Slow Travel at Berber Lodge

Sometimes you get what you want, and others you get what you need. And there are certain defining moments in life when you happen to get both. Traveling from Marrakech on the way to Berber Lodge, we pass by old men cycling rickety bikes, a pack of young boys holding out their hand for a ride, shared taxis and colourful buses full of chattering women.

We arrive off the main highway through winding desert roads, a grove of olive trees and a wide sense of space to a cluster of traditional Berber buildings framed in the distance by Atlas mountains. Less is more. Berber Lodge is a building of form and beauty, and a concept that exemplifies all that is authentic about slowing down and enjoying the present moment. A place that captures the idea that real luxury is time and space in soulful surroundings.

WORDS AND CONTENT BY WORKHOUSE COLLECTIVE

A group of collaborators and friends led by Swiss designer Romain Michel Meniere, and Studio KO (designers of the iconic YSL museum of Marrakech among many others) drew up plans for a place outside of Marrakech, a style of countryside hotel to provide an escape from the hustle and bustle of the city. Breakfast, lunch and dinner is served on Tamegroute pottery, the only sounds being birds chirping, the soft clinking of Beldi glasses and sweet wild dogs roaming the artfully designed grounds by french gardener Arnaud Casaus. We sat down with founder and proprietor Romain Michel Meniere to ask about his story and how it led to the realization of Berber Lodge.

Being here, at Berber Lodge has been the most amazing experience. I don't know if it's a choice, but there's no Wi-Fi everywhere. Personally we love it, but I wanted to ask if it was intentional?

It's not actually. Like most of the things here, it becomes like that, more by circumstance. For example the kitchen was not here at first. It came naturally, the things were placed here in a way to be the story of the experience. And really the Wi-Fi we tried everything and we can have only a small connection in the lobby. Maybe one day we can get cable, but for now I think….let's all just stop for 5-minutes for having this stupid phone all the time, it's crazy. Imagine the pool with everybody connected. For once in their life, people can be disconnected for three days, talking to your husband, talking to your wife, to read a book…

I completely agree. It has made us truly enjoy the purity of the moments here without being distracted with the internet at all times. How and why did you end up in Marrakech?

I came in 2002 and at that time the people that used to arrive in Marrakech were mostly escaping from something either personal crisis, divorce or some other reason like that. It wasn't as popular as it is now, and for me it was a lot of personal reasons, and I felt the need to escape from Geneva. I grew up in Paris, and I had lived in Mexico, New York and Milano. My choice wasn't Morocco at first.

I had wanted to find a place in Mexico. But I didn't find in Mexico the city that I was imagining in my mind. You know Morocco, for French people, it's not that exotic, it's like Australians moving to Bali. All my friends and family had known Morocco very well but I had never been. I was not attracted to Morocco at all, I hadn't even been here on holiday.

But I came here, I looked at a few riads and I found a riad that I really liked. But the city itself was really weird. There were no tourists in the streets, the streets themselves were earth, the whole city was much more basic then it is now, the people were demanding things from you, asking for jobs, it was a different place and I found it very strange.

So what did you like about it? Why did you stay?

I stayed, because I was not well. I was in a crisis and my soul was ill, and I wanted to be hidden somewhere on the planet where nobody knew me.

How did living in Marrakech help you?

I found an old house, a riad that was destroyed. I think that by restoring the house, slowly I started to restore myself. And I came back to my passion which was always renovation and building like it had been most of my life. I studied interior architecture, and I had in the past restored a monastery in a small village in the south of France for 20-years and it was my real passion. But for the last while I had been working in restaurants, public relations, and fashion and many other jobs. Interior architecture was something private for me. I used it for restoring my house or doing things but not really as a job.

What did you do with the house once you restored it?

I began to rent the riad, I was thinking only to see if people liked it. I didn't know then that I was creating my own dream. I was smoking joints constantly and I was restoring, and dreaming, drawing things on papers and I began to look and analyze all the design of the classic riad. Seeing how many centimetres you have to go above the tiles and why is it tadelakt, and all the small details, and I tried to notice everything and develop my own aestheticism.

At the time there were good architects and great restoration, but it was also a time of this fashion of yellow tadelak, blue tadelak, salmon tadelakt, and just lots of colours and lots going on. There was good taste as well but unfortunately I didn't really know from my research yet at the time.

Were you always attracted to the neutral, more natural style?

Yes I always like neutral and natural. But for me it really depends where you are. For example if you were to live somewhere like Venice, Italy, then I don't think I would like a neutral palace. I think the place and location determines a lot of what you input into it.

But it's true that when you come to Morocco, I think the visual information is a bit overwhelming like in the souk there is just too much going on. All of us are looking for something that can calm you down.

Did you know then that you would stay in Marrakech?

Not really. I was thinking maybe 5-years? I was not thinking that far. I built a house with a friend of mine in the countryside. That's when I began to discover Beldi Berber traditional architecture. When I came to Morocco I had discovered the Arabic Andalucie architecture, and then I was discovering this more traditional, countryside style that I really loved.

What did you do after building the first riad?

I worked for 15 years for clients, many various projects. I did a project with an Englishman for a place called Bab Ourika. But the architecture was already there so I had to work with existing buildings. I did a few riads as well, one that I really like is called Riad Mena & Beyond for a German girl. I did a restaurant, Nomad and I did a lot of private projects.

