Surface Design Awards – Complete

• COMMERCIAL BUILDING - INTERIOR
  Commercial Buildings that are used for commercial purposes, and include retail, hospitality, workplaces, factories and warehouses and buildings where commercial services are provided. At least 50 percent of the buildings’ floor space will be used for commercial activities.

For this new address nestled in the heart of Casablanca Art Déco district, Atelier Pod has created a space displaying style and comfort, in a refined and inspiring fashion perfectly fitted for the hybrid clientele of the 305 keys hotel.
In an architectural scheme as meticulous as it is ambitious, the lobby and its cathedral ceiling are transformed into multiple lounges allowing discreet conversations between two people, or friends and families more casual chats.

From the entrance, a large walnut wood panel embraces the lobby, while the scope of colours and materials selected delicately spread over the space to give it all its visual and aesthetic coherence. By choosing a limited palette of natural tones and materials, Atelier Pod has made the choice of elegance, warmth and modernity.
Atelier Pod is here following on from the work undertaken by Jean-François Zevaco, the modernist architect from Casablanca, who created the edifice in 1985, and which has since become one of the most city's iconic buildings. Through its vision and its precise work, Atelier Pod gives the brutalist structure an architectural response that brings it into its own future.

As much as possible, materials were purchased and produced locally. Wood work has made site-specific and done in collaboration with local craftsmen.

The work of the wooden panel was particularly complex because it involved very high precision work in its construction but also in its treatment. The size of each of its parts also forced the craftsmen to a very high level of attention. Due to its flexible and easy nature, walnut nevertheless allowed careful and high precision work.