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Vernacular Architecture: Towards a Sustainable Future – Mileto, Vegas, García Soriano & Cristini (Eds)© 2015 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-1-138-02682-7

Form and materiality in contemporary Southern Moroccan architecture

J.M. López-Osorio, T. García Ruiz de Mier & E. España NaveiraEscuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Universidad de Málaga, Málaga, Spain

D. Arredondo GarridoEscuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura, Universidad de Granada, Granada, Spain

ABSTRACT: The cultural landscape of the pre-Saharan regions of Southern Morocco presents a strong contrast between lifestyles that have preserved identity relationships with traditional habitat and new settlement patterns influenced by globalization. These realities are conditioned by two phenomena: the presence during summer of Moroccan emigrants from Europe and the visit of tourists that search an encounter with an exotic traditional world. Both have an impact in the form and materiality of the contemporary architecture of the region. The question is if the encounter between traditional culture and the new constructive needs brought by the touristic sector will preserve identity relationships linked to tradition, and how these identities may be protected and preserved.

2 TYPOLOGICAL AND FORMAL TRANSFORMATIONS IN DWELLINGS

The first studies on southern Moroccan archi-tecture date from the 1930s and the works of Montagne, Laoust y Terrasse, followed by the researches of Jacques Meunié. In the last decades of the twentieth Century and the early decades of the twentieth-first, researches have focused on the analysis of the building techniques and the con-structive use of earth, with the works by Hensens, Karim, Mimó, Rauzier, Naji and Soriano. A recent study by Díaz del Pino, García Alcántara and Natoli Rojo showed the evolution of earth dwell-ings in the Mgoun Valley. Research focused on the traditional fortified house, called tighremt in the Amazigh language of the region, and analyzed its evolution up to the definition of the contemporary model (Fig. 1). Through the replacement of tra-ditional materials and formal changes, the process of abstraction that took place has done away with many of the monumental references and has pro-duced important alterations in significance. The original tighremt presents a characteristic square plan and is several floors in height, with a terraced roof. It has four slender corner towers richly deco-rated with geometric and symbolic motifs that also have a structural function (Fig. 2). The evolution of this architectural type limits the importance of towers and gives way to a functional program adapted to new residential needs. In the final phases of this evolution towers are totally done away with,

1 INTRODUCTION

The architecture of Southern Morocco is under-going interesting evolutionary processes linked to local tradition. This is manifest both in the con-struction of new dwellings and in the architecture of tourism. The present study acknowledges that architecture is conditioned by social change as well as by tradition. This is a complex field that swings between the search for the presumed authenticity of traditional architecture and the need to generate images of progress.

The architecture currently produced in Southern Morocco finds formal and typological references in traditional constructions, which original models come from the adaptation to a singular territory and a set of historical and cultural conditionings. The present research is a continuation of a previ-ous research project: Landscape and Patrimony in Southern Morocco: A Proposal for the Develop-ment of Sustainable Tourism, and in particular the study of the evolution of earth architecture in the Mgoun Valley (Díaz del Pino et al. 2012).

The present study offers a double perspective. On the one hand, new dwellings built on reinforced concrete with the financial resources of emigrants. On the other, tourism architecture that pretend to establish a link with the past with the construction of new buildings loaded with references to the local history and monuments or restoring existing build-ings in which the use of de-contextualized formal resources pretend to be a guarantee of authenticity.

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windows are enlarged and volumes are more com-pact and organized in three parallel bays.

To the typological evolution of earth dwellings must be added a new building type in reinforced concrete that appears in the last third of the twen-tieth Century and coexists with the evolutionary sequence of traditional architecture. Here the con-structive process is not related to the technique and materials of earth construction, although use is made of some formal elements that lent the tigh-remt its symbolic and representational character. This new type of dwelling recuperates the tradi-tional corner towers as a mere decoration linked to the identity feelings of local population (Díaz del Pino et al. 2012).This phenomenon takes place also in the pre-Saharan valleys. In mid and high altitude valleys traditional settlements are the result of the sedentarization of small family clans that build fortified dwellings forming small villages made up of groups of individual houses called douars (sing.

douar). In the Southern valleys collective settle-ments are the rule, and the habitat takes the appear-ance of fortified villages called ksour (sing. ksar).

