L’Orange bleue Maroc, an association committed to the fight against poverty, has launched a project to build an eco-dome in a 400-square-metre space located in Sidi Moumen.

The objective of the project is to create a pilot eco-dome in Casablanca in the Ibn Al Awam Al Andalousi educational garden of the El Ghali cultural complex, in the heart of the popular Sidi Moumen neighbourhood, by involving neighbours, associations, schools and artisans.

"An eco-dome is an innovative construction that allows for the revaluation of the Moroccan heritage of earth architecture and to propose an alternative for precarious habitats and slums. Durable, solid, ecological, economical, original and accessible to all, an eco-dome responds to the major challenge of using local means to the maximum and offering an alternative that is both social and ecological," emphasises the association.

And adds: "through eco-domes, we wish to propose a solution to Moroccans suffering from poor housing without ruining them, and while respecting the environment".

According to the association, the eco-dome model could be realised in Morocco, like several other countries, where entire villages have been built in the same way. Especially since these constructions will be in harmony with the Arab-Andalusian architecture of the Ibn Al Awam Al Andalousi garden. Local artisans will, in fact, be able to give free rein to their talents by personalising the eco-dome with arabesques.

The construction site of the eco-dome, which will start immediately, will be open to the general public. A team consisting of Moroccan masons, carpenters and artisans in addition to volunteers and interns will work on the construction of the eco-dome. The social mix of the team will allow for an unprecedented exchange of experiences and techniques. Furthermore, each participant will subsequently be able to recreate a team for the construction of another eco-dome. In this way, the initiative of the Orange bleue Maroc association will have reached its real goal, which is the democratisation of this technique among the greatest number.

Ultimately, the Ibn Al Awam Al Andalousi garden will be a space with multiple vocations. Indeed, it will host, within the framework of training modules or voluntary work sites, schoolchildren, young people, women's associations, who will benefit from awareness workshops on urban food production. A large part of the garden's production will be used by the Oum Keltoum Social Centre for the benefit of street children. It will also be a place for awareness on urban permaculture, the eco-neighbourhood and popular ecology.

Furthermore, the space will also include a library, a media library, application workshops and theoretical and practical training, seminars and conferences.

Presentation of the Orange bleue association

L'Orange bleue Maghreb is an association committed to the fight against poverty through popular education, capacity building, social economy, applied ecology, culture, art and new technologies. It inscribes its action within the framework of the ecological, economic, social and cultural transition. This transition calls for a movement of creation, innovation and intelligence of the societies of the South to respond to the profound changes that are going through them. L'Orange bleue Maroc carries out its projects in a popular terrain, whether in urban or rural areas, in order to help the most destitute. It is linked to L'Orange Bleue Afrique Burkina Faso and L'Orange Bleue France, thus implementing synergies of intelligence and economic and social innovation between the Maghreb, sub-Saharan Africa and Europe.