Admission requirements
There are no specific admission criteria. But, in view of the final attainment levels envisaged, minors are most suitable for third-year bachelor's students.
Description
This course translates classroom learning into direct experience through a series of guided excursions to Morocco’s major urban sites. Each visit follows the thematic focus of the lecture series Urban Changes in Morocco, allowing students to deepen their understanding of the country’s diverse urban forms and infrastructures.
Through guided tours, on-site discussions with architects, planners, heritage specialists, and local residents, and exploring on their own in small teams bringing together participants from both countries and diverse disciplines, students are encouraged to experience, read, smell, and feel the city, therefore developing analytical and observational skills.
From the medinas of Fez and Marrakech to the modern extensions of Rabat, Casablanca, or Tangier, students examine how built form, landscape systems, and social practices interrelate and shape Moroccan cities today.
By engaging with both experts and inhabitants, and taking their own sensorial perceptions into account as well, they learn to interpret cities as dynamic systems of governance, ecology, and everyday life. The fieldworks end by collective reflections that connect sensory impressions to theoretical debates, nurturing peer learning across disciplines.
Course objectives
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
1. Observe and interpret urban spaces in Morocco through first-hand, multi-sensory, and comparative field experience.
2. Apply concepts from the lecture series (heritage, renewal, sustainability, etc.) to concrete urban sites.
3. Analyse spatial and ecological systems, including water management, mobility, and green spaces, as key components of urban liveability.
4. Engage with local stakeholders (community members, professionals, and policy actors) to understand diverse perspectives on urban change.
5. Document and reflect on field experiences through sketchbooks, photo diaries, or written reflections that link observation to theory.
Timetable
The timetables are available through My Timetable.
Mode of instruction
Excursion / field visits
Guided discussions
Assessment method
| Partial Assessment | Weighing |
|---|---|
| Individual field diary / photo-essay 1 | 30% |
| Individual field diary / photo-essay 2 | 30% |
| Individual field diary / photo-essay 3 | 30% |
| Participation | 10% |
Resit, review & feedback
If the final grade is below 5, the student has to revise the essay.
If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results and before the second exam moment takes place an exam review will have to be organized.
Reading list
Registration
Admitted students will be enrolled for the courses by the Education Administration Office Herta Mohr by the end of August / beginning of September.
Contact
For substantive questions, contact the lecturer listed in the information bar on the right.
For questions about enrolment, admission, education programmes offered by NIMAR, contact the coordinator.
Remarks
Important: this course is taught at NIMAR in Rabat, Morocco.