From canvas to architecture – Corten steel mashrabiyyas

“This project originates in a calligraphic painting on canvas and expands into an integrated architectural installation. In collaboration with an architect, I designed a series of corten steel panels in the form of mashrabiyyas for a private villa in Rabat, Morocco.

 

Calligraphy leaves the surface to inhabit material, volume and time. Laser-cut into metal, the writing becomes a filter: it modulates light, casts moving shadows, and transforms both facades and interior spaces throughout the day. After dark, the backlit panels become luminous walls, the calligraphic line radiating from within the material itself. The source text is a poem in French, on light and love. Carried into metal, it ceases to be legible and becomes instead something felt: words dissolve into gesture, writing becomes texture, rhythm, presence. Between tradition and modernity, the calligraphic gesture enters into dialogue with contemporary architecture and Moroccan cultural heritage. Arranged in structured registers across two facade levels, the panels are not applied ornament but an architectural skin in their own right. The line becomes structure, and the work transforms into intervals of light.”

 

 

Architectural calligraphy in laser-cut corten steel

Private commission

Rabat, Morocco

Architecture: Ibrahim Karrakchou
Images © Ismaël Slaoui