Situated in the heart of Morocco’s capital city of Rabat, the plaza creates a dynamic new public gathering space which encourages both planned and spontaneous urban and cultural events. Previously, the plaza consisted of the residual space between four vehicular roads. By sinking the core of the plaza and re-attaching two sides of the plaza to pedestrian thoroughfares, we created an urban ‘living room’ which shelters public activity from the busy street s. The primary entry to the plaza consists of an integrated ramp/stair structure which gives the plaza the quality of an outdoor auditorium. The materiality and tectonics of the plaza are intentionally mute, and the use of local granite reinforces the illusion that the project is carved out of the landscape; the building is not ‘added’, but rather ‘subtracted’ from its site.
