Archimedia Group has announced the nominees for the third edition of the Young Moroccan Architecture Awards (YMAA), narrowing a pool of 168 submissions down to 52 nominated projects. The announcement, made Thursday at the Ateliers Vincent Timsit in Casablanca, spans categories from individual housing to renovation work and projects by Moroccan architects practicing abroad.
How the selection process works
YMAA is organized by Archimedia Group with sponsorship from Rocca, and it functions as a juried competition designed to surface emerging architectural talent in Morocco. Submissions are grouped into categories covering leisure and tourism design, individual housing, renovation and rehabilitation, and international work by Moroccan architects, among others. Out of nearly 170 entries this cycle, jurors selected 52 for nomination, a ratio that underscores the competitive nature of the review. Twelve of those nominations went to end-of-study projects, giving architecture students a direct line into a professional showcase typically reserved for established practitioners.
A historic venue as part of the presentation
The nominee announcement took place inside the Ateliers Vincent Timsit, a building designed by architect Jean-François Zevaco. Rather than serving as a simple venue, the space itself became part of the program: attendees moved through different floors where organizers displayed nominees by category, alongside a dedicated area tracing Rocca's history. Fatima-Zahra Akalay, CEO of Archimedia Group and co-founder of YMAA, told Morocco World News that the location added weight to the evening, calling it "a place steeped in history" where the awards could add their own chapter.
What the competition aims to accomplish
Akalay described the award's core purpose as giving young architects visibility and a platform to present completed work to peers and established professionals. Fatima-Zahra Morjani, a Moroccan architect, visual artist and jury member, framed the competition as a mechanism for pushing younger architects to refine their craft, while also urging them to seek mentorship from more experienced colleagues. The structure - mixing student projects with professional submissions across varied categories like residential design, renovation and cross-border practice - is intended to create dialogue between career stages rather than simply ranking finished buildings. Organizers say that mix reflects the current breadth of Moroccan architectural practice, from small-scale housing to work Moroccan architects are producing internationally.