Biography of Manal Rachdi

FOR AN ARCHAEOLOGY SENSITIVE TO CONTEXT

Concerning Manal Rachdi, by David Rosenberg.

Hanging gardens, terraces and panoramic windows, buildings that blend into the landscape or green towers reaching for the sky, organic or modular geometry of an immaculate whiteness, transparencies open to the light, vast spaces conducive to strolling and meeting people: this is the visual signature, the architectural language used by Manal Rachdi. In just a few years, he has established himself as one of the most innovative and high-profile architects of his generation, working on projects with his OXO studio and on prestigious collaborations with Jean Nouvel and Sou Fujimoto.

Manal Rachdi was born in Rabat, Morocco, in the late 1970s, into a family of engineers and scientists. His father, a doctor, and his mother, a midwife, instilled in him a work ethic "dedicated to the happiness of others". As a child, he preferred learning about nature to being bored to death in the classroom. "I liked listening to trees more than teachers," he says simply. To his parents, who imagined him becoming a pharmacist or a dentist, Manal replied at the age of 16: "I'm going to be an architect." The aplomb with which he announced his decision was matched only by the conviction of his parents, who persisted in enrolling him in a biology and geology course, where the young student nevertheless had a brilliant career. The study of the formation of cells or crystalline structures, and the rigour of the scientific approach, did not distance him from his first vocation. On the contrary, they serve as a guide to his thinking, and he sees that the synergies at work in nature can be transposed to the field of architecture. His credo was to build and imagine an "archi-nature", to create a symbiotic relationship between the two great orders of 'nature' and 'architecture'.

After two years, he put an end to his scientific studies and applied to various universities abroad to study architecture. He chose to go to the La Cambre school in Brussels, Belgium, where he spent most of his time in the library, devouring every book he could get his hands on. While reading an article in a magazine, he came across the work of Jean Guervilly, whose minimalism and radicalism dazzled him. He decided to continue his studies in Nantes, where he worked with young theoreticians such as Romain Rousseau and Philippe Vion. There he also made friends with Hervé Bagot, a remarkable teacher who spent most of his teaching time outside the classroom, visiting the salt marshes of Guérande, horticultural greenhouses and refineries… Rachdi's sensitivity and sense of nature were forged through their exchanges and explorations in the field.

During his final year of study, he also met Jacques Hondelatte, a discreet man adulated by his peers and a leading light in contemporary architecture, who encouraged Manal to study the works of Rudy Ricciotti, Jean Nouvel, Lacaton & Vassal, Rem Koolhaas and Zaha Hadid. At the same time, Manal developed a passion for land art, particularly the work of Andy Goldsworthy. Manal Rachdi chose the artist Ekkehart Rautenstrauch as his thesis supervisor for his final degree, entitled "Urban transformation through the medium of art". He returned to Morocco to create large cardboard sculptures in the streets, inviting passers-by to join him and take part in the creation of these ephemeral constructions. Simplicity of form, frugality of materials (preferably recyclable), appropriation of public space, dialogue and participation: Manal Rachdi would always remain faithful to his early experiments.

After graduating, he joined the Duncan Lewis studio, then the Du Besset-Lyon studio, before joining the Ateliers Jean Nouvel teams, where he spent just over four years, working on major projects such as the Philharmonie de Paris and the mixed-use tower at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, as well as all the Ateliers Jean Nouvel projects in the United States. On his return to France in 2009, he decided to devote himself to his own projects.

To tell the story and shed light on his career, Manal Rachdi chose to call on Éric Garandeau, a multi-talented friend, writer and true connoisseur of architecture. In his text, which reads like a novel, readers will find all the keys they need to decipher this work in progress, a veritable plea for a context-sensitive archaeology.

Paris, June 2023.

→ Read on: [The Tree and the Swing, Éric Garandeau's essay deciphering Manal Rachdi's work](article-305.en.html).