WEBVTT

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I would like to share with you today

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a project that has changed how I approach

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and practice architecture:

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the Fez River Rehabilitation Project.

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My hometown of Fez, Morocco,

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boasts one of the largest walled
medieval cities in the world,

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called Medina, nestled in a river valley.

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The entire city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

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Since the 1950s, as the
population of the Medina grew,

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basic urban infrastructure

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such as green open spaces and sewage

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quickly changed and got highly stressed.

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One of the biggest casualties of the situation

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was the Fez River, which bisects
the Medina in its middle

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and has been considered for many centuries

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as the city's very soul.

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In fact, one can witness the presence

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of the river's extensive water network

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all throughout the city,

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in places such as private and public fountains.

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Unfortunately, because of the pollution of the river,

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it has been covered little by little

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by concrete slabs since 1952.

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This process of erasure was coupled

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with the destruction of many houses

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along the river banks

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to be able to make machineries

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enter the narrow pedestrian network of the Medina.

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Those urban voids quickly became illegal parking

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or trash yards.

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Actually, the state of the river

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before entering the Medina is pretty healthy.

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Then pollution takes its toll,

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mainly due to untreated sewage

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and chemical dumping from crafts such as tanning.

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At some point, I couldn't bear

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the desecration of the river,

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such an important part of my city,

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and I decided to take action,

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especially after I heard that the city

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received a grant to divert sewage water

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and to treat it.

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With clean water, suddenly

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the uncovering of the river became possible,

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and with luck and actually a lot of pushing,

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my partner Takako Tajima and I

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were commissioned by the city to
work with a team of engineers

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to uncover the river.

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However, we were sneaky,

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and we proposed more:

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to convert riverbanks into pedestrian pathways,

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and then to connect these pathways

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back to the city fabric,

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and finally to convert the urban voids

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along the riverbanks into public spaces

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that are lacking in the Medina of Fez.

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I will show you briefly now

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two of these public spaces.

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The first one is el-Rcif Plaza,

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which sits actually right on top of the river,

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which you can see here in dotted lines.

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This plaza used to be a chaotic transportation hub

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that actually compromised the urban integrity

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of the Medina, that has the larger

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pedestrian network in the world.

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And right beyond the historic
bridge that you can see here,

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right next to the plaza,

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you can see that the river looked like

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a river of trash.

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Instead, what we proposed is to make

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the plaza entirely pedestrian,

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to cover it with recycled leather canopies,

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and to connect it to the banks of the river.

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The second site of intervention

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is also an urban void along the river banks,

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and it used to be an illegal parking,

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and we proposed it to transform it

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into the first playground in the Medina.

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The playground is constructed using recycled tires

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and also is coupled with a constructed wetland

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that not only cleans the water of the river

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but also retains it when floods occur.

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As the project progressed and
received several design awards,

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new stakeholders intervened

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and changed the project goals and design.

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The only way for us to be able to bring

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the main goals of the project ahead

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was for us to do something very unusual

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that usually architects don't do.

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It was for us to take our design ego

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and our sense of authorship

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and put it in the backseat

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and to focus mainly on being activists

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and on trying to coalesce

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all of the agendas of stakeholders

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and focus on the main goals of the project;

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that is, to uncover the river, treat its water,

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and provide public spaces for all.

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We were actually very lucky,

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and many of those goals happened

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or are in the process of happening.

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Like, you can see here el-Rcif Plaza.

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This is how it looked like about six years ago.

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This is how it looks like today.

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It's still under construction,

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but actually it is heavily used

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by the local population.

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And finally, this is how el-Rcif Plaza will look like

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when the project is completed.

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This is the river, covered, used as a trash yard.

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Then after many years of work,

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the river with clean water, uncovered.

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And finally, you can see here the river

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when the project will be completed.

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So for sure, the Fez River Rehabilitation

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will keep on changing and adapting

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to the sociopolitical landscape of the city,

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but we strongly believe that by reimagining

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the role and the agency of the architect,

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we have set up the core idea
of the project into motion;

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that is, to transform the river from sewage

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to public space for all,

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thereby making sure that the city of Fez

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will remain a living city for its inhabitants

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rather than a mummified heritage.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)