ethnography of the Fez medina (Morocco) September 2013

Living in a World Heritage Site: ethnography of the Fez
medina (Morocco)
A dissertation by Manon Istasse submitted to the Department of
Political and Social Sciences of the Free University of Brussels for the
degree of Doctor in Anthropology
Members of the jury:
David Berliner (University of Brussels)
Mathieu Hilgers (University of Brussels)
Jean-Louis Genard (University of Brussels)
Christoph Brumann (Max Planck Institute in Halle)
Lynn Meskell (University of Stanford)
September 2013
i
Acknowledgments
Carrying a fieldwork investigation and writing a dissertation is only made possible
with the help and support of such a number of people that I can scarcely do justice to all in
what follows. Furthermore, words alone are hardly adequate to fully express my gratitude for
the kindness and guidance each and every one awarded me during these four years of joy,
satisfaction, and difficulties between Fez and Rabat in Morocco, Brussels in Belgium, Halle
in Germany, as well as the many cities which hosted conferences and other academic events I
took part in. I must begin this list of acknowledgments by thanking the financial support I
received from the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS) in Belgium, without
which any research would have been impossible in the first place.
Deep and sincere thanks go to those who, in one way or another, made my research
possible: Jawad Yousfi and his family for their warm welcome in their house and for the many
discussions and debates we had, Abdelhay Mezzour for his support and help with the
Ziyarates families and for the football matches we watched at the Firdaous, Pierre-Marie
Roux and his wife Caroline, as well as, among others, Bernard, Kleo Brunn, Françoise,
Christian, Jenifer, Josephine, Naïma, Christophe and Vincent, Nordin, Omar, Amina, Vanessa
and Vincent, Bonnie and Gilles, Fettah, Anouar, Pauline, Didier, Kenza, Abdelwahed,
Stephen, Hugo and his wife, Mohammed, and Zarha for opening the doors of their house to
me, and the staff of the Centre Jacques Berque in Rabat, of the Archives Municipales in Fez
and of the Institut français in Fez. They gave their time even as their professional and familial
lives were already busy.
Special thanks are rendered here to Christine Devictor and Raymond Prieto-Perez, for
the numerous dinners they invited me to and for being my "parents" in Fez. I express my
gratitude also to Najib, Hamid and Khlifi for the conversations in their shop, Cécile, Frédéric
Calmès, Mary, Isabelle and Hassan for their support, and to my dear friend Omar Chennafi for
our conversations and adventures in the medina. David Amster, the director of the Arabic
Language Institute in Fez, gave me his time and shared his knowledge of Fez and its
architecture, which were most interesting and important to me. I also benefited from the help
of members of various institutions: Mohammed Idrissi Janati, Abdelghani Tayyibi, Mohcine
Idrissi, Kamal Raftani, Rachida Ben Guessous, Abdelbasset Fellous, Saïd Jabri and Rachid
Alaoui. Finally, a special thought goes to Yürgen and Olivier, who died during the fieldwork.
Justin McGuinness, Anton Escher, Jean-Louis Tornatore, Antoine Hennion, Nathalie
Heinich, Damiana Otoiu, Cristina Golomoz, Maria Gravari-Barbas, Noël Salazar, Christoph
ii
Brumann, Bertram Turner, Ioan-Mihai Popa, Fan Zhang, Pierpaolo De Giosa, Stefan
Dorondel, Vivienne Marquart, Esther Horat, Simon Schlegel, and my colleagues at the
University of Brussels, Nicole Grégoire, Maïté Maskens, Mathieur Hilgers, Joël Noret, Pierre
Petit, Chiara Bortolotto, Annabel Vallard, Marie-Pierre Lissoir, Benjamin Rubbers, Mikaëla
Le Meur, Laurent Legrain, Gina Aït Mehdi, Anne Laure-Cromphout and Lisa Richaud
supported me with their advice, experiences, ideas and wisdom. I specially thank my
colleagues for their help and advice during the seminars, workshops, lunches, days of work
together and conversations in the hallways, as well as for the most enjoyable atmosphere they
created on the 12th floor of the Université Libre de Bruxelles’ Institut de Sociologie. It would
be entirely unfair not to mention Irina Bussoli and Sandrine Levêque, the two successive
secretaries at the Laboratoire d'Anthropologie des Mondes Contemporains. Their availability,
experience and cheerful countenances made the administrative work and intricacies of
academic life much more agreeable.
My research would have been totally different without the comments, understanding,
and presence of my three mentors in Brussels, namely David Berliner, Mathieu Hilgers and
Jean-Louis Genard. I wish I could repay them in some other venue for all they brought me.
Their patience, their encouragements, their knowledge, helped frame and direct my first
tentative steps and my final writings. The mistakes and loose ends in the present dissertation
are not due to any lack or neglect on the part of my mentors, but are entirely my own. Our
meetings and conversations pointed out all the work I still had to carry out, but also the ways
to define my own voice and to make my messy thought-processes clearer. I have no words to
appropriately render thanks to my advisor, David Berliner who saved me on several occasions
from getting "lost in theory." I particularly appreciate the rigor, clarity and accuracy of his
intellect. I'm grateful for his readings, his reminders about the moral and theoretical issues at
the core of this dissertation dealing with heritage, and for the windows of opportunity he
opened to me in the academic world. Christoph Brumann, for his part, kindly welcomed and
integrated me in his research group at the Max Planck Institute (Halle). The four months I
spent there were highly interesting, intellectually stimulating and overall motivating. The
good work conditions and the English speaking environment pushed me to write in English, a
venture at once rich, risky and exhausting, especially in the non-English speaking LAMC
where I continued and finished writing this. As a consequence, I wholeheartedly thank Jeremi
Szaniawski and Kate Ashby for the proofreading of my dissertation. Charlotte Joy, Chiara
Bortolotto, Nicole Grégoire, Maïté Maskens, Justin McGuinness, Christoph Brumann and
David Berliner, as well as Mary Conway were more than useful and relevant in their
iii
comments of my writings, be it on the level of a single chapter, or the entire dissertation. Time
being one of the scarcest resource of any scholar, I really appreciate the amounts of this
precious resource they gave to me.
Even if I have never met them, I have to underline the influence of William James,
John Dewey, Tim Ingold and Bruno Latour in shaping my thinking and intellectual processes.
Their books formed my bedside table and filled my desk during my research. They also
helped me finding energy to think of and write the dissertation in least pleasant times. My will
– and stubbornness – to create a dialogue between them sometimes lead me to momentary
enlightment that I had to temper later while they gave me unexpected energy.Also, the
seminar "Attachement" at the École des Mines in Paris helped to familiarise myself with their
ideas.
