1
00:00:00,806 --> 00:00:02,306
I would like to share with you today

2
00:00:02,306 --> 00:00:04,460
a project that has changed how I approach

3
00:00:04,460 --> 00:00:06,371
and practice architecture:

4
00:00:06,371 --> 00:00:09,299
the Fez River Rehabilitation Project.

5
00:00:09,299 --> 00:00:11,640
My hometown of Fez, Morocco,

6
00:00:11,640 --> 00:00:15,307
boasts one of the largest walled
medieval cities in the world,

7
00:00:15,307 --> 00:00:18,036
called the medina, nestled in a river valley.

8
00:00:18,046 --> 00:00:21,634
The entire city is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

9
00:00:21,634 --> 00:00:25,610
Since the 1950s, as the
population of the medina grew,

10
00:00:25,610 --> 00:00:27,530
basic urban infrastructure

11
00:00:27,530 --> 00:00:30,460
such as green open spaces and sewage

12
00:00:30,460 --> 00:00:35,110
quickly changed and got highly stressed.

13
00:00:35,110 --> 00:00:38,065
One of the biggest casualties of the situation

14
00:00:38,065 --> 00:00:42,028
was the Fez River, which bisects
the medina in its middle

15
00:00:42,028 --> 00:00:45,000
and has been considered for many centuries

16
00:00:45,000 --> 00:00:47,572
as the city's very soul.

17
00:00:47,572 --> 00:00:49,990
In fact, one can witness the presence

18
00:00:49,990 --> 00:00:53,170
of the river's extensive water network

19
00:00:53,170 --> 00:00:54,451
all throughout the city,

20
00:00:54,451 --> 00:00:58,072
in places such as private and public fountains.

21
00:00:58,072 --> 00:01:01,921
Unfortunately, because of the pollution of the river,

22
00:01:01,921 --> 00:01:04,357
it has been covered little by little

23
00:01:04,357 --> 00:01:07,431
by concrete slabs since 1952.

24
00:01:07,431 --> 00:01:10,859
This process of erasure was coupled

25
00:01:10,859 --> 00:01:12,895
with the destruction of many houses

26
00:01:12,895 --> 00:01:14,387
along the river banks

27
00:01:14,387 --> 00:01:16,376
to be able to make machineries

28
00:01:16,376 --> 00:01:21,040
enter the narrow pedestrian network of the medina.

29
00:01:21,040 --> 00:01:24,335
Those urban voids quickly became illegal parking

30
00:01:24,335 --> 00:01:26,291
or trash yards.

31
00:01:26,291 --> 00:01:28,260
Actually, the state of the river

32
00:01:28,260 --> 00:01:31,535
before entering the medina is pretty healthy.

33
00:01:31,535 --> 00:01:33,830
Then pollution takes its toll,

34
00:01:33,830 --> 00:01:36,249
mainly due to untreated sewage

35
00:01:36,249 --> 00:01:39,900
and chemical dumping from crafts such as tanning.

36
00:01:39,900 --> 00:01:41,950
At some point, I couldn't bear

37
00:01:41,950 --> 00:01:43,605
the desecration of the river,

38
00:01:43,605 --> 00:01:46,335
such an important part of my city,

39
00:01:46,335 --> 00:01:47,986
and I decided to take action,

40
00:01:47,986 --> 00:01:50,321
especially after I heard that the city

41
00:01:50,321 --> 00:01:53,415
received a grant to divert sewage water

42
00:01:53,415 --> 00:01:55,035
and to treat it.

43
00:01:55,035 --> 00:01:56,992
With clean water, suddenly

44
00:01:56,992 --> 00:01:59,467
the uncovering of the river became possible,

45
00:01:59,467 --> 00:02:02,347
and with luck and actually a lot of pushing,

46
00:02:02,347 --> 00:02:04,563
my partner Takako Tajima and I

47
00:02:04,563 --> 00:02:08,194
were commissioned by the city to
work with a team of engineers

48
00:02:08,194 --> 00:02:10,302
to uncover the river.

49
00:02:10,302 --> 00:02:12,257
However, we were sneaky,

50
00:02:12,257 --> 00:02:13,574
and we proposed more:

51
00:02:13,574 --> 00:02:18,250
to convert riverbanks into pedestrian pathways,

52
00:02:18,250 --> 00:02:20,210
and then to connect these pathways

53
00:02:20,210 --> 00:02:21,853
back to the city fabric,

54
00:02:21,853 --> 00:02:24,406
and finally to convert the urban voids

55
00:02:24,406 --> 00:02:27,837
along the riverbanks into public spaces

56
00:02:27,837 --> 00:02:30,187
that are lacking in the Medina of Fez.

57
00:02:30,187 --> 00:02:31,954
I will show you briefly now

58
00:02:31,954 --> 00:02:34,991
two of these public spaces.

59
00:02:34,991 --> 00:02:37,771
The first one is the Rcif Plaza,

60
00:02:37,771 --> 00:02:40,853
which sits actually right on top of the river,

61
00:02:40,853 --> 00:02:43,890
which you can see here in dotted lines.

62
00:02:43,890 --> 00:02:47,557
This plaza used to be a chaotic transportation hub

63
00:02:47,557 --> 00:02:49,481
that actually compromised the urban integrity

64
00:02:49,481 --> 00:02:51,849
of the medina, that has the largest

65
00:02:51,849 --> 00:02:54,448
pedestrian network in the world.

