Tourist space in radical architectures. Actif au Maroc as a paradigm

Abstract

Tourist architecture for mass tourism in the mid-20th century questioned its design strategies, similar to the crisis of modernity. This modern architecture, with a positivist approach, objectively solved the problems of holiday accommodation. It later transformed into architecture rich in references to users' subjectivity, while also responding to contemporary utopian theoretical discourses. Radical architecture is one of the paradigms of this shift, especially in tourist architecture. It presents a diverse approach to tourist imaginaries, connecting architecture with the hedonistic nature of tourism through users' creative and bodily experiences.
The Actif au Maroc project is an example of touristic proposals from the field of radical architecture. Drafted by architects Herman Grubb and Till von Hasselbach in 1971, it brought together spatial, performative, and technological proposals from actors in the Viennese radical circle, in a desert setting in southern Morocco. This research analyzes this little-documented project, linking it to contemporary experiences. It highlights the project as a reference for the formalization of contemporary tourist spaces, a field increasingly focused on sensory and playful aspects, as opposed to the representation and gaze of postmodernity