Where the works stand
The two houses move through declared phases. Here is the pace of each, without convenient rounding: every sub-step carries its share, so that even a small advance stays visible.
Riad Al-Uns
رياض الأُنس
Fez: the house of formation
01Pre-design42%
The papers, the concept, the working team.
- Legal and notarial due diligenceUnder way · 30%
Draft legal texts: first checks completed.
- Concept and functional briefCompleted · 100%
Last update: July 2026
- Team appointment and preliminary commissionsUnder way · 50%
New eminent scholars have agreed to collaborate on the project. An association in Morocco dedicated to safeguarding endangered crafts has expressed its wish to collaborate actively.
Last update: November 2026
- Involvement of university professors and researchers in the projects followedUnder way · 45%
The project joins the UNESCO Chair in sustainable bioclimatic urban planning and architecture at the École Nationale d’Architecture in Rabat.
Last update: October 2026
- Presentation of the project to ICOMOS and ICCROMUnder way · 50%
The board of ICOMOS Ethiopia has decided to support the initiative; a memorandum of understanding is being prepared.
Last update: October 2026
- Letter of intent to an Arab university with a UNESCO ChairUnder way · 30%
Letter sent on 19 October; a reply is awaited.
Last update: October 2026
- First contacts with the authorities and institutions of Fez, through local collaboratorsUnder way · 30%
Talks with the national institutions for heritage and for the crafts have begun.
Last update: October 2026
- Preliminary budgetCompleted · 100%
Last update: September 2026
- Archive and land-registry researchUnder way · 50%
Last update: September 2026
- Architectural partnership with a practice in Rabat: surveys of the candidate propertiesUnder way · 35%
Last update: October 2026
- Identifying the property in the medinaUnder way · 30%
The details are being settled.
Last update: October 2026
- Meetings with the city’s great historic families and consultation of the medina’s artisans’ guildNot started · 0%
Meetings with the families will begin shortly; the guild will be consulted in due course: its collaboration is indispensable.
- Presenting the project to the patrons and gathering applications from the founders of An-NudamaNot started · 0%
02Phase 0: Surveys, diagnostics and permits0%
Knowing the building and earning leave to touch it.
- Material diagnostics and samplingNot started · 0%
- Heritage procedures and building permitsNot started · 0%
- Detailed design approvedNot started · 0%
03Phase 1: Structure and services0%
The body of the building and its service runs.
- Consolidation and making safeNot started · 0%
- Roofs and floor structures rebuiltNot started · 0%
- Hydraulic and electrical runs integratedNot started · 0%
04Phase 2: Finishes, art crafts and furnishing0%
The craftsman’s hand, where the eye rests.
- Zellige and hand-made tileworkNot started · 0%
- Tadelakt and lime plastersNot started · 0%
- Traditional joineryNot started · 0%
- Lighting and furnishingNot started · 0%
05Opening0%
Sign-off, outfitting, first apprentices.
- Technical sign-off and occupancyNot started · 0%
- Outfitting of the dormitories and workshopsNot started · 0%
- Setting up the fine saddlery workshopNot started · 0%
- First opening, in a quiet formNot started · 0%
- InaugurationNot started · 0%
Al-Funduq as-Siqilli
الفندق الصقلّي
Ragusa: the house of the craft
01Pre-design49%
The papers, the concept, the working team.
- Legal and notarial due diligenceNot started · 0%
- Concept and functional briefCompleted · 100%
Last update: July 2026
- Team appointment and preliminary commissionsUnder way · 10%
Last update: October 2026
- Involvement of university professors and researchers in the projects followedUnder way · 45%
The project joins the UNESCO Chair in sustainable bioclimatic urban planning and architecture at the École Nationale d’Architecture in Rabat.
Last update: October 2026
- Presentation of the project to ICOMOS and ICCROMUnder way · 50%
The board of ICOMOS Ethiopia has decided to support the initiative; a memorandum of understanding is being prepared.
Last update: October 2026
- Letter of intent to an Arab university with a UNESCO ChairUnder way · 30%
Letter sent on 19 October; a reply is awaited.
Last update: October 2026
- Preliminary budgetCompleted · 100%
Last update: September 2026
- Archive and land-registry researchUnder way · 50%
Last update: September 2026
- First meetings with the architects appointed to survey the candidate propertiesUnder way · 5%
Last update: September 2026
- Presenting the project to the patrons and gathering applications from the founders of An-NudamaNot started · 0%
- Constitution of the association “Il Fondaco Siciliano”Completed · 100%
Deed of incorporation and statutes signed on 25 October 2026; association registered, tax code 93263900875.
Last update: October 2026
- Option on the propertyCompleted · 100%
Option signed on the property: valid until 25 March 2027.
02Phase 0: Surveys, diagnostics and permits0%
Knowing the building and earning leave to touch it.
