Moroccan Architect Honoured with French Award

The View from Fez is very happy to report that our friend, the distinguished architect, lecturer, writer and photographer, Rachid Haloui, has been awarded the Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres de la Republique Francaise (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters).

Rachid Haloui at Riad Zany in Fez

Rachid Haloui (56), has been a long-time advocate for the preservation of the Fez Medina and has also produced a beautiful book about Essaouira. As well as being active in design, he presently lectures at l'Ecole Nationale Superieure d'Archetecture de Toulouse. Although Toulouse is his French home, his heart is well and truly in the Fez Medina.

His architectural expertise is matched by an intellectual and philosophical approach that makes sense of the complexities of Islamic architecture. He says that the quality of spaces in traditional buildings is purer than in modern housing. He considers that the décor is an added extra "Like the feather on a cap".

"Man needs to something to measure by. With Medina houses, symmetry is used as a way of making the space intelligible, based around the square or rectangle. Zellij is like a metaphysical science, used to make space measurable.". - Rachid Haloui

"Usually the shape of the parcel of land determines the architecture, but in the Medina it is very different," he says. "Here they build houses from the inside, to have symmetry, and the outside doesn't matter at all. You start with the idea of a square or a rectangle that is empty inside. In the Occidental way, it is the opposite. In the Palladian model, the inside is full, and it is empty all around. The Arabs were desert people and they found the emptiness frightening, so they created a way to formally control the space. The French philosopher Pascal said when he saw the night sky and the stars it made him anxious, so he believed in God."

Rachid Haloui was the architect in charge of the renovation of Riad Zany, the home of The View from Fez and we congratulate him on the honour bestowed on him by the French government. We understand he is working on a new book about the Fez Medina.

Photo: Suzanna Clarke

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