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Like a Desert Mirage, a Surreal House in Morocco

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Located in Marrakesh, Morocco, the Fobe House is actually four buildings on property owned by a Belgium film producer that includes the private residence, guard house, pool house, and the garage. Designed by , the stark white structures are quite a contrast against the desert landscape they sit on.

The most deeply surreal structure rises in the deserts of Morocco, near Marrakesh: the home of a Belgian film director.

1Its entrance is through a doorway hidden behind the second of two “sails”

2Hidden between the first of these “sails” at the entrance at the broadest back of the very narrow building, is a staircase to the roof.

2aMany people in Morocco sleep on the roof during the hot season.

The view of the distant Atlas Mountains is obscured under a heat veil  that hides the mountains for much of the year, making for a flat dusty and featureless horizon.

nThe widest facade, on the opposite side of the exceedingly narrow house connects to an equally long and narrow pool.

(The bottom right corner shows the staggered “sails” guarding the entrance to the building.)

A bedroom occupies the other side of the perforated wall behind the entrance “sail.”

At the opposite end from the entrance is another bedroom with bathroom. (It is difficult to determine a kitchen on the plan.)

It looks out on a small courtyard. Trees are planned for the grounds, which are very much larger than the house.

The pool at the front of the narrow dwelling would be a real relief in Morocco’s dry and relentless heat beating down on the sunbaked clays.

Walking back into the house, this is the intriguingly strange sight you would encounter at the end of the corridor leading from the pool to inside.

Dotted about the grounds are some stray tall odds and ends and mysterious outbuildings, which include a so-called “guard house.”

Here is the view from one of these beautiful but strange outbuildings assembled by architect Guilhem Eustache.

A miragelike structure floats above the end of the pool.

Seen from inside the house, it obscures the pool-house beyond. Is that its purpose?

The mirage turns out to be a mysterious “stairs to nowhere” – one of many surrealistic aspects of the house.

An altogether odd, intriguing house, with its associated garden structures.