Casarts | Christian de Portzamparc

Casarts

The vast Place Mohammed V in Casablanca, with its classic rectangular 1920’s composition inherited from Maréchal Hubert Lyautey and urban planner Henri Prost, is lined by Charles Boyer’s wilaya, the Courts of Justice and long administrative buildings. It is popular with the residents of Casablanca, who gather every day around its central fountain. On the square’s last free side the city decided to build “CasArts” which will be the biggest theater in Africa.

Instead of an autonomous architectural object, unambiguous, this fluid ensemble defies symmetry without opposing it, inviting visitors to enter the shadow of another interior universe through several slim, appealing gaps and entrances leading to a vast and lofty cross-cutting public gallery composed of curved red staffs.

In the external simplicity of the white architecture, the gaps draw passers-by towards the shade – the half-light of this pathway and its entry point, where one comes to sit in cafés refreshed by natural ventilation.

A moucharaby terracotta and resin shear wall float along the square’s buildings. At the center, one of the houses forms a large entrance, an exceptional entry point and a shelter from the sun. It is also an outdoor theater: when the doors open, the stage appears and the public in the square becomes the audience. CasArts is a transformable urban scenographic device. The facade is already a stage.

The 1,800-seat main hall is designed to host musical concerts, classical theater plays, and various other large-scale performances. It has the same curved piles as those bordering the grand entrance gallery, which here supports fan-shaped balconies. It reinterprets the horseshoe “opera” shape while respecting the qualities of frontal vision and seats a larger number of spectators.

Project Info
Architects: Christian de Portzamparc
Location: Casablanca, Morocco
Client: Casablanca Aménagement S.A. / Egis Bâtiments International
Area: 24,245 sq.m.
Year: 2018
Type: Cultural center