Riad Restoration
Riad Hour
Marrakech, Morocco
Client
Private owner-operator
Marrakech, Morocco
The project
A ruined riad in the Marrakech medina rebuilt as a five-room guest house around its citrus court, its walls finished in tadelakt and its roofs in cedar, worked entirely by medina craftspeople.
Discipline
Riad Restoration
Location
Marrakech, Morocco
Year
2023
Area
700 m²
01·The brief
A riad, rebuilt properly
A collapsed riad two turns off the medina's main derb: citrus trees alive under the rubble, structure sound behind the fallen walls. The brief was to rebuild it with the medina's own trades — maalems for the tadelakt and zellige, cedar carvers for the roofs — and open it as a five-room guest house.
02·The approach
Tadelakt, zellige, cedar
Walls are re-built in pisé and finished in tadelakt in warm greys and ochres; the court's zellige is re-laid around the original basin; upper rooms open under restored cedar ceilings. New services run invisibly; nothing in the palette is new to the medina.
03·The result
Opened in 2023
The riad opened in 2023 and runs full in season. The citrus trees fruited the first spring. Published with the owner's consent.
Scope of work
01Restoration architecture
02Hospitality planning
03Tadelakt and zellige coordination
04Interior architecture
05Custom cedar joinery
06Landscape reinstatement