In both cases the traditional management of water, land and the territory is collective, this being one of the defining traits of traditional habitat. Nowadays, this settlement patterns are undergoing a disarticulation process that produces important imbalances in contemporary habitat and has a strong impact in architecture.

3 TOURISM ARCHITECTURE

Starting with the last decades of the twentieth Century, interest on the landscapes and culture of Southern Morocco has generated an important touristic development of great relevance to archi-tecture, both in lodging models as well as other facilities like restaurants and handicraft shops.

The first development takes place with the con-struction of large hotels that do not follow the practices of traditional architecture. Local architec-tural and decorative elements are incorporated as a way to attract visitors. This takes place both in new buildings and in traditional dwellings that incorpo-rate in their façades decorative elements, drawings of Berber inspiration and fake machicolations on their cornices. In many instances these lodgings are called kasba, a term little used by locals but with strong links to tradition and legitimacy (Fig. 3).

Figure 1. Phases of evolution of dwellings showing the transformation from the historical typology built on earth to the contemporary one in reinforced concrete (Lógicas Locales).

Figure 2. Traditional fortified house (tighremt) in Bou Taghrar (López-Osorio).

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It is worth noting that a growing number of tour-ist facilities take advantage of restored buildings to offer the tourist the chance to lodge in a truly origi-nal dwelling. In these cases results are not always satisfactory since there is a trend towards enlarge-ments “in style” barely distinguishable from the original building. More sensible restorations exist in which traditional materials and techniques have been used, offering an attractive balance between the respect towards original values and the archi-tectural adaptation of the building.

4 AN ANALYSIS OT THE DYNAMICS OF TRANSFORMATION

Southern Moroccan habitat and architecture is going through a set of changes, visible in most pre-Saharan valleys, which affect both the form and the matter of architecture.

One of the first transformational phenomena is the expansion of traditional villages occupying lands located above the water-channels and cultiva-ble areas. New wells and elevated water deposits for domestic and agricultural use produce a decrease in phreatic levels that endangers traditional collective practices and the sustainable use of water. This situa-tion worsens with the construction of touristic com-plexes and their high consumption of water. This is happening nowadays in Marrakech, where there is a trend towards building large complexes of villas sur-rounded by green areas, golf courses and artificial lagoons. There is little doubt that this model will be applied in many other areas of the country.

The construction of new dwellings in reinforced concrete is carried out with little or no assistance by architecture professionals. Financial resources come usually from emigrants. These build summer or retirement residences for themselves and offer finan-cial support to relatives in the construction of their own houses as well (López-Osorio et al. 2012a).

The cost of these dwellings is higher than that of traditional ones, but it offers the opportunity of building by phases (foundations, structure, roof-ing, closing and finishing) (Fig. 5, 7), something unthinkable in traditional earth constructions that must be built in a single phase due to the character-istics of their materials (Fig. 4).

The process that generates dwellings thus departs from the secular dynamics of collective production of the habitat, becoming an individual action that may be identified with the shy arrival of the post-modern condition to local society. The promoter comes back during the holidays from the cities of Morocco or from Western countries like France, Spain, Belgium or Holland.

He has become acquainted, in these countries, with quality standards higher than the local ones and has lived in homes designed from a function-alist perspective, built by a globalized industry. This experience instills feelings of modernity and progress that lead to the neglect of local architec-ture and generate the need for new spaces of social representation and identification.

The really striking feature of the phenomenon is not the functional and material modernity of these buildings but the fact that some of its com-ponents show a conscious look towards traditional elements. Façades of reinforced concrete buildings incorporate corner towers now without any struc-tural or functional use. These towers are formal-ized by elevating the terrace parapet above the cornice line, becoming mere compositional games that include the opening of fake windows in the corners of the parapet (Fig. 6). The formal and typological definition of the new dwelling, that maintains or recuperates the square plan, as well as the four corner towers, are clearly an attempt at the appropriation of elements from the histori-cal architecture and the symbols of domestic and tribal power, now at the service of showing off the social and economic progress of an emerging soci-ety. The process generates growing social differ-ences among the population which impact in the long run is still difficult to assess.

