Oasis Campus
M’hamid El Ghizlane
The Oasis Campus focused in earth & lime plasters (tadelakt) & traditional crafts
TRADITIONAL TECHNIQUES
The programe will be focused on earth and lime finishes – like tadelakt – while participating in a useful project: improving the workshop of the women’s artisan cooperative.
In the oasis, traditional construction techniques are till alive, sou you’ll also have the chance to learn: tapial · adobe · cane and clay slabs (…) from local masters & apprentices.
RESILIENT LANDSCAPES
The landscape and the territory will be key in this space of mutual learning. The M’hamid Oasis is an anthropic landscape, fragile and at risk of disappearance due to the climate crisis, depopulation and desertification
CRAFTS AND INTANGIBLE HERITAGE
An essential part of the workshop is the enhancement of handicraft techniques with palm leaves made by women. We will work with the Zaouia Cooperative weaving mats, rugs and baskets.
THE WORKSHOP
The OASIS CAMPUS workshop is part of the Terrachidia NGDO project, a commitment to local development of small communities through the enhancement of their architectural and cultural heritage.
Under this general objective, the pillar of Terrachidia NGOD is the work we do in the oasis of M’Hamid, in southern Morocco. There we restore and recover unique buildings that are collective spaces of high architectural and social value, so that the local population feels very identified with the projects.
We work with local associations and the most relevant people in the community as the qaids or the qabilas. They themselves decide on the hiring of the master builders and workers, with whom we will work on the day-to-day work and who will be, at the same time, the masters.
You will learn traditional earth construction techniques while participating in the execution of a real and useful project.
Each workshop involves 20 people from different places of origin and profession. You can be one of them.
Mornings are dedicated to the development of the work and work in the women’s cooperative. The afternoons are divided between documentation or analysis tasks, theoretical sessions about different topics related to the work we are developing such as earthen architecture and its different techniques, landscape and resilience or international cooperation and crafts. And of course, walking barefoot on the dunes.
We will work with the women artisans of the Zaouia Cooperative, whom we have been supporting for years in the development of their association in which they make different pieces of embroidery and, in addition, objects woven with palm leaves, such as mats, carpets, plates and baskets.
PRICE: 590€.
Includes training by architects specialized in heritage, landscape and cooperation, as well as local master builders and expert craftswomen.
Accommodation in bivouac and all meals.
CALENDAR:
1st February 2025 > Arrival at the oasis and reception of participants.
2nd – 8th February 2025 > Development of the workshop.
* Including the night of February 8th to leave early in the morning on February 9th.
NEAREST AIRPORTS:
Marrakech – Ouarzazate – Zagora.
* OPTIONAL: Night in the dunes of Erg Chigaga, (more info in the workshop).
¿Want to know more?
Write us: campus@terrachidia.es
Thanks to the support of INTBAU with the Grassroots program, we offer a SCHOLARSHIP for the next Oasis Campus.
These scholarships are aimed at making this learning experience more accessible to people with a great interest in cultural landscapes, traditional architecture, building trades and above all Heritage as a value interconnected with the Territory and the Population of each place.
4 scholarships covering half of the tuition fees are offered to students and professionals from the Maghreb region and the Mediterranean area.
SIf you’re interested, send us an email to:
campus@terrachidia.es
with your CV & MOTIVATION LETTER.
Please also write to us if you would like more information about these scholarships and/or have any questions. The deadline for submitting applications is 13th december.
TERRACHIDIA
Terrachidia is a Project for the protection and enhancement of cultural heritage.
We work in places threatened by depopulation and climate change, which are at risk of disappearing and with them their memory. We work in historic centers and rural enclaves, where architecture, inhabitants and environment form an indissoluble triad.
We protect cultural landscapes.