Workshop on Traditional Building Skills and Urban Heritage: Earthquake Resistant Reconstruction

28-29 February & 1 March 2024, Ouarzazate, Morocco – The UfM has been organising, with GIZ financing, a series of workshops entitled “Traditional Building Skills in the Southern Mediterranean Region: Know-how in the South Mediterranean”. The objective is to identify and promote good practices in raising awareness, preserving and promoting vernacular architecture and traditional construction techniques. In addition, it aims to strengthen the cultural embeddedness of traditional solutions and their capacity to adapt to the climate, to promote a sustainable local economy and to create useful and qualified jobs linked to traditional materials and techniques, as well as to protect urban heritage.

On 6 July 2023, the inaugural meeting of the project was held in Barcelona, Spain, with the participation of representatives of the national governments of the countries participating in the project (Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia), as well as experts from national and international organizations. Following this first meeting, a series of workshops are being organised in each of the participating countries. The first of these workshops took place in Tunis, Tunisia on 5-7 December 2023. The second workshop will take place in Ouarzazate, Morocco from 28-29 February & 1 March 2024.

In the aftermath of the recent earthquake in Morocco, the workshop in Ouarzazate takes on particular importance. National and international experts will come together to closely examine the use of traditional construction in the context of post-earthquake reconstruction, and to explore innovative solutions that take advantage of traditional construction, with particular emphasis on the use of local materials and vernacular techniques. This is part of an approach aimed at strengthening the resilience of local heritage in the face of future earthquakes. Examining this question will help direct discussions towards specific approaches intended to rebuild the country in a sustainable manner and adapted to seismic challenges.