- Material diagnostics and samplingNot started · 0%
- Heritage procedures and building permitsNot started · 0%
- Detailed design approvedNot started · 0%
03Phase 1: Structure and services0%
The body of the building and its service runs.
- Consolidation and making safeNot started · 0%
- Roofs and floor structures rebuiltNot started · 0%
- Hydraulic and electrical runs integratedNot started · 0%
04Phase 2: Finishes, art crafts and furnishing0%
The craftsman’s hand, where the eye rests.
- Saddlery and leatherworkNot started · 0%
- Joinery and traditional timberNot started · 0%
- Wrought iron and metalworkNot started · 0%
- Lighting and furnishingNot started · 0%
05Opening0%
Sign-off, outfitting, first apprentices.
- Technical sign-off and occupancyNot started · 0%
- Outfitting of the dormitories and workshopsNot started · 0%
- Setting up the fine saddlery workshopNot started · 0%
- First opening, in a quiet formNot started · 0%
- InaugurationNot started · 0%
The site journal
What has happened, date by date: the steps on the ground and the new pages of the site.
The project on one page; a founding association in Fez
An independent reading of the economic brief, requested from an international expert in the planning of cultural institutions, pointed to what needs strengthening: the people, the bodies, the control of money. A simpler arrangement has come out of it. A founding association under Moroccan law will be constituted in Fez, with Il Fondaco Siciliano as its partner, bound by a protocol; an independent custody will hold the walls and the endowment; in the house, all residents will elect those who lead it. On European calls, a conversation has opened with a Sicilian body experienced in international project design. The new page, Al-Mithaq in brief, gathers the principles of the houses, the bodies and their form, the thresholds of the start and the studies that will accompany the project; the economic brief and the phase-zero budget can be requested by writing to us.
A network of crafts joins the work
Following a conversation devoted to the vision of the project, an association in Morocco dedicated to safeguarding endangered crafts has expressed its wish to collaborate actively, in full agreement on the approach of the houses. The working group thus opens to a dense network of contacts in Moroccan craftsmanship.
ICOMOS Ethiopia, the UNESCO Chair in Rabat, the Fondaco constituted
The board of ICOMOS Ethiopia has decided to support the initiative, and a memorandum of understanding is being prepared. The project joins the UNESCO Chair in sustainable bioclimatic urban planning and architecture at the École Nationale d’Architecture in Rabat. In Sicily, the association Il Fondaco Siciliano has been constituted and registered; it will run the house.
Talks in Morocco; ICOMOS and ICCROM; a letter of intent
In Morocco, talks with the national institutions have begun: a national heritage body and a Moroccan institution for the crafts. The working group is also starting to take shape in Sicily. University professors and researchers are involved in the projects we follow, from intangible heritage to economics, from the social sciences to climate and architecture. The presentation note on the project has been sent to ICOMOS and ICCROM, and a letter of intent has gone to an Arab university with a UNESCO Chair. On the site, a new page on solidarity between the artisans of war zones and the masters of the houses.
Fez: the first exchanges; archery and falconry
In Fez the first exchanges with the authorities and institutions have begun, through local collaborators, while an architecture practice in Rabat follows the architectural partnership. New eminent scholars have agreed to collaborate. The details for identifying the property in the medina are being settled; meetings will follow with the city’s great historic families and, in due course, consultation of the artisans’ guild, whose collaboration is indispensable. In the Furusiyya, ar-Rimaya (archery) and falconry now have their pages, with the archer’s and the falconer’s instruments.
The table, the Furusiyya, the language of the house
At the Riad, Al-Māʾida describes the table of the house: the dietetics of Ibn Sīnā and Ibn Buṭlān, the day of those who train, bread and fire; the kitchen now has its sign, the brass mortar. The Furusiyya enters both houses with the horse, the saddlery, the sword reconstructed from the treatises, the dress of solemn days and the riding dress. The Funduq sets out the language of the house: the master’s language in the workshop, one table a week in Arabic, an evening class for young men from the area. In the Frame of reference, the map of the Mediterranean funduqs.
The frame of reference
A new page brings together the international texts that Morocco and Italy recognise: the 2003 UNESCO Convention, the Faro Convention, the New European Bauhaus. For each it says what it asks and how the two houses put it into practice.
The guide to the site
Four ways in: to support, to learn or teach, to study, to be a guest. For each, the guide shows which pages to read and in which order.
The chain of masters and the members’ area
The site now explains how the house gathers the chains of transmission of its masters: who taught whom, with the degree of proof of each link. The members’ area also opens, by invitation, for members and founders.
Fez: first meetings with the architects
Meetings have begun with the architects in charge of surveying the buildings under study in the medina, together with archival and land-registry research. It is the first step of Phase 0: knowing the building before touching it.
The opening of the Riad is planned for 2030; that of the Funduq in Ragusa will follow. Precise dates are announced once the preceding phase is closed and signed off. For questions on the sites, on craft commissions or on support: Writing to the house