The Moroccan headquarters of a German industrial giant, built from earth excavated on its own site. Decarbonisation, corporate identity and ancestral know-how brought together in a single building.
When Bosch launched the call for tenders for its new headquarters, the group wanted to affirm its commitment to Morocco and North Africa — relying exclusively on local expertise — and to strengthen its decarbonisation goal.
Our answer, in consortium with Atelier Mawlawi, was an innovative, low-carbon building that merges ancestral construction techniques with cutting-edge technology. Sijelmassi & Partners served as lead architect with overall design-and-supervision responsibility, from concept to handover.
The project reinterprets the intelligence of the ksar, the kasbah and the riad. Like the kasbahs, the outer façades carry narrow openings — thermal and solar protection — while the inner façades open in generous bays onto a sheltered heart.
That heart is a riad: a planted central patio arranged around a garden, a fountain basin and zellige tilework, drawing on Andalusian architecture and bringing light and coolness to every office floor.
Fountain basin, garden and zellige anchor the building in Moroccan and Andalusian heritage. Handcrafted material in dialogue with the rigour of an international headquarters — proof that cultural identity and corporate standards are not at odds.
Rather than hauling away the soil excavated for the two basement levels — usually treated as waste — we reused it on site to raise the rammed-earth walls and the compressed earth blocks (CEB).
A near-closed loop with a very low carbon footprint, at the scale of a 12,600 m² corporate headquarters. The massive earthen envelope provides thermal inertia — summer comfort starts here.
Building with earth at the scale of an international headquarters demands a scientific approach: characterisation, mix design and testing before anything is built.
The basement soil is extracted, stored and sorted right next to the site.
The earth is characterised and the mixes formulated (sand, lime, cement) to meet structural requirements.
Compressive, tensile and shear tests; implementation samples validated on site.
Compressed earth blocks manufactured through a modernised vernacular process.
Rammed-earth walls raised to the level of finish expected of an international headquarters.
A massive, high-inertia, low-carbon envelope — the matter of the place, turned into architecture.
The earth provides the inertia; technology does the rest. Through its photovoltaic panels the building generates more energy than it needs, while a centralised building management system (BMS) optimises every load, connected to a network of sensors and the nearest weather station.
Automated windows for night cooling, radiant ceiling panels (heating and cooling), sunshades, adaptive lighting and an air-handling plant: comfort without excess consumption.
All the building's intelligence converges in its Building Management System (BMS): a central computer connected to a multitude of sensors and to the nearest weather station, continuously driving the building's motorised systems.
Driven by temperature, wind and sunlight sensors — providing night-time free cooling, among other functions.
Connected to light and radiation sensors, they modulate solar gains throughout the day.
Air handling unit driven by CO2 and humidity sensors; radiant heating/cooling ceilings for draught-free comfort.
Surplus photovoltaic production stored in batteries; adaptive artificial lighting controlled via DALI.
Open spaces, meeting rooms and circulations all open onto the riad and its greenery — natural light and everyday comfort.
Sijelmassi & Partners carried overall design-and-supervision responsibility and led, as lead architect, a specialised team — including a geotechnical and earth-materials laboratory and a dedicated earth-construction expert.
The Bosch headquarters has become a reference case for corporate-scale earthen construction, covered by the press and international professional forums.
Bosch brings together, in one project, what usually seems contradictory: the standards of a global corporation, genuine decarbonisation (down to reusing the site's own earth), an identity rooted in its territory, and full command of BIM and site delivery. That is precisely what we offer clients who want a building that is at once an image, sustainable and under control.
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