Signed essays, interviews, international lectures and institutional engagements. A reference voice on raw earth construction, urban acupuncture and the future of African cities — from Casablanca to Paris, Barcelona and Madrid.
Most of the sources below are in French, the working language of the Moroccan architectural press. Original titles are kept, with an English summary; the language of each item is marked.
Text and photographs by Jaafar Sijelmassi and Omar Mawlawi. The full account of the method used on the Bosch headquarters: 14 m rammed-earth columns, 50 cm compressed-earth-block walls, under 7% lime or cement, Venturi-effect night cooling — and three times more workers and craftspeople than an industrial build.
Read the synthesis →“When you dig up soil, instead of treating it as waste, you treat it as a noble material that simply needs shaping.” Moroccan vernacular typology, thermal mass, natural ventilation, and the articulation of low-tech and high-tech.
Read the page →Act at small scale, over a short timeframe, at chosen points. The friction point is neither budget nor technique — it is the institutional willingness to entrust public space to the people who live in it.
Read the page →The survivalist movement puts a hard question to architecture in its most primal purpose: to protect. From self-sufficient bases to bunkers sold at 50,000 dollars a place, an inquiry into an architecture of anxiety.
Read the essay →A profile of the practice's approach: how heritage requirements and environmental requirements, so often presented as opposed, converge in the making of a project.
Opening of the Ténor group's first shopping centre, on the coast road near Témara. The project is credited to Jaafar Sijelmassi and Omar Mawlawi.
L'Économiste — read →Quoted as an expert on the risks the REB 2025 regulation poses to earth construction in Morocco, with a comparison of the Swiss, German and French standards.
Médias24 — read →Micro-interventions produce macro-effects, provided the authorities genuinely commit, and stay committed over time.
Luxe Radio — listen →“Vernacular architecture is architecture without an architect.”
Interview with Ababacar Tounkara: Moroccan typology, compressed earth block, natural ventilation, and the case for an African architecture of the future.
Medi1 — listen →A leading international podcast on sustainable architecture. The Bosch headquarters examined through rammed earth, BIM and the future of vernacular materials.
Building Green Show — watch →Interview with Jaafar Sijelmassi and Omar Mawlawi on the articulation between ancestral techniques, bioclimatic design and material recycling.
Batinfo — watch →Jaafar Sijelmassi and Omar Mawlawi presented as the architects of the heritage rehabilitation of the Fouchal, Tendrara and Bouarfa railway stations.
L'Économiste — read →Interview on constructive innovation and sustainability in the Moroccan building sector, published by the construction and public works magazine.
BTP News — read →A technical partner's account of the collaboration, together with a detailed study of the Bosch headquarters.
Alto Eko — see the study →Interview on Moroccan architecture, local materials and the future of African cities.
Immotalk — watch →A 12,381 m² regional headquarters built in earth — compressed blocks and rammed earth — drawing on the kasbah. A first for a major German industrial client in Morocco.
L'Économiste — read →Directly quoted by Morocco's national press agency on the link between targeted urban interventions, social cohesion and the reduction of violence.
Médias24 / MAP — read →A feature on the method: act at small scale, over a short timeframe, at chosen points — solutions already proven in Chile and Brazil.
L'Économiste — read →Interview on urban acupuncture: healing the city through small interventions rather than large gestures that are costly and politically slow to carry.
L'Économiste — read →Contribution to the national survey on expectations for neighbourhood amenities. Headline result: children's play areas rank ahead of green space, 33 to 28.
L'Économiste-Sunergia — see the survey →“Jaafar Sijelmassi will present a body of work on architecture.”
Press conference in Casablanca with Jean-Martin Hubert, Mehdi Qotbi and Moulim El Aroussi, announcing the exhibition shown at the Institut du monde arabe from 15 October 2014 to 25 January 2015.
Le360 — read →The first full radio exposition of the method, a month after the two L'Économiste articles.
A report from a construction site opened to the public: a device for transmitting building know-how and for mediating the work of earth.
A short broadcast excerpt on urban quality of life — the earliest preserved public intervention on this subject.
Speaker on urban development and smart city transformation in North Africa.
Programme and speakers →Panel participation at the SIEL, at the invitation of the Oriental Region of Morocco.
Talk on planting, urban comfort and the design of outdoor space in hot climates.
A 52-minute round table at the Mondial du Bâtiment, alongside architects from Italy, Spain, Tunisia and Turkey, on summer comfort and Mediterranean responses to climate disruption.
Watch the full recording →Listed among the congress's international experts. The Bosch headquarters in Casablanca is one of the projects presented.
Official announcement →Presentation of the method to an international professional audience.
Watch the presentation →Discussion with Martin Chenot, director of the Institut français de Casablanca, Maria Laraki, president of the Moroccan landscape architects, and Ismail Lahlou, social development engineer.
Watch the discussion →The session “Architecture in Morocco: reinventing and re-enchanting space”, held by the IMA as part of the exhibition “Le Maroc contemporain”. An evening in tribute to the architect Abderrahim Sijelmassi, whom the Institut du monde arabe describes as one of the great modern architects, always driven by the defence of an alternative architecture.
Speakers gathered for the tribute: Jean Dethier, former head of architecture exhibitions at the Centre Pompidou and former adviser to the Moroccan Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning · Rachid Andaloussi, architect · Tarik Oualalou, president of the Foundation for Arts, Design and Architecture · Jaafar Sijelmassi, architect · Soumiya Jalal Mikou, architect · Lionel Guyon, scenographer. Chaired by Nadine Descendre, art critic, punctuated by poetry readings accompanied on double bass.
Official IMA page → · Full recording →Curator of the architecture section of the landmark exhibition devoted to Moroccan creation, shown at the IMA from 15 October 2014 to 25 January 2015. Around 80 artists brought together, and for the first time the whole of the Institute's spaces given over to a single exhibition. Le360 announcement
Vice-president of the executive board (2018–2020) — an advocate of bioclimatic construction and sustainability standards in Morocco.
Visiting lecturer at the Université Internationale de Rabat, and teacher of craft creation at the Academy of Traditional Arts in Casablanca — building bridges between “low-tech” craftsmanship and bioclimatic architecture. Also runs workshops at ENSAPLV (Paris-La Villette), his own school.
Editorial adviser and long-standing contributor to the promotion of the Moroccan architectural scene.
Training module on urban acupuncture, delivered with the Université Internationale de Rabat to senior ministry officials.
A forward-looking talk on the evolution of construction methods and of housing towards 2050.
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