The Riad

Riad Ozan is not a restored house. When we signed, in 2024, almost nothing was left: an open plot hemmed in between the neighbouring riads, whose earlier house had been demolished before our time. No one knows what it looked like. So rather than imitate a lost past, we designed a riad of today with TRABDESIGN studio: the patio, the light wells and the proportions of the Medina, without the decor that usually comes with them.

Straight lines, squares, rectangles. The only arches in the house are the two doors of the patio rooms — metal and glass, without ornament. And across one whole side of the patio, a large metal grille that filters the light through the course of the day. Moroccan craftsmanship is here, but in the material rather than the motif.

In the patio, an olive tree — off-centre, deliberately so. At its foot, a fountain reduced to a single thread of water, set on zellige laid out like an Amazigh rug.

Ozan means “little olive trees” in Amazigh. Ours grow in Ouzoud, near the waterfalls, where we also keep our hives. The olive oil served at the riad comes from our own trees; the honey, from our own bees. There will be no others on the table.