L-shaped half walls, tamarisk/ acacia trees, and grids of woven dried palm tree leaves protect the site from encroaching sand dunes.

A playground co-designed with local children frames Joudour Sahara Cultural Centre’s main entrance.

Joudour Sahara’s shaded auditorium is its primary communal space, designed to accommodate outdoor learning and performances of various sizes. The auditorium connects to an underground recording studio (left) insulated with hay.

The water reservoir’s top half is occupiable, allowing occupants to enjoy the effects of evapotranspiration in the passively cooled space. Rain falls down the slowed roof of the reservoir into a wide copper basin, creating a space for spectacle on the site.

Aziza Chaouni, Architect, Aziza Chaouni Projects, Morocco/Canada.

Thomas Duncan, a Peace Corps volunteer who runs youth cultural workshops in the region of M’hamid.

Wanda Hebly, Sahara Roots Foundation, Netherlands.

Dana Salama, Aziza Chaouni Projects, Canada.

Halim Sbai runs a small café and gives ecotourism tours, and is worried about the desert’s incessant advance.

The aim of the new facility is to preserve local culture and to combat desertification – and thereby stop the exodus of locals and associated irreversible loss of construction, agricultural, and cultural practices.