the stars here are not decoration, they are the ceiling
move your hand across the wall. see? it blooms.
sat on the roof since sunset · الجلوس فوق السطح
maghreblab
مغرب لاب
descend into the house ↓
room 01 · the threshold · العتبة
dark before every doorway · keep walking
between the street and the courtyard there is a corridor where the eyes must adjust. the house does not open itself all at once.
the dahliza bends so no one sees in
room 02 · the courtyard · وسط الدار
wast ed-darthe house turns inward · وسط الدار
the centre of a moroccan house is not a corridor or a hall. it is a piece of
open sky, framed by four walls. rain is a guest here. so is the moon.
everything in the house is arranged around this absence.
the fountain talks all night, nobody minds
orange tree, one. cat, also one.
floors of zelij: each tile cut by hand, each star an eightfold argument
that geometry is a form of patience. you do not decorate a courtyard.
you tune it.
light falls in a square · الضوء مربع
tiles · hand-cut · fes
at maghrib the square of sky above the courtyard turns from brass to
violet, and for a few minutes the whole house holds its breath, then
lamps, then stars, then dinner.
room 03 · the salon · الصالون
the salon is for sitting properly
three hours of conversation counts as a short visit
tea is poured from high up so it learns to sing
“a sofa along every wall, so that no one sits with their back to anyone. the room itself is an act of hospitality.”
mint · sugar · smoke of cedar
room 04 · the kitchen · الكوزينة
kitchen of small fires
mint tea, as written on the inside of a cupboard door:
· a spoon of gunpowder green
· rinse it, keep the second water
· a fist of mint, bruised not torn
· sugar like snowfall
· pour from a height. wait. pour back. pour again.
the kitchen is the laboratory the house keeps secret. cumin measured
against the lines of a palm, saffron counted thread by thread. every
recipe here is an instrument, calibrated by grandmothers.
the tagine's chimney is a small minaret for steam
bread first. always bread first.
cumin · saffron · preserved lemon
smoke reading: cedar, low
the lab was always here · المختبر هنا
room 05 · the roof, again · السطح من جديد
you leave the way you came, up, through the dark, into the open ceiling
the house is openالدار مفتوحة
maghreb lab · a house at duskscroll study nº 01 · canvas · grain · zelij
room 06 · the door · الباب
knock. it's open
the door was the point of the house all along
write anytime · راسلني في أي وقت
what the lab makes:
01immersive websites: pages that feel like places, not documents
03art direction: typography first, grain, soul, no templates
every house here is built by hand, one room at a time. if you have an
idea that deserves walls, a courtyard and a ceiling of stars, bring it.
the lab takes a small number of houses per season.