Moroccan architect and anthropologist Salima Naji received, Wednesday evening in Paris, the Grand Gold Medal of the French Academy of Architecture, the highest distinction of this learned institution dedicated to the promotion of excellence in architecture.
The Grand Gold Medal goes this year to Salima Naji whose “magnificent work illustrates with talent and responsibility this capacity to integrate architecture while respecting the place”, announced the president of the Academy Catherine Jacquot, during the 2024 awards ceremony.
In front of a prestigious audience composed of personalities from different backgrounds linked to the world of architecture, Jacquot praised the work of this specialist and promoter of achievements in earth and other traditional Moroccan materials which reflect the richness of a heritage with resources in materials and know-how.
For her part, the president of the jury for prizes and awards, Sophie Berthelier, stressed that the highest distinction of the Academy of Architecture this year rewards “an anthropologist architect who mixes history, the past and the future in her combative story.”
Presenting his work, architect Martin Robain, a member of the jury, stressed that the Moroccan architect’s approach is part of “a human, participatory dimension and constant learning on the construction site.”
He cites a few words that recur in the laureate’s writings and conferences to illustrate her thinking: “ethnic”, “preservation not conservation”, “no to ostentation”, “attachment to place”, “modernity questions”, “the collective common”, “shared surfaces and spaces”, “reuse”, “stone”, “earth”, “improvement”, “act by repairing”, “conviviality”, “beauty of the living environment”, “beauty is not the prerogative of the elite”.
In his eyes, defending an architecture of the common good means “questioning the building, but also the conditions of its construction, spatial practices, social use, attachment to the place”.
He also notes that Salima Naji “reinvests and perfects vernacular techniques to create contemporary architecture capable of proposing sustainable development based on humans”, while practicing “a fine knowledge of the territories, towards projects of social utility in order to reduce the destructive impact of reinforced concrete architecture”.
The Moroccan architect took this opportunity to thank the Academy of Architecture and the members of the jury for this prize which illustrates the confidence of her peers in the quality of her work which she presents as being part of “timeless architecture”.
“The prize represents the assurance and confidence of a group of professionals who are attentive to architecture and the world. It is the consecration for me as a Moroccan and African architect,” Salima Naji said in a statement to MAP.
For someone who places the question of territoriality and sustainability at the heart of her concerns as an architect, this recognition comes after a series of visits made by members of the Academy of Architecture’s prizes and awards committee to her construction sites in Morocco, where they were able to assess her overall approach aimed at “saving a body of techniques”.
“They were extremely sensitive to the fact that I work on so-called vernacular techniques, anchored in territories with master craftsmen,” said the Moroccan architect who has been working with stone, earth and the Tataoui style for 20 years.
Living in Tiznit since 2008, Salima Naji studied architecture in Paris. She also obtained a doctorate in social anthropology there before pursuing postgraduate training in aesthetics, arts and image technologies, then in philosophy of art. She has published numerous books, including recently “Architecture du bien commun, pour une éthique de la conservation”.
The awards ceremony of the French Academy of Architecture is a key moment for this institution, which honors around forty laureates each year. They are architects, urban planners, archaeologists, teachers, researchers, artists, engineers, project owners, entrepreneurs, craftsmen or companions.
The Grand Gold Medal of the Academy of Architecture is awarded each year to an internationally renowned architect.
