Jean-François Zevaco

Jean-François Zevaco (; 8 August 1916 – 2003) was a French-Moroccan architect born in Casablanca. He marked the architecture of the second half of the 20th century with a resolutely modern work in intense dialogue with the country, the people, and the landscapes surrounding him.

Biography

Zevaco was born in Casablanca on August 8, 1916, to a French family from Corsica.

Zevaco entered the National School of Fine Arts in Paris in 1937 where he joined the Pontrémoli-Leconte studio. He continued his studies in Marseille in the studio of Eugène Beaudoin during the Nazi occupation of northern France during World War II.

He returned to Casablanca after the war and opened a makeshift agency by occupying and arranging the veranda of the family house. He then settled with his partner Paul Messina at rue Bugeaud, and then opened his own agency at 7 Passage Sumica.

He began his career designing private villas such as Villa Suissa (1949), also known as "la Pagode," and Villa Gilardi (1949), with his collaborator Paul Messina. Aziza Chaouni described this building as Zevaco's reaction to California modern architecture.

In contrast with post-war Europe, Casablanca was at midcentury an expanding town attracting investment from all over the world, a city in the midst of "euphoria" and a fertile field for architectural experimentation, which Zevaco fully embraced. His white villas with huge overhangs and incisive sunscreens were "scandalous" both for their contrast with the neo-Moorish architecture of the colonial administration and for the audacity and technical prowess in the use of concrete.

In the early 1950s, he joined the Group of Moroccan Modern Architects (GAMMA)—the Moroccan branch of the International Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM)—when it was created by Michel Ecochard. The GAMMA's activities would continue up until 1959. Around this time, Zevaco built the Vincent Timsit Factory (1952) in the Roches Noires district in eastern Casablanca.

In Tit Mellil, Zevaco designed the Casablanca Tit Mellil Airport (1953) with Dominique Basciano, and the Tit Mellil Rehabilitation Center (1960).

Zevaco designed the Sidi Harazem Thermal Bath Complex, named after Ali ibn Harzihim, with brutalist architecture combined with local elements, such as blue zeliij and copper.

He renovated United Nations Square in 1974 with his Kora Ardia ( Globe) underground passageway.

Latin American influences Zevaco's Assuna Mosque in Casablanca, designed in a modernist style in the 1970s, drew inspiration from Oscar Niemeyer's Church of Saint Francis of Assisi in Pampulha, Belo Horizonte. His Agadir Street Market (1975) draws from Pedro Ramírez Vázquez. Zevaco was exposed to this architecture through L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui, a French architecture magazine.

Awards Jean-François Zevaco received the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in the 1978–1980 cycle for his 1965 Courtyard Houses in Agadir, Morocco.

Main works

Villa Suissa, Anfa, Casablanca, 1947 Villa Craig, rue d’Auteuil, Casablanca, 1949 , Rabat, 1949 Airport, Tit Mellil, 1951 Rehabilitation Center, Tit Mellil, 1953–1960 Groupe scolaire, Agadir, 1955 Infirmerie, Ben Slimane, 1956 Tribunal, Mohammedia, 1958 Tribunal, Ben Ahmed, 1958 Gas station, Marrakesh, 1958 Groupe scolaire Georges-Bizet, Casablanca, 1960 Thermal baths, Sidi Harazem, 1960 Tribunal, Beni Mellal, 1960 , Rabat, 1962 , Agadir, 1963 Post office, Agadir, 1963 Maisons à patios, Agadir, 1964 École des instituteurs, Ouarzazate, 1965 Hôtel de ville, El Kelaa des Sraghna, 1967 Hôtel Yasmina, Cabo Negro, 1968 , Agadir, 1969 , Agadir, 1969 Villa Zniber, Rabat, 1970 Agadir Street Market, Casablanca, 1972 Underground walkway, United Nations Square, Casablanca, 1975 Villa Zevaco, Casablanca, 1975 Villa Ghissassi, Rabat, 1976 Villa Zniber, Casablanca, 1988 Villa Zniber, Marrakesh, 1998