This project is for 3 houses, in the desert, 10km inland from the coastal town of Essouira in south west Morocco.

In 1952 the Norwegian Architect Sverre Fehn, wrote in relation to traditional Moroccan settlements ' the desert drifts, only the stars give fixed orientation'. Water, sand and stars are the elements of the North African landscape and it is to these fundamentals that we have turned our attention.

Most of the new houses, which scatter the horizon here, stand awkwardly aloof in the centre of a barren plot. Our houses are sheltered against the boundary wall on the hard edges of the site, forming a defensive enclosure against the roads. They are brought together in a manner which refers to the traditional clustering of Moroccan domestic buildings.

The traditional Moroccan house is situated around a central court. The courtyards are often entered indirectly and act as thresholds to the interior, as well as an extension of the living space. This condition is reinterpreted and extended within the project.

The courtyards act as thresholds within the complex and as the outdoor spaces of individual dwellings. A water court registers the well, a private garden might reflect a more European tradition, while a desert garden, incorporating indigenous planting - prickly pear and agarve, occupies the larger site and offers a measure of security. A fourth house and yard is offered as a concierge's residence.

The houses interlock in a repeating motif, referring to the notion of the traditional arabesque. It is intended that this is reinterpreted through a series of decorative components - tiling, filigree shading screens, and carved decorative plasterwork which, as in traditional

Moroccan architecture, will be used to finish the rough masonry external walls. The three living spaces refer to the glittering white domes, which often appear on traditional buildings. Here their polished plaster surfaces are skewed toward a rooflight, which centres each house on the North Star. A linear window, at low level, surveys the horizon - searching for the sea and the distant city - the houses fix their orientation.