Tunis 
Marrakech 
Cape Town 
Shanghai 
Kuala Lumpur 
Amsterdam 
Prague 
Barcelona 
Manchester 
Salalah 
Amman 
Doha 
THE EXPERIENCE
See the World to Think Differently Inside It.
The medina of Marrakech has been a living design school for a thousand years. The zellige tilework on every wall, the moucharabieh lattice on every window, the geometry of the souks, none of it was accidental. Every pattern was solved. Every form was the answer to a human problem. The craftsmen who built this city were design thinkers before the term existed.
This programme takes you inside that tradition and puts it in conversation with the world’s most rigorous modern framework for creative problem solving. Six days of applied design thinking, built around the IDEO methodology, inside a city that has been practising it in stone, wood, and ceramic for centuries.
The cohort is small and comes from across the Arab world. The sessions happen in workshops, riads, and the souks themselves. And by the time you leave, you will not just have a framework for creative leadership. You will have used it, on real problems, in one of the most visually alive cities on earth.
WHO IS THIS FOR?
You will recognize yourself in at least one of these.
You want to solve problems in ways that actually work for people
You are ready to move beyond assumptions and start with the human being at the centre of every challenge. Design thinking gives you the tools to do that systematically, not just intuitively.
You want to turn ideas into something real and testable
You have concepts that stay on whiteboards longer than they should. This programme gives you the sprint methodology to move from idea to prototype before you have invested months in the wrong direction.
You want to lead creative processes with confidence
Whether you are running a team, a project, or a session, you want to know how to facilitate creative thinking in a way that produces real output, not just good conversation.
You want to think more originally under pressure
Deadlines, constraints, competing priorities. You want the kind of lateral thinking that does not disappear when the situation gets hard and the brief gets unclear.
If you are 25 or older and your work involves solving problems, building things, or leading people through uncertainty, this programme was built for you.
WHY MARRAKECH
A thousand years of human-centred design The craftsmen of the Marrakech medina did not have the IDEO framework. They had something older and equally rigorous, a tradition of solving problems through form, material, and function that has been refined across generations. The zellige patterns, the carved plaster, the wooden mashrabiyya, every element was designed for a reason. Walking through the medina with that understanding changes what you see.
Creativity under real constraints The medina was built without modern tools, modern materials, or modern supply chains. What it has is ingenuity, the ability to solve complex spatial, thermal, acoustic, and social problems with limited resources and extraordinary craft. That is exactly what the rapid prototyping and creativity under constraints sessions are built around. The city is the case study.
The closest Arab design destination, visa free No Schengen process. No long-haul flight. Marrakech is accessible, affordable, and warm in May and June before the peak summer heat arrives. The logistics are easy. The city rewards the effort completely.
THE COURSE
The Art of Design Thinking and Creative Leadership, built inside the Arab world’s most creative city.
This is not a traditional course. Every session is task-based, built around real activities, live challenges, and assignments that use Marrakech itself as the classroom. You will not sit and listen. You will go out, apply, and come back with something real.
- IDEO Design Thinking Framework — The global standard for human-centred problem solving — the methodology behind some of the most impactful products, services, and organisations on earth. You will leave knowing how to apply it, not just describe it. The design sprint session takes place in the medina souk, where the constraint is real and the material is the city itself.
- Human-centred problem solving — Starting with people before jumping to solutions. The discipline of empathy mapping, observation, and reframing that separates design thinking from ordinary brainstorming. Applied to problems brought by participants from their own professional contexts.
- Lateral and creative thinking — The techniques for approaching a problem from a direction no one expected. Breaking default patterns, generating unexpected options, and finding the solution that was hidden inside a constraint. Practised in the Ben Youssef Madrasa session, where 600 years of geometric problem-solving becomes the starting point.
- Design sprint methodology — Taking an idea from zero to testable prototype inside a defined time window. The tool that kills the habit of planning forever and replaces it with the discipline of making something real. The sprint runs across a full day in the medina with a live brief.
- Rapid prototyping of ideas — Turning a concept into something you can put in front of a person and learn from before you have invested months in it. The session that most participants say permanently changes how they approach new projects.