Finally, aside from the academic world, I express my utmost respect and heartfelt
thanks to my family and my friends. In one way or another, they participated to make these
four years enjoyable, lively and full of surprises through dinners, parties, concerts and other
enjoyable events we shared. I address a special thought to Alain Félix who, from privileged
informant, has become my partner. I thank him for his support in hard times, and for his
precious input in the shape of non-academic perspectives.
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Table of content
1. Introduction
1.1.Theoretical appetizer
1.1.1. Anthropology, architecture and houses
1
1
1
1.1.1.1. General approaches
1
1.1.1.2. Houses as material elements
4
1.1.2. Anthropology and heritage
7
1.1.2.1.Constructivist approach of heritage
7
1.1.2.2.Daily life of heritage
10
1.2.Dissertation starter
14
1.2.1.What is this dissertation about
14
1.2.2. Methodology and epistemology
17
1.2.3.The choice of Fez
20
22
2. Fez
2.1.History of Fez
23
2.2.Inhabitants in the Fez medina
25
2.2.1. Presence of foreigners
27
2.3.Cultural heritage in Morocco
31
2.3.1. The Protectorate period (1912-1957)
32
2.3.2. UNESCO and the World Heritage nomination
36
2.3.3. UNESCO: a visible absence
42
2.3.4. Definitions of heritage
46
2.3.4.1. "Moroccans" and heritage
47
2.3.4.1.1. Tangible heritage
49
2.3.4.1.2. Intangible heritage
50
2.3.4.2. "Foreigners" and heritage
54
2.3.4.3. Members of institutions and heritage
59
2.4. Tourism in Morocco
64
2.4.1. Tourism in Fez
65
v
3. Six main informants
70
3.1. Jawad
71
3.2. Abdelhay
71
3.3.Fettah
72
3.4. Gigi
74
3.5. David
75
3.6.Hassan
76
4. How to engage with the materiality of houses?
78
4.1.A first glimpse at the houses in Fez
78
4.1.1.The Islamic city paradigm
79
4.1.2.North African houses
81
4.1.3.Houses in the Fez medina
88
4.1.3.1. Jawad's house
88
4.1.3.2. Ruth's house
93
4.2.Undertaking works in a house
98
4.2.1. Qualifications of the construction works
102
4.2.2. Values in the construction works
106
4.2.3. Institutions responsible for the construction works
109
4.2.4. Work permits
113
4.2.5. Bypassing the rules
116
4.2.5.1. Bribery
119
4.2.5.2. Legality and ruses
121
4.2.6. Construction works as a learning process
123
4.2.7. Conclusion
128
4.3.Furnishing and decorating a house
130
4.3.1. Styles
130
4.3.2. Principles of furnishing and decoration
137
4.3.3. Judgements and taste
143
4.3.3.1.Criteria of taste
143
4.3.3.2.Taste and distinction
145
4.4.Intimacy, hospitality and tradition in tourist accommodations
4.4.1. Why open a tourist accommodation?
152
152
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4.4.2. Intimacy and privacy
154
4.4.3. Hospitality
157
4.4.4. Tradition
159
4.5. Living with the house
167
4.6. Living in heritage
172
4.7. Conclusion
182
5. How to be attached to houses?
185
5.1.Introduction
185
5.2.Sensual relations with houses
186
5.2.1. Physical senses in Fez
186
5.2.2. Sensual perception, skills and reflexivity
191
5.3.Affective relation with houses
193
5.3.1. Affects in Fez
194
5.3.2. Heritage, affects and distinction
200
5.4.Experts and non-experts’ relations to houses
202
5.4.1. Experts, autodidact experts and non-experts in Fez
202
5.4.1.1. Experts
202
5.4.1.2. Autodidact experts
206
5.4.1.3.Non-experts
210
5.4.2. Expertise
5.5.Contentious relations with houses
211
217
5.5.1. Conflicts in Fez
217
5.5.2
221
Justifications
5.6.Qualification
227
5.6.1. Qualities of houses
228
5.6.2 . The heritage quality
237
5.6.3 Qualities and heritage
239
5.7. Attachment to heritage
241
6. Heritage as a fiction
247
6.1. Introduction
247
6.2. Various forms of heritage
249
vii
6.2.1. Heritage as an object to preserve
249
6.2.2. Heritage as a daily object
251
6.2.3. Heritage as an object of research
251
6.2.4. Heritage as a definition and a category
252
6.2.5. Legal heritage
254
6.2.6. Heritage as development tool
256
6.2.7. Heritage as a label
261
6.3. Heritage as a fiction
265
6.3.1. Relation to the past
266
6.3.2. Culture as a specific entity
267
6.3.3. Experts
269
6.3.4. Moral principles
269
6.4. Circulation and anchorage of the heritage fiction
271
6.4.1. Anchorage and localisation of heritage fiction
271
6.4.2 Circulation of the heritage fiction
273
6.4.3. Local and global
280
7. Conclusion
Bibliography
Glossary
Informants
Appendix
Abstract in French
285
295
311
316
319
396
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Table of pictures
Picture 1. The heart of Fez medina with the Quaraouiyine mosque and the Moulay Idriss
shrine
Picture 2. Bab Jdid, a new gate built in 2012.
Picture 3. Restoration of the city walls.
Picture 4. Billboard of the CIPA.
Picture 5. Buildings of the Banque du Maroc and the Central Post Office in the New
City.
Picture 6. Abdelhay’s living room.
Picture 7. Swimming pool and inside garden in Fettah’s house.
Picture. 8. Gigi’s patio.
Picture 9. Ground-floor of David’s private house and wall he had redone in his street.
Picture 10. Mural fountain and Iraqi glass.
Picture 11. Furniture in the visitor's room, early 20th century
Picture 12. Geometrical pattern in mosaic, floral pattern in wood and carved plaster,
calligraphy in mosaic and carved plaster.
Picture. 13. Plastic sheet separating two parts of a floor.
Picture 14. Jawad's patio.
Picture 15. Jawad's kitchen.
Picture 16. Jawad's bedroom.
Picture 17. Jawad's rooftop terrace.
Picture 18. Ruth's rooftop terrace.
Picture 19. Ruth's patio.
Picture 20. Ruth's bedroom (first-floor).
Picture 21. Ruth's kitchen (ground-floor).
Picture 22. Deteriorated column in Amina’s house.
Picture. 23. Works in a house.
Picture 24. Savage construction works.
Picture 25. Styles of furnishing and decoration.
Picture 26. Kitsch display cabinet in a Moroccan house.
Picture 27. Table in mosaic in a tourist accommodation.
Picture 28. Piece of clothe framed and hang on the wall in a tourist accommodation.
Picture 29. Furniture on the rooftop terrace in a guest house.
Picture 30. Two decorated metal or wood doors.
Picture 31. Ziyarates leaftlet
Picture 32. Logo "Smile you are in Fez" on a wall in Boujloud square.