Did you enjoy the client work?

Yes I liked a lot of it, but I found it very frustrating that from the idea you have and then the result you're constantly disturbed by many things like the client doesn't get it and you'll have to explain him where you want to go and sometimes your ideas get diluted and they can actually get less artistic.

I think I've lost more working for a client that I gain in terms of that. I was always defending my ideas until the last minute, but it makes you tired. I think the idea to make again something for me here was as well an accumulation of my own frustration. About doing really something that I like from A to Z without being disturbed by information by people asking you, why did you do that? I have no idea why I'm doing it.

Here the interior decoration, being my own client, I finished it in 2 weeks.

What was the actual first idea of starting the Berber Lodge? When did it come about, was it over wine with dinner or how did it all start?

The idea of here came first because I had a beautiful modern house next to Marrakech. It was in the style of Beldi architecture influenced by Berber villages but modern. Straight lines, big windows, black pool, a beautiful house. I sold the house and I started thinking of what I was going to do next.

I had fallen in love with this area a long time ago. There was a very nice hotel behind the hills that still exists and my friend studio KO had built a house here in the hills for a client, Villa K.

I knew the villages around but I was visiting my yoga teacher that lived in this particular village. When I came to this place it truly was like wow, my heart. It is just so beautiful with the mountains behind with the snow, and the picturesque castle on the right. I was thinking this is so stunning, it's absolute perfection. My neighbours had already built everything in earth, and in that way we are very lucky that there are no concrete buildings around us.

I wanted to make a small hotel because I saw there were still possibilities in Marrakech to have a countryside hotel. I traveled a lot when I was young with my parents and then as a teenager and really throughout my life. I think you can't really understand how to make a hotel if you're not a client yourself. Some people do a hotel but they would never spend €200. They would never spend € 300, € 400, €1,000 to go to a nice hotel.

They go to France and they create a hotel but there is something missing. Because they are not the clients of that hotel, who travel in the world and have a reference. So fortunately I think unconsciously I saw to build something of my own concept of Morocco from what I had seen. I wanted to build my own place that was a mix of many emotions. For example it was a thought of going to visit a Berber family, to a very basic home, but when you go to the house, the grandmother brings you a hot bread and some argan oil, and you feel this earth and the quietness and you feel everything. You feel almost like a baby, like you just want to sleep and you feel like you're in paradise.

And I thought that is the feeling that I would like to translate but with comfort as well. To show the purity of this kind of feeling, to sort of entrap the people with a nice napkin, a beautiful carpet, a good shower, to show them in comfort so that they feel happy but in a way we bring you something else. So they can have all these perhaps superficial things, but also begin to feel the good feeling of what is beneath that, what is possible, to discover this culture. Because the Berber are amazing people, and they can discover a wonderful culture to see that there is something else.

Was it complicated starting to build here?

At first the planning permission was complicated because we had to have the authorisation of the government. But for the project plan itself it was easy. Studio KO are my best friends and we always dreamed to work together on a project. I realized of course that they are very busy and didn't have much time but they created the initial layout of the place. They drew the plans and they had the boxes in the property with each tree marked and the level and main views and how it's going to be. And it was done very fast, just like that in a sketchbook and it was exactly as I had wanted. We both shared the same style and the vision.

We had the same information about how exactly to build. For example for a Berber traditional ceilings you would have maybe five, six, seven different possibilities on how to finish a ceiling. You know exactly in the Barber traditional architecture what you can do so you have all the possibilities and you just choose what is best for the space.

In a way the space leads you. For example here, you want to go up the stairs, that was not designed in plan but of course when you go there you want to have a view from there and you want to go there in the first place because there is a window. The architecture is more about your emotions and how you see it and how you live it.

The good thing is that we shared these emotions with my friends that I designed this with so we all had the same feeling.

Where do you go to get inspired?

My friends inspire me a lot, we have a lot of great discussions together. I have a good friend who is a landscape designer. He helped me here with garden. We have friends who are very good cooks, and we get together and we talk about everything, from gardening, food, architecture, beauty, aestheticism….Everything. We share a lot. And we travel…

Where do you travel?

Well first it was very difficult for me to leave this place, especially when we first opened I was very dependent on being here, it's like my baby and I was too stressed to go

Now I have become more confident just to be sure all the details are right, but now it's easier to leave then it used to be. I go to to Paris a lot, I love it there, I also go to Portugal and in the summer we go to Hydra in Greece. I love it there. In Hydra there are no cars, no motorcycles, no Instagram hotels.

Regarding Instagram how do you think it has influenced your business?

Well it's interesting because maybe without it we wouldn't even exist. But in a way it's a bit dangerous because you are quite reliant on it and of course you can't criticize because it's really brought the people you want. So we receive a mix of people, it could be two friends who are rugby players travelling around together, or you have a girl working in fashion and the other mother and the child and you have a girlfriend for a birthday. It's very mixed with lots of young people from Australia and from all around the world so it's really amazing.

And the place always has a beautiful vibe but of course the people that stay here can really influence it and the place can look different if you stay here a few days. And it's so nice having all the different energy and interactions.

Is there something that defines for you what the Berber Lodge truly represents?

The most important thing that draws a line behind everything that we do here, is that everything is about love. And it may sound stupid to say that but truly it's from the heart and with love.