India, April 13 -- In a nod to the country's rich culture and nomadic past, this arena in Casablanca is being built to resemble a massive tent (see image below left), the precise shape inspired by those used at the annual Moussem event (an ancient traditional gathering of the tribes of the Sahara, now celebrated as a cultural festival in Morocco).
"The tent is the primordial form of architecture, of shelter and shared space, a notion we want to invoke within our spectators," says Linna Choi, co-founder and principal of the French- Moroccan architectural studio Oualalou + Choi, which is working with the British branch of the design firm Populous on the project.
The tent membrane, made of aluminium lattice and held up by 26 masts, will prot...