The Banque Marocaine du Commerce Extérieur (BMCE) wishes to develop new regional branches that reflect the Moroccan Bank's innovative approach towards its clients. The typology of the project must reinterpret the traditional vocabulary of Moroccan architecture in proposing a facility that opens onto the city. A practical organization of the project divides the plan into areas with different functions, into those of reception, of where services are provided, of customer support with both inside and outside the building.

The proposal developed in collaboration with the architectural firm Foster and Partners, and was conceived as a flexible and modular “game of construction”. Three prototypes were completed in Casablanca, Fez, and Rabat. All three offer a common vocabulary following variations in scale and the specific planning required at each site, allowing for the adaptation to the spirit of each city.

Each project is composed on the basis of a modular grid. We proposed the implementation of a unifying mineral foundation that would incorporate the confines of the site in order to create a generous and calm exterior reception space, with the building being placed at a remove from the street. Slightly raised with respect to the street, this foundation-base organizes a series of entrances leading smoothly to the building. The foundation welcomes a diverse number of elements: rectangular gardens, reflecting pools, ramps, arranged depending upon the situation encountered.

This game of recomposition starting from an elementary “kit” allows for the adaptation to the different sites, while still defining a unique and shared identity between them. The configuration is very economical, modeled after the building's management of energy that combines advanced and age-old technologies.