Maamora cork, from the forest to our walls

Between Rabat and Kenitra lies the Maamora forest, one of the largest cork oak forests in the world. It is where the cork in our homes comes from. We use it in two ways: inside the walls, to insulate, and on the façade, in full view. The second choice is deliberate. We believe in this material, for what it brings to building, to the people who live inside, and for its beauty.

A bark that renews itself

Cork is the bark of the cork oak. The tree gives its first harvest at around twenty-five years old. The bark is then stripped by hand, in summer, and the tree stays standing. It grows back, and a new harvest becomes possible every nine to twelve years. A cork oak often lives more than a hundred and fifty years: over its life, it gives its bark around fifteen times.

Between harvests, the tree keeps growing, storing carbon and sheltering the life of the forest. Harvesting cork means looking after a living forest.

The life cycle of a home

Our homes follow the same logic. They are built in our Marrakech workshop, set on supports, and can leave the way they arrived: the land then returns to its original state.

Cork fits this cycle. It goes through decades without deteriorating. When a home is moved, the cork goes with it. When a board reaches the end of its life, it is ground and reused as granules, or returns to the earth. From forest to wall, then from wall to a new life, the material keeps going. This is the symbiosis we look for between our homes and their surroundings: building that borrows from the place, then gives back to it.

What it brings to the people inside

• A temperate interior. Cork slows heat exchange between inside and outside. In Morocco, it is summer heat it keeps out first.
• Calm. Its cellular structure absorbs part of the sound: the wind, rain on the roof, life in the next room.
• Healthy air. As a plant material, cork resists moisture and mould, and does not deteriorate over time. It contributes to a healthy interior, pleasant to live in all year round.
• A material that lasts. It does not rot and keeps its shape for decades.

An aesthetic choice

On the façade, we leave the cork visible. Its texture and colour, between brown and black, sit well with earth, wood, stone and plants. They change with the daylight. Cork gives the home a calm presence that settles into the landscape.

That is the case at the artist's retreat at Ferme Slimane, near Marrakech: cork clads the outside and carries on inside.

A Moroccan material

Choosing Maamora cork means building with a Moroccan forest, in a Marrakech workshop, with Moroccan crews. The material comes from the country where the home will stand.

The brochure presents our models and their cork finishes.