Aziza Chaouni is Principal of Aziza Chaouni Projects with offices in Toronto, Canada and Fez, Morocco.

She is Assistant Professor of Architecture at the John H Daniels School of Architecture, Landscape & Design at the University of Toronto, Canada, where she leads the Designing Ecological Tourism research platform.

Aziza Chaouni Projects works on projects that range in scale from furniture design to city planning in Toronto (Canada), New York (USA), Yarmouk and Ajloun (Jordan), and Fez, Meknes, Casablanca, Berkane and M’hamid (Morocco).

Aziza Chaouni Projects won a Holcim Awards Bronze 2020 for Africa Middle East with the project Cultural Interlude in Morocco – Music school and ecotourism center. The result of an interdisciplinary work to promote culture preservation through the creation of a self-sustaining music school in the town of M’hamid El Ghizlane, the project was praised by the Holcim Awards jury for “addressing the issue of tribal community displacement due to the threat of climate change by suggesting a design solution that enables people to remain rooted in their place and traditions.”

Aziza Chaouni co-founded Bureau EAST (Bureau of Ecological Architecture and Systems of Tomorrow) with Takako Tajima. Bureau EAST’s River remediation and urban development scheme in Fez, Morocco won the Global Holcim Award Gold 2009 where the jury applauded the scheme for creating a chain of recovery projects to enable future sub-projects to be added; and for addressing the economic and social life of the city together with the ecology of the river. The project also won the Holcim Awards Gold 2008 for Africa Middle East; the Environmental Design Research Association’s “Great Places Awards” recognition for planning; American Society of Landscape Architects Design Award; and the International Awards Eme3 Cities.

Aziza Chaouni studied architecture at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) and civil engineering at Columbia University.

Her work has received numerous awards including: the Progressive Architecture Award Citation 2012; the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) Collaborative Award 2012; the Architectural League of New York Young Architects Award; the Urbaninform award; and the Progressive Architecture award in 2007.

Aziza Chaouni will be a member of the Holcim Awards 2023 jury for Middle East Africa.