Posed on the hills overlooking Casablanca and the Atlantic Ocean, the villa initially presents itself with an austere façade – a black door and vertical vents interpreting a mashrabiya. Inside, however, the architectural games begin. Finding protection from the heat, from the intensity of the sunlight, from exterior view. But also, creating a bond with the earth, sky and sea, where the temperature is more clement. On the inside, living as though projected outside, forever contemplating the beauty of the city. On the outside, living as though on the inside – under the sky but contained, protected. Villa Casablanca is a kinaesthetic machine, one to be looked at and felt, an arrangement between body and space. But it is more than that, it is also a climate, an atmosphere.

The villa illustrates the modernist mantra of continuity between the inside and outside. The abstraction and the extent of the bay windows permit it, as well as the sequence of composed volumes that are both high and low, large and small, suspended or posed. The appeal of certain elements – water, sky, vegetation – and materials defining various uses, invite a certain response. In this modern, white architecture, timeless design choices come to light: a hidden garden, a comfortably cool patio, a hint of latticework revealing itself subtly, the trickle of a fountain. Architecture does not stop at the front door; our architecture takes in the surrounding horizon, incorporating its environment and recomposing it. Villa Casablanca, as a form of architectural manifesto, pushes this idea on the basis of certain revered modernist fundamentals: the free-flowing plan and façade, long windows, platforms and a roof top belvedere.