The desert architect who brought back a river

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Aziza Chaouni was the first Moroccan to study architecture at Harvard. She dreamed of creating the kind of dramatic glass and metal structures that were winning awards for architectural superstars, But her university professor and mentor sent her on a different mission – to create buildings and designs to help her home city of Fez. So Aziza decided on a project to restore the heavily-polluted and stinking river that runs through the ancient medina. It seemed a far cry from her original ambitions. But an epic journey across the Sahara Desert convinced her that the innovative engineering of water, sand and mud – rather than steel, glass and concrete – were her true calling. There used to be half a million Northern Woolly Spider Monkeys – or Muriqui – in Brazil. But today just 900 are left. Reporter Gibby Zobel travelled to a nature reserve in the state of Minas Gerais to find out more about the monkeys and the man who devoted his life to protecting them. This interview was first broadcast on 14th July 2020. Get in touch: [email protected] or WhatsApp +44 330 678 2707