Hatching: the origination of a city is a project by Menis Architects for the Moroccan pavilion at the Venice Biennale of Architecture 2014, Fundamentals, curated by Rem Koolhaas. The theme for the Moroccan pavilion, entitled Fundamental(ism)s, is based upon Morocco’s role as an urban and architectural laboratory in the twentieth century. As part of the small conceptual design team the project was realized in Italy, by making a large sculptural model and supporting images, as well as editing an explanatory video and setting up the exhibition at the pavilion in Venice.
The brief of the project focused on territorial speculations in the Western Sahara and addresses the question of how to appropriate this territory and to create vehicles of inhabitation in this inhospitable environment.
in Hatching, the forces of nature are used as the design tools to originate a liveable microclimate in the desert. The structure of the “ideal city” was rethought from an entirely different perspective. The project evolves naturally and is shaped by nature. An artificial timeless environment defined by natural rules, functioning like a nest where life can originate; a three-dimensional oasis in the desert that exemplifies the rethinking of the sustainable habitat. The focus is, as the first step of many, to create the fundament for inviting life into the desert and the possibility for human intervention – the city.