- Visual thinking and mind-mapping — How to think on paper, map complex systems, and communicate ideas spatially rather than linearly. A tool that works in workshops, strategy sessions, and any situation where a whiteboard is more useful than a slide deck.
THE CITY
Marrakech is not a backdrop. It is a thousand-year-old argument for why design matters.
The medina smells of cumin and cedar and leather and something floral you cannot quite identify. The souks are organised by trade, the dyers here, the metalworkers there, the carpet merchants in the next alley, in a system that has not changed in centuries because it works. The light in the afternoon turns the walls a particular shade of terracotta that is impossible to photograph accurately and impossible to forget.
Must-See in MARRAKECH
- Atlas Mountains day trip — an hour from Marrakech, the foothills of the Atlas offer hiking trails, Berber villages, and a complete change of landscape. The kind of morning that resets everything.
- Cycling through the Palmeraie — the palm grove on the edge of the city — a network of paths through thousands of palm trees with the mountains behind them. Best in the early morning before the heat arrives.
- Ben Youssef Madrasa — a 14th-century Islamic school with some of the finest carved plaster and zellige tilework in Morocco. The lateral thinking session takes place here — because 600 years of geometric problem-solving on every surface is the best possible classroom.
- Design sprint in the medina souk — the core applied session of the programme. A live brief, the souks as the context, and the constraint of working in one of the world’s most complex commercial environments.
- Majorelle Garden — the botanical garden created by French painter Jacques Majorelle and later owned by Yves Saint Laurent. The sensory branding workshop takes place here — a study in how colour, scent, and space create an experience that people travel across the world for.
- Architecture and space workshop in a restored riad — a private session inside one of Marrakech’s traditional courtyard houses — where the entire building is a design solution to the problem of living well in a desert climate.
- Jemaa el-Fna at dusk — the main square of Marrakech transforms every evening. Snake charmers, storytellers, musicians, food stalls, and several thousand people all converging in one place. There is nothing else quite like it.
- Rooftop dinner in the medina — most of the good restaurants in Marrakech are hidden inside riads with rooftop terraces. The city spread out below, the Atlas in the distance, and Moroccan food that is genuinely among the best in the Arab world.
- The Mellah and the Jewish quarter at night — the old Jewish neighbourhood of Marrakech, quieter than the main medina in the evening and full of small galleries, artisan workshops, and places to sit and think.
WHAT'S INCLUDED?
- 5 day intensive The Art of Design Thinking and Creative Leadership programme
- 4 nights accommodation in a centrally located Marrakech riad or hotel, shared twin room
- Daily breakfast.
- Airport transfers on arrival and departure.
- Curated city activities including the Ben Youssef Madrasa session, Majorelle Garden workshop, and medina design sprint
- 800 Arabia completion certificate
- Full on-ground support throughout
Frequently Asked & Question
This programme is designed for professionals, entrepreneurs, and creative thinkers aged 25 and above who want to solve problems more originally, lead creative processes more effectively, and build ideas that actually work. No design background is required or expected.
None at all. The programme begins from foundational principles and builds progressively. Whether you have worked in a creative field before or are approaching design thinking for the first time, the sessions are designed to meet you where you are.
You will stay in a comfortable, centrally located riad or hotel in Marrakech for 6 nights. Rooms are shared twin, two separate beds, one roommate from the programme cohort. The accommodation is chosen for its proximity to programme venues and the medina's key areas.
800 Arabia runs on a monthly subscription model called The Evolve Plan, at $150 per month. Once you subscribe, your wallet starts building. Marrakech becomes available after 11 months of subscriptions.
Each trip includes your full course programme, hotel with daily breakfast, city activities and experiences, and airport transfers at the destination. Flights are not included and arranged separately.
To get started, visit the 800 Arabia website or reach out to our admissions team directly on WhatsApp. Once your subscription is confirmed, you will receive a full programme pack with everything you need before you travel.
Pay Little. Experience More!
Lock your future trip with a small monthly commitment and enjoy the journey without financial pressure
- Build your balance month by month
- Travel with zero pressure
- Lock your spot before it’s full
800 ARABIA - Travel To Learn
Quick Links
Top Destination
Contact Info
Mail Us
Travel@800arabia.org
Copyright 2026 | All Right Reserved.
Accepted Payment Methods :
