SamanaH Country Club

An exciting moment: a visit from His Majesty the King Mohammed VI
On Thursday, February 28, His Majesty Mohammed VI met with the developers of the 8 largest tourism projects in Marrakech. Alain Crenn and Richard Hennessy were invited to present the Samanah Country Club project - both its overall concept and the state of progress of the construction site. This essential milestone highlighted the advance of Samanah with respect to other major projects of the same type, along with the important features that make it unique: its square with shops and restaurants, as well as the tree nursery.
The King's visit illustrated the interest shown by the highest level of the Moroccan government in the progress of the tourism projects launched in Marrakech, one of Morocco's flagship destinations.

Samanah from above…
A few aerial shots of the project taken on February 27.
The square seen from the front.	Construction of the first phase with the golf course in the background.
Sample riad.	The tree nursery

Colored façades
The Samanah houses are illuminated with harmonious shades of ochre, enhancing the decorative details of the façades, and giving rhythm to the street gradually taking shape. With his artist's palette of ochres, Alain Lelieur has chosen this polychromy for the façades as a final touch to his architectural and urban design.


Will there be enough water tomorrow to water all of the golf courses in Marrakech? This question is often asked by Moroccans who are concerned to see freshly green golf courses and new golfing projects rising up all around the red city. Shouldn't the Marrakech golf courses be considered an ecological threat, given their intensive water consumption? Are there other advantages to building golf courses, in addition to providing an additional tourist attraction for the city of Marrakech? Actually, these rich soils that were once cultivated will be able to come to life again thanks to the cultivation of the grass for the greens along with the ornamental plants and shrubs in the gardens surrounding the houses. Some even believe that in the future this cultivation will help to fill the water tables with the rain water that today often forms gullies running off of this impenetrable clay soil hardened by the sun, sometimes even causing floods. At any rate, this ecological debate will certainly interest fervent environmentalists.
Well beyond this debate, and in parallel with the water limits imposed by the government, the Samanah golf course will be eligible for the "eco-golf course" label, if the creation of this label is authorized. We recall that in the mind of its designer, Jack Nicklaus, the Samanah course is a "desert golf course", i.e. one designed to adapt to its environment and its constraints. Thus different portions of the course have been purposely designed to remain desert-like and embellished with cacti. Plant species that consume very little water have been preferred both for the golf course and the private gardens. Finally, the American USGA standard imposed by the Nicklaus firm, in addition to guaranteeing more golfing pleasure at Samanah, has required equipping the course with a high-performance watering system and top quality drainage to better control water consumption - never too much, never too little.