22
39
40
42
61
72
73
74
75
83
85
86
87
91
92
92
93
95
96
96
97
98
101
117
131
136
145
146
163
219
257
261
Table of figures
Figure 1. Map of Fez medina (Fez el-Bali).
Figure 2. Architectural plan or a "typical" North African house (Gallotti, 1926: 72)
Figure 3. Secret Fès
Figure 4. Fez PDRT cover
Figure 5. Relations between UNESCO World Heritage bodies
22
81
262
263
284
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Abstract
In the present dissertation, I aim to render explicit the actualisation (realization) of
heritage, following this guiding question: how do human beings come to qualify a thing, be it
tangible or intangible, as heritage? I argue that heritage is at the same time a quality allocated
by human beings in their relation with things, and a fiction that circulates between, and
anchors them in situation(s). To support this assertion, I focus on one element of official
heritage, namely houses in the medina of Fez in Morocco, listed as part of the World Heritage
since 1981.
Firstly, I study medina houses in terms of networks, that is to say the various ways
people engage with their materiality in everyday life. In this ethnographic report, I ask the
question of how to inhabit houses located in a World Heritage site. This ethnography allows to
question notions such as legality, taste, privacy, hospitality tradition or agency, and it brings to
the fore the debate concerning the skills and ability of Moroccan inhabitants to take care of
their house, as well as their obliviousness to the concept of heritage. I argue that houses have
another story than the official heritage one, because they offer holds, affordances, to which
human actors qualify. Heritage is one of these qualities.
I then focus on heritage as a trajectory, in order to shed light on how houses cross the
heritage border. I first introduce the category of self-taught experts, and then propose a wider
definition of expertise, as an ability "to speak in the name of" someone or something else. I
then underline the importance of senses and affects in the relation with houses and suggest
that they are one possible component in heritage qualification, together with actions and
justification. Finally, I argue that a notion preferable to that of heritage border, is that of
attachment, which allows us to grasp the qualification of houses as heritage, in how it stresses
both the similarities and the differences between houses and elements of heritage. Heritage as
a quality results from a "surplus of attention" and relates to nostalgia or a feeling of threat,
loss and disappearing; values related to purity, materiality and time; and actions of
preservation and transmission.
Finally, houses may be considered heritage through their qualification, but heritage
also stands for something else than houses in Fez, such as a label or a justification for
members of institutions in charge of tourism development or heritage preservation, a tool for
sustainable development in the context of international projects, a definition assorted with
specific criteria, an object to preserve for experts, an object of research in the field of social
sciences, or a legal object. These are forms of heritage circulating between situations in which
x
they are anchored and are actualised. Each form has its own characteristics, its own criteria of
valuation, while all the forms share similarities that I define as the heritage fiction, namely a
specific relation to the past, the idea of culture as a specific entity, the importance of experts,
and moral principles. Finally, I take the circulation and the anchorage of the heritage fiction
and its forms to think of the local and the global as qualities, instead of scales or levels.
xi
" ‘Bad poets borrow,’ T.S. Eliot has said, ‘good poets steal.’. I have tried in what follows to
be, in this respect anyway, a good poet, and to take what I have needed from certain others
and make it shamelessly my own. But such thievery is in great part general and undefined, an
almost unconscious process of selection, absorption, and reworking, so that after awhile one
no longer quite knows where one’s argument comes from, how much of it is his and how
much is others’. One only knows, and that incompletely, what the major intellectual
influences upon his work have been, but to attach specific names to specific passages is
arbitrary or libelous."
Geertz (1971: v)
"Why do we acknowledge only our textual sources but not the ground we talk, the
ever-changing skies, mountains, rocks and trees, the houses we inhabit and the tools
we use not to mention the innumerable companions, both non-human animals and
fellow humans, with which and with whom we share our lives? "
Ingold (2011: xii)
xii
1.
Introduction
"[T]he convention according to which anthropology is committed to observing and
describing life as we find it, but not to changing it, whereas art and architecture are
at liberty to propose forms never before encountered, without having first to
observe and describe what is already there, is unsustainable. The truth is that the
proposition of art and architecture, to the extent that they carry force, must be
grounded in a profound understanding of the lived world, and conversely that
anthropological accounts of the manifold ways in which life is lived would be of no
avail if they were no brought to bear on speculative inquiries into what the
possibilities for human life might be. Thus art, architecture and anthropology have
in common that they observe, describe and propose."
Ingold (2011: xi)
1.1. Theoretical appetizer
In this dissertation, I describe and I make explicit how inhabitants of a specific World
Heritage site live in their house, how they qualify or not their house as heritage, and what are the
various forms of heritage in this World Heritage site. Houses and heritage then constitute the two
flag topic. Both have kept scholars busy for long in anthropology and in human sciences more
generally. It would then be nonsense not to start with the theoretical background of my argument.
After a general overview of each topic, I present more specific approaches I took basis on for my
research, such as the materiality of houses or the daily life of heritage. I nonetheless take distance
from that theoretical background to set my own one when I introduce my investigation in the
second part of this introduction.
1.1.1. Anthropology, architecture and houses
1.1.1.1. General approaches
Architecture and buildings have long been assumed to receive little interest in anthropology
(Humphrey, 1988). After the pioneer works of the Chicago School about urbanism and urban
ecology in the early 20th century, scholars developed an interest in architecture and space in the
1960s. Carsten and Hugh-Jones (1995) explain this late development by the interest of architects in
1
material aspects of houses rather than in social ones, and by the interest anthropologists in
households – they investigate kinship systems, economy and political organisation – more than in
houses. For instance, anthropologists included the physical description of houses as a part – and not
a main topic – of their monographs, with for instance Boas’ study of Kwakiult houses, or
Malinowski’s description of the yam house in the Trobriand. Lévi-Strauss went further and studied
kinship in cognatic societies through the notion of "sociétés à maison" (house societies) as a
transitional form of social organisation between kin-based societies and class-based societies. In
this view, a house is a social group, a subdivision of a tribe characterised by continuity in time.
Since the 1960s, vernacular architecture is a key topic for anthropologists concerned with
culture and cultural change (Rapoport, 1969). Paul-Lévy and Segaud (1983) show interest in the
few architectural invariants – to inhabit, to base, to distribute, to transform – which configure space
while they produce diversity according to the cultural context they take shape in. Schefold, Nas and
Domenig (2003) investigate the diachronic changes in the physical and aesthetic appearance, in the
functions and in the uses of houses in Southeast Asian societies. Tonna (1990) differentiates Muslim
and classical European architectures. For instance, the latter favors column and entablature and
tends to the promotion of identities, while Muslim architecture gives emphasis to the arch and the
wall and promotes similarity.
