History, Tradition, Architecture: the Moroccan Pavilion in the 1929 Ibero-American Exhibition in Seville

The topic of this research is the Moroccan Pavilion in the 1929 Ibero-American Exhibition in Seville: a singular case of traditional architecture in a European context dominated by the innovative design trends of the Rationalism. In this scenario, the design of the Moroccan Pavilion follows an opposite design concept, directed toward the valorisation of traditional Moroccan architecture rather than architectural and constructive experimentation. The building represents a case study of great interest for several reasons: firstly, it is an exemplary case, in terms of methodology and technical choices, of preservation and reuse of historic architecture; furthermore, the Moroccan pavilion exemplifies the connection between Arabic influence in Spanish architecture: the pavilion is the result of an idea conceived for an architectural contest about the standards of Moroccan architecture, and only later became a project for the Ibero-American Exposition. The methodological aim of the study is to use historical research as a traditional and well-established tool for architectural knowledge in order to include a material-constructive analysis of a case study in the architecture of the Great European Expositions of the twentieth century, the Moroccan Pavilion of 1929, which has been so far poorly studied. The purpose is to construct a possible tool for understanding the Arabic and Andalusian building heritage in the contemporary age, which at the same time can also be a useful tool for its preservation and conservation.