Aziza Chaouni
Principal, Aziza Chaouni Projects and Assistant Professor of Architecture, John H Daniels School of Architecture, University of Toronto, Canada/Morocco
Aziza Chaouni
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TED Fellow Aziza Chaouni presented a talk on March 17, 2014 at the 30th Anniversary TED Conference in Vancouver. She spoke about her work to uncover the once-polluted Fez River that runs through her hometown of Medina, the walled inner-city in the capital of Fez, Morocco. The project addressed the ecology of the river as well as social and economic concerns of the city. Photo: Ryan Lash/TED.
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Global Holcim Awards Gold 2009 prize handover
Congratulating the winners of the Global Holcim Awards Gold prize 2009 (l-r): Haruko Hirose, Special and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Japan to Rabat; prize-winner Aziza Chaouni, architect and co-founder, Bureau EAST, Morocco/Canada/USA; Mohammed Gharrabi, Wali of Fez-Bouleman, Morocco; and prize-winner Takako Tajima, urban planner and co-founder, Bureau EAST, Morocco/Canada/USA.
Last updated: February 06, 2023
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.
Related information
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News
Holcim Awards 2023
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Zürich, Switzerland
Project Update
Fez, Morocco
Projects
Cultural Interlude in Morocco
Music school and ecotourism center
M’hammid El Ghizlane, Morocco
River remediation and urban development scheme
Fez, Morocco