Rachid Naanani presents Construction21 Morocco
During Construction21 France annual General Assembly, on June 18, 2014, Mr. Rachid Naanani, Chairman of the Moroccan cluster EMC, signed the licence agreement to open the first Construction21 platform outside of Europe: Construction21 Morocco. He tells us about sustainable construction in Morocco and his ambitions for the new platform.
Can you tell us more about the Cluster EMC?.
Rachid Naanani: The cluster EMC was born from an initiative of energy efficiency practioners: industrials, engineers, architects, universities... Our cluster is rich of that variety. We chose to work on energy efficiency throughout the whole chain of action that construction is, not only on the building itself. From the Engineer/Architect phase, when the very first and most important decisions are made, to the final production of a building. As construction practitioners, but also as Morroccans we face energy constraint and we decided to work together to spread the word on best practices and to meet the energy fracture challenge, because Morocco is not an energy-producing country.
The cluster EMC was founded by the end of 2013 and is supported by the Moroccan Ministry of Industry, Trade, Investment and Digital Economy with an aid of 2 millions dirhams (180.000 €) per year for 3 years, as part of its clusters development strategy. These funds are destined to the structure of our cluster and support development projects.
WHat are the sustainable construction challenges in Morocco today?
R.N. : First, human comfort. We recently adopted a new thermal regulation in Morocco and it has yet to be applied. On the same level as respect for the environment, people's comfort is essential; wether it's visual, thermal or acoustic. To maintain sustainable construction, we have to place people at the center of our priorities. Building a house and not offering a decent minimum in thermally and acoustically is borderline criminal. And yet, if you decide to implemant those two factors from the start in the conception of your project, it doesn't necessarily cost much more.
For Morocco, unlike France and most of Europe, the biggest market in sustainable construction lies in new buildings, not in renovation, with potentially 200.000 new housings per year. If we don't apply the right solutions on those new buildings now, while they're built, we'll have to correct all those incomforts later, at a cost. It would definitely be better to integrate those ideas and solutions right now.
How did EMC connect with the Construction21 network?
R.N.: As part of Construction21 development strategy, Véronique Pappe, codirector of Construction21 International, visited Morocco to meet the construction practitioners. After her first visit, our media partner, Archimedia started to work with Construction21 France, Belgium and Luxemburg, by providing original contents. The partnership approach is one of Construction21 main features and it matches our values as a cluster and as a company. In Africa and especially in Morocco, we are only beginning to work on sustainable construction, but we can only face the energy transition challenge by developing partnerships and by exchanging best practices, know-hows and technics. Given the variety of Cluster EMC's partners, the stability of our resources, our ambitions and our not for profit status, Construction21 International chose us to create and manage the new Moroccan chapter.
Construction21 platforms feature several types of content: news, case studies, trainings, communities... In your opinion, which ones are most likely to draw trafic from the Moroccan construction professional audience?
R.N. : Each one of these "engines" is a strong source of added value. We will use and consume all of those contents but especially case studies and trainings. Because in Morocco, we need both. We need to know about best practices and techniques, but we also need to learn how to use and replicate them. Those two "engines" will hence draw more audience at first, along with news.
Construction21 is also a social network. How do Moroccan professionals use social media?
R.N. : Professional use of social media is not yet a common practice in Morocco. However it's on a quickly rising trend, we're talking about a two-digits growth here. Even more for construction: if you consider that building practictioners are connected jobs. Construction21 Morocco will contribute to that growth and introduce new uses of Web 2.0 in our country.