Aside from this cultural study of houses and architecture, many other approaches flourished,
such as the structuralist or symbolic one. Bourdieu (1970: 89) connects the house with the
conception of the world in Berber societies, for the house is "the principle locus for the
objectification of generative schemes." In a similar vein, Baduel (1986: 4) argues that, in North
Africa, a "house is the projection on the ground of the values of the group." In Morocco, Eickelman
(1980) shows how the perceptions and uses of urban and domestic spaces reflect the cultural values
and the implicit conceptions of social order. In his view, the symbolic aspect of urban and domestic
forms links to culturally shared conceptions of individual and social identity and expresses the
cultural and symbolic characteristics of a social group.
More interested in the operative aspect of houses, scholars within the functionalist approach
stress the relationships between buildings and socio-economic practices. They argue that practical
considerations, such as politics or economy, determine the shape, the sitting and the signification of
buildings. Following the utilitarian philosopher Bentham, Foucault (1995) makes of the panopticon
an abstract model of a disciplinary society. The Familistère de Guise, a phalanstery built by Godin
in 1880, follows the idea of architecture as a remedy for social problems. Stierlin (2003) for his part
points out the articulation between Islamic architecture, politics and faith. In the 1960s, Hassan
Fathy, an Egyptian architect, proposed a radically new architecture built for and with the people. He
2
narrates the experiment of Gourna village in his book, Gourna, A Tale of Two Villages (Fathy,
1969), and how he initiated a rupture with past traditional techniques while still using them.
More recently, the post-structuralist trend focuses on the relation between politics and
architecture (Buchli, 2000). For instance, Fehérvàry (2002) relates changes in the political context
of the post-communist Hungary with changes in the furnishing of houses. After 1989, American
kitchen and luxury bathrooms became normal standards of a new way of life imitating the West and
materialised the values of an anti-socialist society. This desire to possess things from the West
testifies an identity adjustment in the context of a political change. Feminist scholars on their hand
underline the oppressive structure of patriarchy in the order of the house (Ardener, 1993).
In the philological field, language constitutes a way to investigate houses and dwelling.
Berque (2010) approaches dwelling in China and Japan thought the etymology of words and the
study of poems related to dwelling. Several other scholars also focus on the meaning of the word
"dwelling" and the verb "to inhabit". Heidegger (1958) starts from the verb "bauen" (to build) to
think of the verb "wohnen" (to inhabit). According to him, dwelling is the essential characteristic of
the human condition for the habitation oversteps the accommodation to signify the stay of mortals
on earth, their movement along a way of life. When they inhabit, human beings accomplish
themselves as mortals and realise themselves as part of the original Unity – or Quadriparti –
gathering mortals, the earth, the sky and the divine. To reach this state, human beings have to build,
to put themselves in security, to preserve the original Unity by giving it a space where to gather the
four components, that is to say a dwelling. However, following Ingold (2011), I chose the term
"inhabiting" – and not "dwelling" – to refer to the engagement of human beings with their
environment throughout their life – for practical reasons I nonetheless reduce this environment to
the Fez medina and its houses.
Bachelard (1964 [1957]) further develops the idea of ontological security through the
dwelling. In a phenomenological approach, he proposes a topo-analysis of the intimate being on the
base of images of the house. In his view, houses constitute a space defended against adverse forces,
a beloved space, a protective space to which inhabitants link images. Doing so, Bachelard (id.) aims
to investigate human creativeness and imagination in the context of a phenomenology of poetic
imagination, to link "poetic images to an archetype lying dormant in the depths of the unconscious"
(Bachelard, id.: xvi). Serfaty-Garzon (2003) extends this psychological perspective and focuses on
the feeling of being at home and on the notion of appropriation.
Studies of appropriation are also inscribed in a semiotic approach that takes the house as a
model of expression of the self and of ideologies, and furniture as social or mythological emblems.
Following Vleben’s path, Kenneth (1999) analyses hall furnishing to uncover social, cultural and
3
psychological meanings beyond their utilitarian function. He makes of the form of Victorian halls
and of their furnishing a guide in the moves of inhabitants in the house and a mark of social
distinction and social standing. De Certeau (1984) explicitly turns the house into a text – idea that
Keane (1995) criticises by putting stress on the practices and on the authority of the speaker as
shaping the representations of the cultural meaning of houses. De Certeau (id.) particularly focuses
on the tricks, strategies and ruses of inhabitants in their life in and with the house. In Fez, Newcomb
(2006, 2010) investigates the everyday practices of women in the New City. In cafés and cyber
clubs, women develop tactics to make their presence in public social spaces acceptable by
extending traditional principles of behaviour, such as shame – concept socially significant enough
for Fassi to be invoked and understood. By their occupation and use of particular spaces, women
appropriate, resist, or manipulate their identity, role and social status.
In addition to their importance in the semiotic approach, appropriation and resistance are
core notions of the constructivist or interactionist theory. Scholars then investigate the domestic
space, the ways inhabitants construct space in order to organise their life and to build their identity
(Collignon, 2001; Collignon and Staszak, 2003). Others study the limits and definition of the
private space (Zeneidi-Henry, 2003). In Morocco, Navez-Bouchanine (1991, 1994, 1997) focuses
on the appropriation of space and houses by Moroccan inhabitants and sheds light on the "dwellers'
competence," that is to say the practices, strategies and appropriations by which inhabitants reach a
certain degree of satisfaction in their accommodation.
These approaches compose the general framework though which houses have mostly been
investigated. To some extend, they set the stage and some of them are found in the following of this
dissertation as a support for reflexion. I however chose another lens to start the study of houses in a
World Heritage site, namely the materiality of houses, because inhabitants obviously, daily and
sometimes blindingly, relate to it.
1.1.1.2. Houses as material elements
After art historians and archaeologists, social science scholars have developed a particular
interest in material culture studies,1 and some of them focus on homes, houses and furnishing.
Techniques, their efficacy and their listing constitute a first trend in the study of materiality, with Mauss (1973)
studying the techniques of the body, Leroi-Gourhan (1943, 1945) focusing on the efficacy of technical gestures and
Lemonnier (2004) investigating operational sequences. Aside from this school of cultural technology, anchored around
the journal Techniques et Culture, other French scholars of the team "Matière à penser" lay stress on incorporation and
embodiment. After Shilder, Warnier (1999) defines the notion of bodily synthesis as a malleable pattern through which
the body incorporates and embodies objects into its image. Human beings integrate objects to their bodily space and
extend their bodily space to objects. As such, objects become a prosthesis and an extension of the body.
