Firm： ENIA ARCHITECTES

Type： Commercial › Office Retail Residential › Multi Unit Housing

STATUS： Concept

Located in the new Casablanca Finance City (CFC) business district, the future international financial centre is considered a major institutional event in Morocco and on the African continent. Sited between the major axis of this new district and an extensive park, the programme includes within a single complex - offices, shops and housing.

Metropolitan Tower - innovative urban landmark

The tower is inextricably linked to the cityscape. Synonymous with modernity and power, scarce development sites should be fully developed. Often separated from the surrounding urban grid, it tends to stand autonomous, detached from its site.

On the contrary, this mixed development is the opportunity to design not only a tower but also its immediate environment and to question the potential of the relationship between a vertical building and its horizontal urban context.

The development is expressed as a clear and unified architectural entity. It comprises a compact linear tertiary building, a suspended volume that accommodates shared facilities (restaurant and amphitheatre) and the tower which strongly defines its site corner. The programme includes ground floor shops and housing along the park.

Architectural promenade

Access to the site comprises a large space around which all facilities are planned. The dialogue between above and below accompanies the site geography and shelters from the city bustle. Each place has its own scale, lighting and atmosphere.

The precise refined architecture of the volumes, the limited choice of materials gives abstraction and unity to the composition. At the scale of the site, the homogeneous facade treatment reinforces the image of a unified and perfectly mastered urban entity.