The post-modern condition of this architec-ture becomes manifest in its consideration of the architectural form as the transmitter of a symbolic message. As explained by Rossi (1995) outstanding urban symbols are to be understood as the cultural heritage of society and possess an inner strength that surpasses the value of the built object and its function: they are loaded with public significance. In our area of study this significance is attained by resorting to a local typology, the tighremt, reduced to a square volume provided with corner towers and built with modern materials. This evolution is not the end result of distilling the essences of a place or an architectural tradition, as has taken

Figure 3. Touristic lodging in the Mgoun Valley (López-Osorio).

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place historically in earth dwellings, but a simple symbolic reduction to an image.

The interpretation that this architecture makes of symbols is not without interest: it is so simple that complex motifs and traditional materials do not abound. Instead, it emphasizes the visual com-ponent of symbols without losing the functional advantages of contemporary construction systems. These new buildings search for two sources of social significance: progress, since they are modern and functional, and social power, expressed by prestig-ious symbols perfectly recognizable by local society.

The other dynamic that is currently modifying the urban morphology of pre-Saharan valleys is the arrival of tourism. The use of formal and decora-tive resources as an advertising gimmick in all sorts of touristic buildings is also worth of analysis from the post-modern perspective. The use of symbolic and decorative elements of the traditional reper-toire contributes to the creation and diffusion of symbols and gives this architecture an appeal that would otherwise be absent. It is on façades that this display takes place in order to inspire in the tourist

familiar images popularized in its country of origin, easily understandable by those who do not have the time or the inclination to dwelve in local reality.

As opposed to residential architecture, in tour-ism architecture cultural identity and power sym-bols are interpreted in a very shallow way. The architecture of the advertising-building brings it close to popular culture and mass communication that would apparently be alien to the region: the priority is sending simple and effective messages that attract the attention of potential clients. It is not casual that main roads are crowded with kas-ba-hotels ads.

This phenomenon, long present in the urban landscape of Western countries, has reached in the past few decades to the farthest places of the planet. Also in pre-Saharan valleys reality has lost its primacy: images and simulations elaborated on the local imaginary have now taken the place of the real thing. A whole set of representational artifices produce a staged landscape belonging to hyper-reality (Baudrillard 1993). In the words of García Vázquez (2004: 82) “what was once true and con-

Figure 4. Contemporary dwelling built with earth in Aït Khlifa, Mgoun Valley (García-Sáez).

Figure 5. Construction process of a reinforced concrete building in Issoumar, Mgoun Valley (López-Osorio).

Figure 6. Contemporary dwelling in Alemdoune, Mgoun Valley (López-Osorio).

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tinuous is giving way to the simulated and superfi-cial, reality is giving way to hyperreality”.

In most architectural interventions on tourist facil-ities, both new and restored, there is a drift towards banalization of reality. Iconography is invented or re-invented on poorly understood sources, mix-ing up Berber and Arabic motifs, the repertoire of the latter being more familiar. In a society that is “affected by urgency” (Hiernaux 2009), tourists that visit Southern Morocco never get to know what lies beneath the images they see. This superficial rela-tionship with reality facilitates approaching land-scape ready for consumption: realities that are not such, landscapes made of hollow images that lack the depth of the events necessary for their creation. It is probably true that human perception makes a poor distinction between reality and fantasy.

One might think that the banalization of land-scape (Hiernaux 2009) is due to the fact that con-temporary society settles for the apparent, the visual, the immediate. One might also wonder for the reason of the disaffection shown by actual soci-eties towards the places where they built, which sig-nificance seems secondary in the face of what they build. This lack of connection between form, mate-riality and context is precisely what characterizes the finished manifestations of hyperreal architecture.

5 CONCLUSIONS

The pre-Saharan valleys of Southern Morocco are in an accelerated process of transformation of their cultural landscape. The question is to know if a loss of material values entails also the loss of identity values, or if true cultural authenticity

resides in the intangible values present in current models of domestic architecture.

