Park Rangers Viewing Tower
Architecture
ACP was commissioned to design a viewing tower for the Moroccan Ministry of the Environment, from which park rangers will oversee the protected forests of the Taounate region. Illegal animal poaching, fires and tree cutting are rampant problems that requires daily supervision.
Located amid the beautiful Rif mountain range, the tower is completely off the grid: it collects its own water in an underground reservoir, produces its own energy and recycles its waste. It is composed of a bedroom for the ranger, a toilet and a viewing room. Insulation is provided by a double brick wall, and passive ventilation is facilitated by openings on the facades. The tower is conceived as an extension of the landscape in which it is embedded: it looks like as if it emerges from the steep slope onto which it stands, and is surrounded by existing pine trees. The openings of all facades are reminiscent of the mousharabieyh lattice windows, which provided shade and passive ventilation in traditional moroccan architecture.
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Built with a minimal budget, the tower is aimed to become a prototype for other viewing towers developed in the future by the Moroccan Ministry of the Environment across the country.
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Photos by Andreea Muscurel.
