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Modernist Morocco

Villa Zniber in Marrakech designed by Jean-Francois Zevaco

Villa Zniber was designed by Morocco's most esteemed architect Jean-Francois Zevaco. Trained at the L'Ecole nationale superiuere des beaux-arts de Paris (diploma 1945) Zevaco lead a new vitality in Morocco after independence from France in the 50's. He always faced the dilema of following a purely functionalist international style, that of Le Corbusier and others, or to embrace his own aesthetic of mixing modernity and vernacular tradition. He chose to place himself on the same plane as some Mexican and Brasilian architects who were uniting local ethnic tradition with progress.