66
00:02:54,448 --> 00:02:57,553
And right beyond the historic
bridge that you can see here,

67
00:02:57,553 --> 00:02:59,364
right next to the plaza,

68
00:02:59,364 --> 00:03:01,524
you can see that the river looked like

69
00:03:01,524 --> 00:03:03,785
a river of trash.

70
00:03:03,785 --> 00:03:06,017
Instead, what we proposed is to make

71
00:03:06,017 --> 00:03:08,375
the plaza entirely pedestrian,

72
00:03:08,375 --> 00:03:11,278
to cover it with recycled leather canopies,

73
00:03:11,278 --> 00:03:15,030
and to connect it to the banks of the river.

74
00:03:15,030 --> 00:03:16,914
The second site of intervention

75
00:03:16,914 --> 00:03:19,920
is also an urban void along the river banks,

76
00:03:19,920 --> 00:03:22,267
and it used to be an illegal parking,

77
00:03:22,267 --> 00:03:23,722
and we proposed to transform it

78
00:03:23,722 --> 00:03:26,797
into the first playground in the medina.

79
00:03:26,797 --> 00:03:30,525
The playground is constructed using recycled tires

80
00:03:30,525 --> 00:03:33,360
and also is coupled with a constructed wetland

81
00:03:33,360 --> 00:03:35,790
that not only cleans the water of the river

82
00:03:35,790 --> 00:03:39,381
but also retains it when floods occur.

83
00:03:39,381 --> 00:03:42,412
As the project progressed and
received several design awards,

84
00:03:42,412 --> 00:03:44,680
new stakeholders intervened

85
00:03:44,680 --> 00:03:48,458
and changed the project goals and design.

86
00:03:48,458 --> 00:03:51,240
The only way for us to be able to bring

87
00:03:51,240 --> 00:03:54,532
the main goals of the project ahead

88
00:03:54,532 --> 00:03:56,962
was for us to do something very unusual

89
00:03:56,962 --> 00:03:58,874
that usually architects don't do.

90
00:03:58,874 --> 00:04:02,126
It was for us to take our design ego

91
00:04:02,126 --> 00:04:03,602
and our sense of authorship

92
00:04:03,602 --> 00:04:05,736
and put it in the backseat

93
00:04:05,736 --> 00:04:08,245
and to focus mainly on being activists

94
00:04:08,245 --> 00:04:10,150
and on trying to coalesce

95
00:04:10,150 --> 00:04:12,441
all of the agendas of stakeholders

96
00:04:12,441 --> 00:04:15,264
and focus on the main goals of the project:

97
00:04:15,264 --> 00:04:17,796
that is, to uncover the river, treat its water,

98
00:04:17,796 --> 00:04:19,790
and provide public spaces for all.

99
00:04:19,790 --> 00:04:21,282
We were actually very lucky,

100
00:04:21,282 --> 00:04:23,825
and many of those goals happened

101
00:04:23,825 --> 00:04:25,418
or are in the process of happening.

102
00:04:25,418 --> 00:04:27,478
Like, you can see here in the Rcif Plaza.

103
00:04:27,478 --> 00:04:30,169
This is how it looked like about six years ago.

104
00:04:30,169 --> 00:04:32,251
This is how it looks like today.

105
00:04:32,251 --> 00:04:33,983
It's still under construction,

106
00:04:33,983 --> 00:04:35,480
but actually it is heavily used

107
00:04:35,480 --> 00:04:37,123
by the local population.

108
00:04:37,123 --> 00:04:39,946
And finally, this is how the Rcif Plaza will look like

109
00:04:39,946 --> 00:04:41,831
when the project is completed.

110
00:04:41,831 --> 00:04:45,829
This is the river, covered, used as a trash yard.

111
00:04:45,829 --> 00:04:47,651
Then after many years of work,

112
00:04:47,651 --> 00:04:50,385
the river with clean water, uncovered.

113
00:04:50,385 --> 00:04:52,410
And finally, you can see here the river

114
00:04:52,410 --> 00:04:54,851
when the project will be completed.

115
00:04:54,851 --> 00:04:57,292
So for sure, the Fez River Rehabilitation

116
00:04:57,292 --> 00:04:59,710
will keep on changing and adapting

117
00:04:59,710 --> 00:05:01,938
to the sociopolitical landscape of the city,

118
00:05:01,938 --> 00:05:04,998
but we strongly believe that by reimagining

119
00:05:04,998 --> 00:05:07,439
the role and the agency of the architect,

120
00:05:07,439 --> 00:05:11,398
we have set up the core idea
of the project into motion;

121
00:05:11,398 --> 00:05:13,907
that is, to transform the river from sewage

122
00:05:13,907 --> 00:05:15,561
to public space for all,

123
00:05:15,561 --> 00:05:18,733
thereby making sure that the city of Fez

124
00:05:18,733 --> 00:05:20,960
will remain a living city for its inhabitants

125
00:05:20,960 --> 00:05:23,120
rather than a mummified heritage.

126
00:05:23,120 --> 00:05:24,856
Thank you very much.

127
00:05:24,856 --> 00:05:25,775
(Applause)