries, on one hand, to analyze the socioeconomic, agricultural and architectural conditions of the village and on the other, it researches on the sustainable development of architecture in the desert, on biotechnology applied to the construction, on biofarming on dry soil and on the development through tourism and cooperation aimed at the preservation of the cultural identity and the improvement of life conditions for the local population.
What can an architect learn in a developing country?
First, and foremost, he/she learns to see architecture as something closely related to society and people. The architect learns that architecture responds to the need of living. And in an extreme climate like the one in the Sahara, he/she learns that architecture must be simple and intelligent and to adapt him/herself to the environment, like an animal does in the ecosystem where it lives. In this context, architecture is a huge challenge as you have to provide complex and effective answers in extreme conditions. Read more…
