Check into the bijou riad supporting Morocco’s skateboarding youth

Scented boutique hotels and floodlit, concrete skateparks haven’t traditionally appealed to the same crowd, but behind the walls of Marrakesh’s historic medina, one eclectic riad suggests otherwise. With an experimental model, the four-bedroom hotel run is part of skater-turned-hotelier Louis Devereux’s plan to galvanise Morocco’s rollerblading scene.

Check in, roll out: Riad Alena

Riad Alena opened not long after Devereux launched Skate to Create (STC). The charity introduces Morocco’s youth to inline skating by offering free lessons and equipment, while partnering with other non-profits such as Concrete Jungle Foundation to build skateparks across the country. ‘STC initially started as a UK charity,’ the animated 34-year-old explains, ‘but when I arrived in Morocco five years ago, I realised a free school was needed far more here than in London.’ The riad is the engine behind the operation, with five per cent of its revenue directed towards the project.

Any skater – or guest donating rollerblading gear – a 15 per cent discount is given, and for the more hardy clientele, surf-skate tours to STC’s Jams – large-scale open competitions held several times yearly across Morocco – can be booked. Since its soft launch in late 2021, pro skaters including Joe Atkinson, CJ Wellsmore and Adrian Anne have stayed, joining the tri-weekly open skating sessions at Marrakech’s Menara Park or at the Centre Fiers et Forts orphanage skatepark in nearby Tameslouht.

‘You get such a different experience staying at a riad,’ Devereux notes. ‘So by being in the medina, we attract the curious, well-travelled guest who wants to connect to, rather than take from, Morocco.’ And with only four rooms, the intimacy of Riad Alena makes it impossible to shake the feeling you’ve walked into a friend-of-a-friend’s stylish living room.

The 19th-century riad has the air of a jewel box, unfolding around a tiled courtyard and upward through the floors toward an open skylight, white bougainvillaea trailing after it. Rooms with stitched-leather floors and copper lantern lighting are dotted with mid-century design pieces sourced at antique fairs and reupholstered in striped Moroccan kilims. There’s a ground-floor salon lined with plush Amazigh rugs and a glowing open hearth, while upstairs, a rooftop solarium has hosted an al fresco dinner for forty.

‘I looked for something as close to the walls of the medina as possible,’ Devereux says. ‘It was the first riad I saw, but I knew it was the one.’ Otherwise relaxed, his only hard line was regarding sustainability: the riad runs on solar-heated water, features no baths, and uses grey water for plants. All eight artisans who executed the renovation were born and raised within the medina’s walls.

If it all sounds a little like El Fenn, Marrakech’s iconic luxury hotel just five minutes away, that’s because Devereux was previously a manager there. It has even been nicknamed ‘El Fennito’ by Devereux’s mother, Vanessa Branson, who not only lent her design consultancy but also a few of her expressive modernist artworks that grace the tadelakt-plastered walls.

This winter, the riad hosts two Moroccan artists in residence: Yassine Sellame and Salaheddine Elbouaaichi, both producing work to be exhibited as part of the 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair in February. Instrumental to STC, Yassine – a great skateboarder himself – has been documenting the skateboard scene for the past decade, and nobody knows the culture as he does. While Salaheddine documents the hip-hop scene and city life. ‘Their joint show is called Wheels in Motion, exploring how the wheel is such an integral part of life in urban Marrakech,’ Devereux explains.

The rolling Riad Alena Artist Residency (RAAR) runs three shows annually, but this artist pairing is the first to link back to STC, in the circular, mutually-beneficial way Devereux so appreciates. ‘I always think about the difference between simply observing, and being part of, the city,’ he says, excitedly, ‘and Alena is here to be part of Marrakech.’

Riad Alena is located at 35 Derb Jdid, Marrakech 40000, Morocco