FEZ-BAB JDID-CARPARK

Restricted Competition

Status: THIRD PRIZE

Program: Parking hub, public park and amenities

Total area: 8.4 Ha

Budget: 5,2M €

Client: ADER

Location: Fez, Morocco

Design: 2017/2018

Team: NAUTA architecture & research + Cabinet d’ Architecture et de Design Najiba el Alami Malti

How can we design a parking area capable to be transformed in time, adapting to the future of urban mobility, in which cars will be banned, especially from historical contexts? How can we dignify such an important part of the urban landscape, while supplying a necessary facility to support the access to the Medina and improve the local mobility? How can we design a car centered space, while focusing on sustainable principles that can enhance the environmental quality of the city?

Based on these questions, we thought of a rational structure of parking lots as a structuring pattern for both, the design of the parking, as well as the adjacent park. The area will be very visible from the upper hill of the Medina, making it an important visual scenario from the historical center. This makes its perception very important and delicate.
We structure a pattern of funnel shaped canopies, based on the use of two modules. The canopies contribute to shade the parking lots, especially during the warm seasons. At the same time, being distributed on different terraces, they articulate a sculptural landscape. The canopies, as well as the parking lots, are distributed following a color code according to each parking sector, facilitating the orientation. The tridimensional landscape is integrated to the design of the landscape: the patterns of the canopies and of the trees dissolve into each other, connecting artificial and natural landscape in a unique composition. From the upper Medina, the colorful area assumes the visual power of a land-art composition, where nature and technology create a powerful visual symbol, memory of local traditions, such as the ceramics and the leather tannery.
The canopies are as well integral part of the sustainability strategy; The funnel shape contributes to canalize the rain water into underground collectors, which are connected following the inclination of the terraces. The topography helps to canalize the water to the lower site, where tanks redistribute the water to the park and use it for gardening and public toilets. The flow of water between terraces contributes as well to lower the temperature of the spaces under the canopies during warm seasons, working as a natural cooling system.
Every canopy is equipped with a solar panel, capable to supply energy to the led lights illuminating the canopy; Every canopy becomes energetically autonomous, reducing maintenance costs and promoting a sustainable model to run the parking.
Fez tradition of Andalusian influence is the base of the park design. Following the linearity of the parking terraces and the regular pattern of the canopies, we create a unique composition between parking and green area, echoing the Andalusian influence. The resulting composition makes nature and artifice a unique gesture, broken by the irregular geometry of the archeological ruins crossing the site.
The project envisages a parking complex capable of adapting in time to the new mobility innovations. This is the key starting point to design a space that can host in time different social and commercial functions. For this reason we imagine the linear structure of the parking terraces as capable to host a market or public spaces, a sort of contemporary Medina that can extend the program of the Fes El Bali.