The English school of the University College London (UCL) developed an approach in terms of materiality and
1
4
According to Miller (2001: 3), houses are "the single most important site for material culture
studies," for they provide an insight into societies. In Miller’s view, houses constitute a central place
in the development and the reproduction of social relations. For instance, the investigation of
inhabitants who live in council estate and change their kitchen furniture is a way to study the
gendered or (inter)generational relations (Miller and Clarke, 1999). Other scholars argue that living
somewhere does not mean feeling at home. Inhabitants then have to appropriate their dwelling
through a physical engagement. Julien (1999) and Rosselin (1999) particularly focus on
embodiment. Based on a case study on single-room accommodations, Rosselin (id.) defines
embodiment as an essential modality of everyday life, as a game between the structuring aspect of
materials and the imposition of a bodily will, as the definition of a good distance between the self
and objects.
Though this appropriation, objects become evident in their use and their presence, and
human actors can even find difficulties to talk about them. Miller (2005) names this latter
characteristic the "humility of things," which means that "objects are important not because they are
evident and physically constrain or enable, but often precisely because we don’t ‘see’ them. The less
we are aware of them, the more powerfully they can determinate our expectations by setting the
scene and ensuring normative behaviours without being open to challenge" (Miller, id.: 5). In that
context, Meskell (2005) investigates the power of materiality thought the monumental remnants of
Egypt. In the past, this monumentality – pyramids, statues – served to control nature and society
through their massive and affective presence. Rowlands (2005) for his part focuses on the relativity
of materiality, stressing some things are more material than others according to the process of
materialisation they are engaged in. Verkaak (2012) studies this process of materialisation – or
objectification (Miller, 2005) – with the design and the construction of mosques in European
countries. He argues that their construction goes beyond a simple political or religious process of
claiming one’s identity or respecting religious principles. Each mosque follows its own trajectory,
of which Verkaak (id.) stresses the power and affects.
objectification and promoted the mutual self-construction of things and persons. In their view, material culture tells
more about the relation between individuals and groups than their direct observation and investigation, about the
fantasised image of the other that acts like mirrors. Objectification, a main concept in the British approach, means that
what human beings create has the potential to appear and to become alien, to have its own interest and trajectory
(Miller, 2005).
Ingold (2007b) however insists on materials over materiality. Rather than the materiality of objects, which human
beings cannot touch, Ingold suggests investigating the properties of materials. Rather than material culture or material
world, Ingold proposes to investigate the environment and the engagement with materials. According to him, studies in
material culture, busy with semiotics, cognition or praxeology, forget tangible stuff. They propose abstract analysis of
already made things. Based on Gibson’s definition of the environment as a mix of media – which afford movement and
perception, substances – materials, and surfaces – interface between the two latter, he distinguished the properties of
materials from the qualities allocated by human beings.
5
This focus on materiality, and more particularly the notion of objectification, connects with
the agency of things. Scholars dealing with agency assert that both objects and humans have
abilities, competences, and skills. On the object-side of agency, Appadurai (1986) addresses the
interactions between human actors and the material world with the notion of "social life of things."
The existence of people is responsible for the creation of objects and objects are responsible for the
creation of the particularities of human existence. Miller (2001) goes a step further by asserting that
the materiality of houses has consequences, such as a feeling of alienation. These consequences
result from the precise materiality of houses and are not an expression of human agency. He (id.:
20) defines the house agency as "how far people are thwarted by the prior presence of their house
and the orders of their material culture." This agency comes from their history and the former
presence of material culture that the inhabitants have to appropriate or to resist to. Keane (1997;
2005) rather investigates the historical and social power of objects on the basis of Pierce’s
pragmatist notions of iconicity2 and indexicality.3 He invites to treat objects in their own right, to
look at the habits, competences and constraints objects make possible. His model gives importance
to contingency, causality and openness to possible futures.
Scholars inscribed in the ANT (Actor-Network Theory) on their hand extend the role of
objects and artefacts out of the simple technical field to give them a major role in innovations and
science-making (Latour, 1987). Fighting against the divide between Nature and Culture, they claim
objects are not passive tools, or extensions of the body, or general explanations situated in the
Material or the Natural field, or symbols conveying a meaning. On the contrary, objects act, play a
role in a situation for, at least, their materiality allows the situation to last in time and to extend in
space. These scholars, such as, Venkatesan (2009), investigate objects and technical devices to
which human beings delegate functions, which they call "mediators."
However, rather than objects in themselves, these scholars focus on the networks of actors in
which objects are involved. Ingold (2007b, 2011) on his hand follows a processual approach of
materials.4 He argues that the capacity of an object to act comes from its inclusion in flows and
fluxes of the life world. The flux of materials permanently generates and dissolves the form and
shape of things. In that view, the properties of materials are not fixed attributes but are processual
and relational. Ingold (id.) then criticises the conceptions of agency as a capacity to act back and to
2 Iconicity is a matter of potential. The realisation of a thing as an icon does not lay in the thing but in the social
processes such as values or authority relations.
3 Indexicality is a matter of inference. The realisation of a thing as an index relies in cognitive processes and historical
conceptions.
4 In his view, scholars have to switch their attention from materiality to the flux and transformations of materials, to the
relations between substances (all kind of more or less solid stuff), media (what affords movement and perception such
as air) and surfaces (interface between a medium and a surface). He also asserts that it is impossible to define the
material world because it a priori separates the mind and the body. This distinction involves the introduction – that
Ingold refuses – of hybrids (between the mind and the body, between Nature and Culture).
6
induce actions human beings otherwise might not do, as an additional ingredient that must be
attributed to things for them to act back. According to him, materials are hives of activity for the
active engagement they necessarily involve.
On the subject-side of agency, Gell (1994) defines agency as "the capacity to initiate causal
events in his/her vicinity, which cannot be ascribed to the current state of the physical cosmos, but
only to a special category of mental states; that is, intentions" (Gell, id.: 19). Human agents make
causal inference about the intentions, capabilities and social agency of other agents. In this view,
things are secondary agents, endowed with agency by the articulation of fragments of primary
intentional agents. Gell (id.) then looks after agency behind the world of artefacts. Jansen (2013)
also stresses the primacy of human beings over things in the investigation of agency. However,
rather than on intentionality, he focuses on the accountability of things and persons in their capacity
to act and argues things cannot act without human practices. Rather than choosing between dereification – a person centred approach – and de-purification – a thing centred approach – in the
study of agency, Jansen (id.) proposes to study the ways objects materialise borders and the human
practices giving birth to the objects’ agency.
The objectification of houses, their appropriation by inhabitants, their materiality and their
agency are at the core of the fourth section of this dissertation. On the one hand, I describe how
these characteristics take shape in my specific case study and, on the other, I briefly discuss the
theoretical issues related to the agency of objects in their relations with human actors.