According to the Convention for the Safeguard-ing of the Intangible Cultural Heritage 2003, intan-gible cultural heritage consists of “the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills […] that communities, groups and, in some cases, indi-viduals recognize as part of their cultural heritage. This intangible cultural heritage, transmitted from generation to generation, is constantly recreated by communities and groups in response to their environ-ment, their interaction with nature and their history, and provides them with a sense of identity and con-tinuity, thus promoting respect for cultural diversity and human creativity” (CSICH 2003, Article 2.1.).

According to this statement of purpose, local populations are the agents of the intangible cul-tural heritage, “constantly recreated” on the basis of “a sense of identity and continuity”.

Also, “human creativity” may eventually modify culture as long as it promotes “respect for cultural diversity and human creativity”.

The transformation of architecture in Southern Morocco is based on tradition. This is especially manifest in the evolution of domestic types, in spite of the distortions brought about by the cul-tures of emigration and post-modernity.

Tourism architecture, however, usually manipu-lates the icons of tradition in order to present an evocative past for tourist consumption. Locals pre-fer to live in a reinforced concrete building (Fig. 7) while tourists look for traditional ambiances in buildings loaded with staged scenographies.

There is then little option but to continue betting on policies promoted by national and international institutions to protect cultural landscapes. In 1994,

Figure 7. Front: Dwelling wall built with reinforced concrete. Bottom: Traditional dwelling built on earth. Issoumar, Mgoun Valley (López-Osorio).

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the European Council broadened the concept of landscape to include al manifestations of local cul-ture, singular or not, and the territory. The Interna-tional Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), in its definition of “natural landscape”, acknowl-edges the scenic value of landscapes. The UNESCO coined the concept of “cultural landscape” and included in its World Heritage list those traditional agricultural spaces of outstanding aesthetic values. The same policy is followed by the European Land-scape Convention 2000, which applies the concept of landscape to the totality of the territory, incor-porating natural spaces as well as rural and peri-urban areas (European Council 2000).

The issue of protection, form the point of view of the present research, touches two fields. On the one hand the preservation of original architectural elements, on the other the acceptance that the unavoidable transformations move down the right path. In the first case there is little hope that pro-tection policies based on strict regulations might be applied to all architectural items, much less in those countries with other social and economic priorities. In the best case scenario, when such policies succeed to be applied they remain lim-ited to significant sites, whereas peripheral areas receive the latent pressure of development. These areas are fertile ground for the architectures in transformation.

The ksar of Ait Ben Haddou in Southern Morocco, declared World Heritage in 1987, is a paradigmatic case. This fortified village located in Oued Marghene, a tributary of the Dàdes, presents the best example of spatial and architectural organ-ization of the pre-Saharan valleys.

The Moroccan government took charge of extending its protection to the nearby valley of Ounila, but organizational difficulties impeded the implementation of the program.

In fact, the protection of “cultural landscape” faces enormous difficulties.

The challenge is to accept the inevitability of certain transformations, either inside or outside the perimeters of protected areas, and hope that the identification of identity values will give clues for the definition of conservation strategies.

The support of the intangible values present in pre-Saharan architecture must be oriented towards maintaining traditional crafts and recuperating the bioclimatic values of earth architecture versus the pressure of imported constructive techniques and materials.

The perverse phenomenon is not the reinforced concrete dwellings built by locals, but the manipu-lation of reality carried out by a booming touristic

business which actions provoke the need for pro-tection and conservation in the first place.

NOTE

This paper presents part of the results of the research project: Landscape and Patrimony in Southern Morocco: A Proposal for the Develop-ment of Responsible Tourism (Paisaje y Patri-monio en el Sur de Marruecos: Propuesta para el desarrollo de modelos de turismo responsable, AP/050921/11), carried out by Lógicas Locales, a Cooperation Group of the Higher School of Architecture of the University of Málaga, Spain. The research has received the support of the Span-ish Agency for International Cooperation and Development (AECID) and the Office of Interna-tional Relations and Cooperation of the Univer-sity of Málaga in partnership with the Andalusian Agency for International Cooperation and Devel-opment (AACID). The following institutions have also participated in the project: National School of Architecture of Rabat, Morocco; University of Granada; Polytechnic University of Valencia; and the Moroccan Ministry of Culture.

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