Vision & mission
To form men through gesture, prayer and discipline — and to transmit what is disappearing.
Riad Al-Uns is born from a simple observation: the traditional Maghrebi crafts — calligraphy, zellige, wood, weaving, perfumes — risk disappearing with those who still carry them. At the same time, young men are seeking a formation that is not merely technical, but also moral and spiritual.
Our mission is to bring these two needs together in a single house: a residential school where one learns the gesture, where one prays, where one eats together, where character is formed as much as the hand.
It is not a cultural centre. It is not a hotel. It is a house that lives according to a clear rhythm, and that opens its doors — with measure — to those who wish to enter for a time.
Why now
This retreat is not peculiar to the Maghreb: wherever knowledge was transmitted from master to disciple — and particularly in the Maghreb — the chain breaks faster than it is rebuilt. A maalem who dies without a successor takes with him not only a gesture, but a way of seeing, of measuring, of waiting — something no book can replace.
Riad Al-Uns responds to this not through nostalgia, but through residency: one does not save a craft by describing it, one saves it by forming someone capable of continuing it. That is the difference between a museum and a living house.
The community welcomes adult men (18 years and older), freely committed to this form of life.
Transmission
The crafts that are disappearing. The masters who transmit. The young men who receive and, one day, will teach.
Discover Dar al-Hiraf →Integral formation
Hand, gaze, character, presence to others. One does not form only an artisan: one forms a man.
Brotherhood & uprightness →Continuity
From the house to the family, from the family to the house. The chain is not broken.
Family & community →Openness
A house that learns does not close in on itself — open to schools, workshops, institutions.
Outreach & partnerships →