playing for change FOUNDATION | 2025
The Playing for Change Foundation brings communities together through music and culture to address some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Its core belief—that cultural preservation and environmental conservation are deeply interconnected and must be understood as one and the same—resonates strongly with me as an architect.
I have supported the foundation since 2014 and, in 2025, was invited to visit the Joudour Sahara music school in Morocco during the annual Zamane Music Festival. The festival highlights the cultural and ecological richness of the Southern Draa Valley while drawing attention to environmental degradation and the loss of ancestral knowledge.
The music school functions as a civic anchor for the community. Integrating a café and a bus stop, it is embedded in daily life and supports local tribes in sustaining their musical traditions despite the out-migration of the working generation. Through mentoring relationships between young musicians and established artists, it strengthens intergenerational knowledge transfer and creative continuity.
The festival site is conceived as a multifunctional cultural landscape, consisting of an amphitheater, performance stage, and procession and vending area. Operating year-round as a rehearsal and recording venue, the amphitheater supports music as a viable profession. Integrated into this infrastructure is an underground water cistern that stores water during extended dry periods, reducing pressure on the depleted water table and supporting new tree plantings as part of a long-term response to encroaching desertification.
Learn More:
>> Architecture & Environment at Joudour Sahara
>> Vieux Farka Toure | Philipa | Live at Samana Festival 2025
