IDENTITY HUB / FATIMA ZAHRAE-ASSAID

The Municipal Identity Hub is conceived as a civic and cultural anchor that redefines identity as an active, evolving process rather than a static memory. Located at the intersection of tradition and contemporary urban life, the project responds to a city shaped by layered histories, social transformations, and collective narratives. Instead of preserving identity as a fixed artifact, the hub proposes a space where identity is continuously produced, interpreted, and reassembled through everyday public engagement.

The project integrates cultural production, learning, and governance within a single urban framework. Workshops, exhibition spaces, craft studios, and community-oriented programs enable residents to reinterpret local symbols, materials, and practices into new functional forms such as furniture, textiles, and architectural elements. These processes transform memory into production, allowing cultural heritage to remain relevant and adaptable. Each spatial layer, surface, and movement path contributes to a visible archive of transformation, where traces of making become part of the architectural expression.

Formally, the building is generated through a system of geometric fragmentation and reassembly, reflecting the conceptual approach of identity formation. Angular volumes and intersecting planes create dynamic spatial relationships that encourage movement, interaction, and visual continuity between interior and exterior spaces. The architecture acts as both a container and a catalyst—framing public life while actively participating in it.

At an urban scale, the Identity Hub functions as an open and inclusive public platform, strengthening connections between civic institutions and everyday social life. It blurs the boundaries between formal municipal functions and cultural activity, positioning governance, creativity, and collective memory within a shared spatial experience.

Ultimately, the project proposes architecture as a living process—one that does not preserve identity as a relic of the past, but continuously manufactures it through participation, production, and transformation.