Casablanca, Morocco
Led by Morphosis team Thom Mayne and Ung-Joo Scott Lee, this new 25-storey tower anchors the new global business hub in Casablanca’s Anfa District.
Located about five miles from the old Medina, nearly 250 acres of runway and demolished aeronautical buildings are now being developed here into Casablanca Finance City (CFC), a public-private initiative born in 2010 that invites global firms to establish their regional headquarters in Casablanca.
The 400-foot-tall—among the highest in the city, but slightly smaller than the minaret at the giant Hassan II Mosque—tapers at the top, but also at its base.
“It touches the sky and the ground,” says Mayne, who made sure it did so memorably by upending the typical tower morphology and creating a shard-like crown—which contains an open-air event space with green walls—and a prismatic base.”
The design for the tower draws on the unique openness of the surrounding area, which afforded the designers the unusual opportunity in an otherwise dense city to highlight the relationship between the building and the natural environment.
A brise-soleil system wraps the building, protecting against the sun while still allowing the building to harness external elements to regulate natural light, air, and temperatures internally, in addition to offering unprecedented views of the city, ocean, and the iconic Hassan II Mosque.
Originally conceived in concrete — “We wanted to give it a handmade quality,” said Mayne—the modular facade elements, prefabricated in Italy, were ultimately made out of aluminum, for cost reasons, and assembled on-site to have varying depths.
This façade draws inspiration from traditional geometric patterned mosaics and intricate wooden latticework screens characteristic of Moroccan architecture.
As a result of this energy-efficient system, the building meets all LEED Gold requirements of the World Green Building Council.
A tapered crown capping the 400-foot (122-meter) structure realizes the tower’s function as a new icon for the city.
Mirrored at street level, the building engages the lower urban landscape with exterior public programming that invites the community into adjacent public spaces.
This double crown allows the building to simultaneously serve as a symbol of the city’s development and as a social hub that nurtures an active street life in the district.
Architects: Morphosis
Associate Architects: Omar Alaoui Architectes
Client: Casablanca Finance City
