Maroc Telecom

Maroc Telecom
© Takuji Shimmura

MAROC TELECOM

Jean-Paul Viguier Architecture

AREA
27500.0 sqm

PROJECT YEAR
2013

LOCATION
Rabat, Morocco

CATEGORY
Office Buildings

PHOTOGRAPHS
Takuji Shimmura

Text description provided by architect.

Like many historic cities, Rabat is proud of its past but also eager to look to the future. The city could not, therefore, avoid the necessity to grow while combining tradition and modernity.

Maroc Telecom
© Takuji Shimmura
Maroc Telecom
© Takuji Shimmura

Perhaps more than anywhere else, the appearance of a 135-metre high tower is anything but ordinary. This tower had to reflect the flair and potential of tradition and also stand out as modern.

Its design was thus influenced by the subtle dialectic underpinning the most outstanding buildings in the country:

Maroc Telecom
© Takuji Shimmura
Maroc Telecom
Maroc Telecom
© Takuji Shimmura

interior and exterior, sobriety and luxury, warmth and coolness, etc.

These do not express relationships of opposition but rather form magical relationships with each other.

The tower rises from a large, pure parallelepiped-shaped volume covering the whole surface area.

Maroc Telecom
© Takuji Shimmura
Maroc Telecom
© Takuji Shimmura
Maroc Telecom
© Takuji Shimmura

Two prisms are formed by sliding two halves of the volume diagonally, thereby revealing the "original" interior of the form.

Only the base of the tower remains intact as if rooted in the ground.

Maroc Telecom
© Takuji Shimmura
Maroc Telecom
© Takuji Shimmura
Maroc Telecom
© Takuji Shimmura

This creates an architectural style combining shade and light, delicacy and power.

The building is topped off by a 27-metre overhang, which makes a powerful impression on the observer.


Maroc Telecom
© Takuji Shimmura
Maroc Telecom
© Takuji Shimmura
Maroc Telecom
© Takuji Shimmura


Maroc Telecom
Sketches