Université Mohammed VI Polytechnic
Rabat

The Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique campus in Rabat is designed to accommodate two thousand students across nearly 100 hectares of land. Its master plan is organised around a central axis – a pedestrian street sheltered by a glass pergola – that functions as both main thoroughfare and the heart of university life. Along this axis, key campus functions are arranged into four distinct clusters: Lydex, a hub for sports and recreation; an administrative zone; and two academic clusters, each supporting a range of schools and faculties.

In 2020, the university’s gateway was established at the northeastern edge of the site, marked by a pair of buildings that present a hard urban facade to the busy main road. Moving through the campus, symmetry broadly governs 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 physically connected by side streets and courtyards.

The central promenade bends only once at a subtle inflection point – an elbow joint that connects the two arms – where the Centre des Congrès sits as the campus’ principal gathering space. Its plan 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 student centre – are set next to the main axis, while ancillary programmes such as the hotel and sports facilities are positioned further afield to create a spatial hierarchy.

Architecturally, the campus alternates between the vertical language of Rabat’s vernacular forms and wide, horizontal spans engineered to accommodate collective functions such as lecture halls and sports facilities – structures built using a more “technical” material palette. Across the site, car parks have been discreetly placed underground to preserve the surface for landscaping and athletic grounds. Prioritising non-motorised transport, the campus supports bicycles, scooters, and pedestrian flow, while maintaining selective access for service, emergency, and official vehicles to ensure operational continuity.