Riad Sidi Ghanem

The riad occupies an enclosed plot in the Palmeraie, fifteen minutes from the medina. The current building dates from 2009, on the foundations of an earlier property of which the enclosing wall and first courtyard remain.

The entire project rests on a single decision: to open inward only. Four courtyards succeed one another, each with its pool, its shade and its degree of coolness; from the street, no window betrays what lies beyond the wall. The finishes are in pearl-grey tadelakt, applied by the craftsmen of Marrakech who had already worked on the original site.

The pools are fed by a khettara — a traditional drainage gallery — restored at this time and still in service, which renders the property largely self-sufficient for amenity water.