On the outskirts of Dakar, the Dakar Houses project proposes a new prototype of living and working for Moroso furniture craftsmen in Senegal. The units are conceived as hybrid live-work environments that house artisans and their families alongside integrated workshops, making visible the full spectrum of production, from welding to the intricate hand-weaving of pieces for Moroso’s M’Afrique Collection. Designed by Marc Thorpe, the project responds to both environmental conditions and social structures by grounding itself in local material practices and systems of community-based production, positioning architecture as both a spatial and economic framework.
Founded in Italy in 1952, Moroso is internationally recognized for its collaborations with designers and its emphasis on experimental, high-quality furniture. For more than a decade, through its M’Afrique collection, the company has worked to actively promote and celebrate Senegalese artisans, foregrounding local handcraft within the global furniture industry. This connection to Senegal is further reinforced through Patrizia Moroso’s husband, Abdou Salam Gaye, whose cultural and artistic ties to the region have played a key role in shaping the company’s engagement there. The Dakar Houses project was commissioned by Abdou Salam Gaye, extending this long-standing relationship into architecture and proposing a spatial framework that supports both production and daily life.
Marc Thorpe’s is a global architectural practice based out of New York, operating across furniture and product design exploring how material systems and cultural contexts can intersect. This multidisciplinary approach is evident in the Dakar Houses, where architecture is conceived as an evolving system tied to labor, community, and environment. In addition, the project planned for both Thorpe and Gaye’s furniture to be featured across the complexes. The project reflects his broader interest in bridging craft and industry while engaging local economies in meaningful ways.
The project aims to create a work-based community in which living and production are fully integrated. The village is constructed of eight structures, each organized around a central workshop flanked by residential spaces, allowing artisans and their families to inhabit the same environment in which they work. This spatial arrangement redefines domestic architecture as an infrastructure for livelihood, enabling a collective system where economic activity and social life are intertwined. The aggregation of these units suggests a larger village model, one that can expand organically as production grows and new participants join the network.
A defining aspect of the Dakar Houses is the use of compressed earth bricks, which ground the project in both environmental and cultural specificity. The material is sourced locally, significantly reducing the energy and cost associated with transportation, and it is produced through a low-impact process in which soil is compacted, shaped, and cured in the sun rather than fired. This method aligns with long-standing construction traditions in Senegal while also addressing contemporary concerns around sustainability. The thermal mass of the earth walls allows them to absorb heat during the day and release it gradually at night, stabilizing interior temperatures and minimizing the need for mechanical cooling.
The architectural form further reinforces this environmental responsiveness. The buildings are composed of angular, pitched volumes that reference traditional African patterns while also shaping microclimates through shadow and airflow. Thick earthen walls, perforated surfaces, and carefully staggered masses work together to promote ventilation and reduce solar gain. These passive strategies transform the buildings into climate-regulating systems, demonstrating how material and form can operate together to produce comfort without reliance on technology.
The Dakar Houses operate simultaneously at multiple scales, linking material experimentation with broader social and economic frameworks. The use of earth construction highlights the viability of locally sourced, low-energy materials, while the integration of living and working spaces proposes a new architectural typology rooted in collective production. At an urban level, the project imagines a decentralized settlement organized around craft economies, and at a cultural level, it connects global design networks with local knowledge and labor.
Ultimately, the project presents architecture as a mediating force between environment, economy, and community. By embedding production within the domestic sphere and building, Marc Thorpe proposes a model in which design supports not only shelter, but also sustained ways of living and working.
Written by Fernanda Loyola Cardoso
Sources:
“Abdou Salam Gaye.” Say Who. https://saywho.co.uk/people/abdou-salam-gaye/.
Frearson, Amy. “Marc Thorpe Designs Dakar Houses for Moroso’s M’Afrique Artisans in Senegal.” Dezeen. March 17, 2020. https://www.marcthorpedesign.com/morosomafrique
Harrouk, Christele. “Marc Thorpe Proposes Houses for the Workers of Moroso on the Outskirts of Dakar, Senegal.” ArchDaily. April 7, 2020. https://www.archdaily.com/937014/marc-thorpe-proposes-houses-for-the-workers-of-moroso-on-the-outskirts-of-dakar-senegal.
Marc Thorpe Design. “Dakar House.” https://www.marcthorpedesign.com/dakar-house.
Marc Thorpe Design. “Moroso M’Afrique.” https://www.marcthorpedesign.com/morosomafrique.
Location: Diriyah, Saudi Arabia
From This Earth Installation is a temporary installation by Karim+Elias in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia. Completed in 2024, the 220 m² project was presented as part of Layali Diriyah and consists of a series of porous earthen screens assembled from more than 1,400 hand-sculpted spheres. Rather than treating earth as a heavy and continuous wall, the installation reimagines it as a modular, open-air spatial filter. In this sense, the project is significant not only as an installation, but also as a contemporary experiment in earthen material practice.
The project is deeply tied to its location. Diriyah is described by its official destination platform as the “City of Earth,” and it is presented as the birthplace of Saudi Arabia. Within this context, From This Earth operates as more than a temporary pavilion: it becomes a material response to a place historically associated with earthen building traditions. The architects state that the work celebrates Diriyah’s craft of building with earth, so the project should be understood as a contemporary reinterpretation of local architectural memory rather than as an abstract sculptural object placed in a neutral site.
Karim+Elias describe their broader practice as a contemporary exploration of “sculpting with sand,” using locally sourced earth, clay, and water in custom-made moulds. In From This Earth, this material approach appears through a system of over 1,400 hand-sculpted modular spheres made from local material and stacked into earthen screens. This construction logic is important because it shifts earth away from its more familiar role as a monolithic mass or thick wall. Here, earth becomes a repeated unit, a surface condition, and a space-making device. The project therefore demonstrates how traditional earth-based craft can be translated into a contemporary modular language.
The installation’s spatial effect comes from porosity. The stacked spherical modules create filtered views, partial enclosure, and changing patterns of light and shadow. Designlab Experience describes the screens as evoking the traditional mashrabiya and recalling Diriyah’s vernacular triangular wind openings and rooftop silhouettes. Because of this, the project does not simply represent earthen architecture visually; it performs some of its environmental and perceptual qualities. Air, light, depth, and visibility are mediated through the earthen surface, allowing visitors to experience earth not only as a material, but also as an atmospheric interface.
This project is relevant to contemporary earthen architecture because it expands the definition of what an earthen work can be. It does not reproduce a traditional mud structure directly, nor does it use earth only for symbolic effect. Instead, it repositions earthen craft within a temporary cultural installation and demonstrates that earth can function as a contemporary design medium. From This Earth shows that earthen practice today can move across architecture, installation, art, and public event design while still remaining grounded in local material and cultural context.
