The Rabat campus of the Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique accommodates two thousand students across nearly 100 hectares of land. Its masterplan is organised around a partially sheltered pedestrian street, which functions as both the main thoroughfare and the heart of university life. Along this axis, key campus functions are arranged into four distinct clusters: Lydex, a lycée with a strong focus on sports; an administrative zone; and two academic clusters, each supporting a range of schools and faculties.
In 2020, the entrance to the university was established on the northeastern edge of the site, framed by the Business School on one side and the Artificial Intelligence Centre on the other – buildings that take the form of a portal and a dome respectively. Moving through the campus, symmetry broadly dictates the layout of the buildings, as the architecture mediates between two registers: the urban street on one side and the landscape on the other. Each bleeds across its boundary to soften the divide between city and garden, which are visually and physically connected by side streets and courtyards.
The central promenade bends once at a subtle inflection point – an elbow joint – where the Centre des Congrès sits as the campus’ principal gathering space. The plan of this building is devised from the superimposition of circular and linear geometries, facilitating fluid movement across the two halves of the campus by acting as a kind of civic rotula. The most symbolically charged buildings – such as the learning centre and the student centre – are set next to the main axis, while ancillary programmes like the hotels are positioned further afield.
Architecturally, the campus mixes the vertical language of Rabat’s vernacular forms with wider, horizontal spans engineered to accommodate larger group functions, such as in lecture halls and sports facilities – structures that use more technical materials. Across the site, car parks have been placed underground to free the surface for landscaping and athletic grounds. The campus prioritises non-motorised transport in general, supporting bicycles, scooters, and pedestrian flow, while maintaining selective access for service, emergency, and official vehicles to ensure the university’s smooth operation.
IMAGES BY
GREGORI CIVERA
MAX FARAGO
IMAGES BY
GREGORI CIVERA
MAX FARAGO