The brief
Scope, timeline and the hard part
Morocco → delivered on site
- 01ScopeFull courtyard: 2,600 sq ft zellige, carved gebs arcade, two cedar doors, brass lighting throughout.
- 02Timeline11 months including a 3-month plasterwork phase — heritage gebs cannot be rushed.
- 03The hard partMatching new zellige to surviving 1900s panels; the glaze was reformulated four times.
- 04LessonOn restoration, sample against the original in situ, in daylight. Photos lie about historic glazes.
The story
How it went
The client — a European family converting the riad to a five-suite guesthouse — needed the restoration to read as continuity, not renovation. Every craft came from within two kilometres of the site, and the master plasterer who cut the arcade learned the trade from his grandfather in the same quarter.