1.1.2. Anthropology and heritage
Since the late 1980s, heritage has become a subject of research and an academic discipline
within social and human sciences. It has also been the subject of many academic courses, the topic
of numerous books and articles, the thematic of several journals – such as the International Journal
of Heritage Studies – and even the core of research groups – the Association of Critical Heritage
Studies in one of them. In the following, I review the various interests scholars have shown in
studying heritage, and more particularly the constructivist approach, and its daily life. I also make
clear which approaches I base my argument on and which I take distance from.
1.1.2.1. Constructivist approach of heritage
The constructivist approach is based on discursive and political statements about the making
and the use of heritage. It dates back to the 1980s when British scholars asserted that heritage is a
7
secular religion in modern societies characterised by time-space compression and experiences of
rootlessness and rupture (Lowenthal, 1998). In a more post-modernist stance, heritage becomes an
empty-signifier characterised by inauthenticity, fake, simulacra, and disneyfication, that is to say the
postmodern face of musealisation. The contemporary scholars of the critical heritage studies
movement even argue that "there is really no such thing as heritage" (Smith, 2006: 11). In this view,
heritage is an interpretation of past events open to appropriation. Rather than in the materiality of
heritage or its intrinsic values, scholars are interested in uncovering the experts’ process of value
giving and in taken-for-granted processes around heritage-making. Taken in its political aspect,
heritage constitutes a powerful resource for creating a present and a future. It also relates to claims
about identity, ancestry, transmission and moral issues. Finally, scholars in postcolonial studies
insist on heritage as a political site of contestation because it is open to multiple appropriations.
Some scholars speak of its multivocality (Owens, 2002) or of heritage as a hybrid or a creolised
production (Long, 2000). Tunbridge and Ashworth (1996) particularly focus on the dissonance of
heritage, that is to say the multiple values of heritage. This dissonance is inherent to heritage
because this latter consists in an open interpretation.
In this constructivist approach, scholars firstly investigate the local initiatives and the system
of heritage-making by the State or experts (Dubost, 1994), the expert and the non-expert relation to
heritage (Heinich, 2009), the social uses of heritage (Babadzan, 2001), heritagisation in a top/down
or in a bottom/up process5 (Chevallier, 2003; Rautenberg, 2003; Morisset, 2009), the processes of
negotiation around the various interpretations of heritage (Fontein, 2006) and the promotion or
resistance to the dominant ideologies (Collins, 2008). In North Africa, Boumaza (2003) defends the
idea that heritage is a way for countries to overtake the failures of decolonisation. In his view,
heritage is a tool to reorder the State ideology and to spread Islam, Arabity and Berberity. In France,
Amiotte-Suchet and Floux (2002) investigate how eco-museums erect regional typical houses. In
that context, the typical is an a priori category imposed by the museum institution and heritagisation
consists in changing the status of the material element through a range of translations and
procedures which results in the convergence of discourses about the museified house.
The construction of the past is another topic in many constructivist researches about
heritage. An historical approach narrates the rise of heritage – such as Babelon and Chastel (1995)
did for France and Harvey (2008) for Great-Britain. In this view, the past is dead and the
development of heritage is inscribed in a myth of return and redemption motivated by nostalgia for
5 Tornatore (2001) proposes the distinction between politicisation and crystallisation to make account of these two kinds
of heritage. The former, carried by institutions, have visibility and power in the public sphere, while the latter results
from civil initiatives. Official heritage is then a set of memories gathered in a unique repertoire that erases the lived
experience and establishes it in knowledge.
8
a Golden Age and imagined homelands. In a more memorial approach, scholars investigate
alternative and parallel heritages to the dominant heritage, the various ways to present the past –
recollection, commemoration, "authentic" reconstruction – and non-Western expressions of
memory, transmission and heritage. Their interests gravitate around politics of return (Rowlands,
2002) and memory work (Ricoeur, 2004).
Constructivist scholars are also concerned with values of heritage. Heinich (2009) draws an
axiology of heritage in her study of expert heritage-making at the General Inventory of Cultural
Heritage in France. She looks at the construction of a collective look amidst members of this
institution, at the criteria and procedures of selection. She concludes that authenticity is the
authoritative value in heritage-making. Authenticity is also of prime importance in Morisset's
(2009) investigation of heritage in Quebec. According to her, authenticity characterises the real, the
truth, and establishes a balance between time (history), space (places) and Others (distinction). She
claims that in Quebec, there has been a passage between two regimes of authenticity, between
heritage as a monument and heritage as a relic, between a present and a past time, between a
"Quebec friendly space" and a hostile other. Dubost (1994) for her part argues that the value of
scarcity turned garden plants in a new kind of heritage. She stresses the prime role of amateurs,
collectors and associations in the promotion of "scarce plants," which are their objects of passion,
collection, and transmission. Dubost (id.) opposes the values of scarcity in the making of heritage,
and the economic value in its promotion.
More than a value, Smith (2006) defines heritage as a cultural practice "involved in the
construction and regulation of a range of values and understandings" (Smith, id.: 11). As such,
heritage needs a material reality to appear and to be experienced as it involves performances of
remembering. Heritage is vital and alive, is a moment of action and creates emotions. But heritage
is first and foremost a discourse, that is to say a kind of social practice composed by human
practices and performances of heritage. Smith (id.) particularly focuses on the materialisation of the
"authorized heritage discourse," that is to say the Western dominant discourse about heritage. This
dominant discourse is based on beliefs about the nature and the meaning of heritage – material
buildings reflecting the nation – and on expert knowledge and values. Also, this discourse refers to
the past as singular and concrete, to the innate values of heritage and to its passivity.
Smith (id.) also asserts that UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Organisation) and ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites) are the authorising
institutions of heritage and spread the dominant discourse. Several scholars focus on UNESCO
politics and values of heritage. Bortolotto (2009) concludes that there is a gap between the legal
property defined in the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage
9
and the symbolic property of the listed heritage on the field. In a more political approach, Turtinen
(2000) defines UNESCO as a global grammar ordering the world. Lyons (1978), Maswood (2000)
and Maurel (2009) investigate its efficiency and politicisation. Smeets (2004) and Rössler (2006)
scrutinise the definitions of heritage within this institution while others focus on the values such as
authenticity (Cameron, 2008), the outstanding universal value (Pocock, 1997) or culture (Nielsen,
2011). Finally, some scholars are interested in the inside functioning of UNESCO (Brumann,
2009a; 2011; Nielsen, id.).
In this dissertation, I adopt a constructivist approach, but, contrary to Smith (2006), I argue,
that there is such thing as heritage and this dissertation offers examples to support my argument.
Also, similarly to constructivist scholars, I'm interested in heritage-making. However, I take
distance from them in two ways. Firstly, rather than studying the construction of the past through
heritage, I define heritage as one kind of the presence of the past in the present, as memory6 and
history are. As a consequence, rather than studying the various ways to be in relation with the past, I
focus on the various ways to actualise heritage, the relation with the past being one component of
this actualisation. Secondly, rather than values of heritage – which I find too abstract to some extend
–, I scrutinise the qualities that inhabitants allocated their houses and the daily practices and
experiences of houses-as-heritage.
