Taghazout
Location: Taghazout, Morocco
Scope: Master planning and landscape design guidelines
Size: 600 hectares
Program: 24 Hotels, 5 golf courses, residential (villas, condos, apartments), commercial/retail, cultural village, nature preserve
Description: Following his Majesty King Mohammed the VI proclamation in 2000 to dramatically boost tourism in Morocco over the next 10 years we were selected to lead the land planning portion of the Taghazout project for a multinational team of experts. The project which encompassed over 600 hectares of area would become the first of seven mega tourism projects to be pursued by Morocco’s Ministry of Tourism. Master planning and design concepts focused around maintaining and integrating the local and regional Berber character into the project to emphasis the unique “sense of place” of Taghazout and this region of Morocco. Preserving and establishing extensive renaturalized native areas for the protected Aganier Tree and appropriate habitat for the protected bird, the Ibis Chauve became integral to the project design. Preliminary water resource studies were provided to study the availability and responsible usage of ground water and sea water into the project. Native and drought tolerant landscapes were utilized to both minimize water usage while keeping in character with the region.
Golf course routing and clubhouse locations included careful integration at key points along the sensitive coastal ecosystem as well as within the challenging upland terrain.