1.1.2.2. Daily life of heritage
The first investigations about the daily life of heritage focused on the democratisation of and
through heritage, with for instance visitor surveys (Bourdieu and Darbel, 1989). Glevarec and Saez
(2002) study associations involved in actions around heritage to understand the taste for heritage in
France. Wallace (2006) investigates volunteers working for the preservation of heritage while
Holmes (2006) inquires volunteers working as museum guides. Aside from this democratic access
and the democratic opportunities offered by heritage, scholars focus on its daily life and its
appropriation.
Veschambre (2008) is interested in the symbolic – rather than in the material – appropriation
of space, that is to say the production and uses of symbols that have a social and political efficiency.
6 Berliner (2005) warns against the "abuses of memory" and the dangers of its overextension as a concept. In his view,
the memory blossoming in the humanities may lead to the entanglement of memory and identity or culture. I assert that
identity is one instrumentalisation of memory (identity issues refer to memory as one tool in their claims) and culture
one of its component. "Memory" is one way for "the past" to be present in "the present" and I explain the difference
between heritage, memory and history as presences of the past in the present (cf. p. 266).
10
This process of appropriation links to the heritagisation and the demolition of marks and traces.7
Rather than marks, traces are involved in the production of heritage, which results from the
recognition of signs by specific social groups. Heritage-making consists in turning a trace into an
identity mark and to appropriate it as a resource. Once appropriated, heritage allows identification –
and then consists in a social capital – promotion – and then consists in an economic capital – and
legitimisation – and then consists in a symbolic capital.
Aside from appropriation, scholars investigate the daily relation with heritage – which is
also of my interest in this dissertation – and more particularly the ways to inhabit heritage, to live in
and with heritage (Gavari-Barbas, 2005; Fabre and Iuso, 2009). To inhabit has to be understood in a
wide meaning, as it involves a relation with time – a long-term relation – and space – an affective
relation. Gravari-Barbas (id.) asserts that humans have always adapted buildings and monuments to
their changing uses. However, the recent heritage inflation extended heritage to daily and ordinary
practices and buildings. Some of them prove to be difficult to inhabit and their new function,
essential to their survival, raise several questions. Gravari-Barbas (id.) underlines four of them.
The first concerns the meaning of inhabiting a heritage neighbourhood. Scholars then
overview the constraints – be they administrative or economic – of inhabiting such a place, the
memories of that place, the dialectic of possession and deprivation experienced by inhabitants.
Ortar (2005) points out two main constraints of living in heritage in the French countryside: legal
rules and the choice of a balance between authenticity and modernity during the restoration works –
or in other words the adaptation of the house to the contemporary life. Building permits restrict the
desires of owners and these latter have to play with legality to preserve their freedom. Owners also
have to choose which elements of the past to keep and which degree of comfort and modernity to
bring. Living in heritage involves the choice of a way of life and of a relation with history, the
renunciation of some elements of comfort to respect the structure and the materials – as this work
will show either in the fourth part.
Gravari-Barbas (id.) presents a second question, that of the relations between members of
heritage institutions and inhabitants and of the relations between heritage, social and housing
policies. Gravari-Barbas (id.) also proposes an investigation of otherness, cohabitation and tourism
through the third question dedicated to the relations between residents and transit populations. In
this view, Bock-Digne (2005) studies the relation between welcoming and inhabiting in old Oman
Houses in Zanzibar. Cinotti (2009) even proposes a tool to measure the perceived hospitality in
guest-houses and Di Domenico and Lynch (2007) focus on identity and on the economic aspect of
Marks and traces are two modes of marking, of producing signs, of materialising a presence and an identity in time
and space. While marks relate to the present, are signatures and result from an intentional act, traces come from the past
and an intentional act. Traces mainly consist in ruins, remnants and heritage.
7
11
"homes enterprises." Finally, Gravari-Barbas (id.) investigates the ways to inhabit strange heritage
such as former places of industrial production. Coquery (1998) reports on the transformation of
aristocratic private hotels in public places of the State administration after the French Revolution in
1789. She stresses the changes in occupants and in functions and sheds light on the inscription of
these changes in the furniture and the symbolic associated to the building.
Fabre (2009: 21, my translation) on his hand focuses on non-intentional monuments and the
"diverse, changing and unpredictable reality of 'people,' of contemporary human beings who live in
the monument or in its closest proximity." He concludes that contrary to monuments that serve to
narrate History, heritage provides a physical experience of the past. In that view, he defines three
ways of inhabiting in and with heritage. "Assimilation" (familiarisation) consists in using the
monument as the frame of a ritual, as a familiar cockpit welcoming exceptional experiences.
Inhabitants then wander across the element of heritage, climb on it to dominate it, represent and
figure it, and write on it. "Occupation" (takeover) is a second way of being in relation with
inhabited heritage. It is the physical or symbolic occupation of an element of heritage, characteristic
of the conflicts around restitutions and the claims of the first settler. Finally, "résidence" (staying)
includes the presence and the words of inhabitants – which I mainly consider throughout this
dissertation while I question the familiarisation with elements of heritage as an explanation to the
blindness of inhabitants to their heritage. Interested in the daily life of houses-as-heritage, Brumann
(2009b) shows that instead of freezing houses, inhabitants try to do something original with them,
such as using them in a commercial purpose. More generally, Brumann (id.) invites for a
comparison of historic town centres in their conversion to modern tastes and functions and in the
balance between state involvement and private initiatives.
Finally, emotions and affects related to heritage constitute a relatively new field in the study
of heritage. Instead of heritage-making institutions, scholars focus on the local and banal relations
with heritage. Involvement is the master word of these researches. Human actors are involved in
associations and institutions and construct exemplary object through processes of symbolic
recognition, social appropriation, and collective promotion of this object. On the one hand,
emotions may distinguish experts and non-experts in the way they engage with heritage. Experts
engage in a regime of critique – they mix distance and engagement through the professionalisation
of their practice – non-experts rather engage in an emotional regime (Heinich, 2009). On the other
hand, Fabre (2002) tries to gather experts and non-experts around emotions. In his view, patrimonial
emotions are the contemporary expression of a new popular sensibility to the past, and expertise is
one spring to understand them. Emotions relate on the one hand with an expert appropriation of
heritage leading to its political instrumentation, and on the other hand with a popular consumption
12
of heritage weaving the local memory. Finally, scholars such as Dassié (2006) or Barbe and
Tornatore (2006) investigate the heritage emotions linked to a disaster – storm, fire – that threatens
or destroys an element of heritage. Dassié (id.) particularly stresses the integration of the emotions
linked to the disaster to the personal emotions of individuals as a necessary step for these latter to
act in favour of heritage. She coins this process "intimisation" ("intimisation").
13
1.2. Dissertation starter
After these patchy clues about my theoretical stance and my empirical work, it is time and place
to introduce them clearly.
1.2.1. What is this dissertation about?
With some conceit, which I reduce in the following, I aim to make explicit and to grasp the
actualisation – realisation – of heritage, following this orienting question: how do human beings
come to qualify a thing, be it tangible or intangible, as heritage? I argue that heritage is a quality
allocated by humans in their relation with things. According to the economist theory, a thing is
allocated a value or a quality after it entered into the market, an economy, or at least a system of
exchange in which criteria define its values and qualities. Such an approach often results in the
listing of several markets. In the case of heritage, one could list a symbolic market in which heritage
is an identity tool, a political market in which heritage is instrumentalised, an economic market in
which tourism and development are based on heritage, and a social market in which heritage is at
the basis of claims for social justice. This multiplicity of markets shows that heritage is a boundary
object8 (Tornatore, 2000).
Rather than listing these markets and their characteristics, I focus on one element of official
heritage, namely houses in the medina of Fez in Morocco, a World Heritage site listed in 1981. The
matter of their qualification as heritage raises two related questions, that is to say their daily life and
materiality, and the other forms of heritage they are in relation with. As a consequence, on the one
hand, I follow medina houses in terms of networks, that is to say the various ways to engage with
their materiality in the everyday life. On the other hand, I focus on heritage as a trajectory to shed
light on how house cross the "heritage boundary", on how human beings draw it, and on the various
forms of heritage.
In a first time, I describe the main place where the field investigation took place, namely the
medina of Fez in Morocco. I present the history of the medina and I particularly focus on three
major transformations that have taken place since the mid-1950s. First of all, the population of the
medina changed. The elites left the medina after the Independence of Morocco in 1957 and moved
to the New City, Casablanca – the economic centre – or Rabat – the political centre. Rural migrants
have replaced them and have rented or occupied for free their houses. This population change
resulted in what some authorities and scholars name the "ruralisation" of the medina, which they
8 Boundary objects are "objects which are both plastic enough to adapt to local needs and the constraints of the several
parties employing them, yet robust enough to maintain a common identity across sites" (Star and Griesemer, 1989: 393).
14
consider as the main reason of its material degradation. Also, since the late 1990s, foreigners have
bought houses in the medina. They have settled in their secondary residence or have opened a
tourist accommodation. The heritagisation of the medina constitutes the second change. I overview
the various politics of heritage that took place before the arrival of UNESCO in the late 1970s and I
present the actions and programmes related to the World Heritage listing. I also describe how
UNESCO looks like in Fez and the various definitions of heritage I met in Fez. I then focus on the
third transformation, tourism development in Fez, and in Morocco more generally.
In a second time, following Miller's (2001) idea of physical engagement with houses, I focus
on the various ways to engage with this material element, on the networks crossing in houses. I
describe what circulates, meets and passes by houses, all the relations, components and flux
composing the networks. In this ethnographic report, I address how to inhabit houses located in a
World Heritage site and what is their daily life. To answer this question, I start with the presentation
of North Africa houses in the academic literature and in Fez. Following Raymond (1994), I support
the idea that these written reports tend to freeze houses in a specific and unique model, that of the
North Africa house with patio, and to associate them with particular features such as a game
between openness and closeness, privacy or hospitality. Doing so, scholars do not take into account
the diversity in architectural forms, which I sketch on the basis of two medina houses.
I then depict the construction works that inhabitants undertake and the furnishing and
decorative trends they follow once they have acquired a house, a room or a floor in a house. I
question the notions of legality, tricks and taste. I also focus on houses dedicated to tourism, that is
to say guest-houses and home-stays in Moroccan families. Rather than an industry characterised by
fake, heritage tourism first and foremost brings daily problems and issues such as privacy,
hospitality and tradition, which owners and tourists have to face and negotiate. I then turn to the
daily life of and with houses and on the consequences of their materiality. I examine what the house
makes do to inhabitants and how houses and inhabitants act together. Writing books and blogs,
expressing one’s creativity and imagination, starting a new life or having a specific way of life are
among the actions inhabitant attribute to their house. Finally, I take as basis an oft-heard assertion in
the mouth of Moroccan and foreign elites denying any heritage skills to Moroccan inhabitants –
they are accused of not being educated to heritage, of having no taste, of leaving houses falling
down – to think of the blindness and the lack on interest in houses-as-heritage.
By investigating how people live in and with houses, I faced a surprise. Inhabitants do not
especially consider houses, and even the medina, as heritage. Houses have another story that one of
official heritage. They are first and foremost a place to live and are at best a familial legacy or an
economic heritage when the house is a tourist accommodation. Some foreign residents see their
15
house and the medina as a personal heritage (that is to say a "plus" in their life), an economic
heritage that worth and/or brings money, or a cultural heritage for its location in a World Heritage
site or for its architectural or historical uniqueness. The qualification of houses as heritage is
however obvious for experts, that is to say members of institutions in charge of the medina.
I then investigate the qualification of houses as heritage in order to grasp the heritage
border, that is to say how and according to what houses enter the territory of heritage. I focus on
several ways to be in relation with the house, none of them being exclusive but all of them
combining and mixing – their split is a descriptive trick for a better clarity. Houses are first and
foremost a place of sensual relations – inhabitants touch them, see them, smell them – and some
inhabitants even consider these senses as skills. Affects constitute a second kind of relation with
houses as Gravari-Barbas (2005) suggests. Inhabitants are in love with their house, feel good in
their house or, on the contrary, feel sadness and disappointment. They also remember souvenirs and
evoke nostalgic moments. Scholars and inhabitants distinguish between expert and non-expert
relations with houses. I challenge the expert approach of heritage by adding the category of
autodidact experts – after Dubost (1994) underlined the importance of amateurs in heritage-making.
I also propose a wider definition of expertise as an ability "to speak in the name of" (Tornatore,
2010). Inhabitants also relate to houses in terms of conflicts, from the choice of a decorative pattern
or a furnishing element to the debates between members of institutions. These conflicts highlight
the justifications inhabitants refer to in their actions and discourses. Finally, inhabitants allocate
qualities to their house, among which is the heritage quality.
Arising from the descriptions of the relations with houses, I argue that better than the notion
of heritage border, the notion of attachment (Hennion, 2007) allows grasping how inhabitants come
to qualify their house as heritage. This notion better sheds light on the actualisation of heritage for it
gives room to both human and non-human actors and to the mutual attention they give and take –
human being give attention to an object and an attention is taken by the object. Secondly, this notion
shows the importance of senses and affects in the relation with houses. Contrary to researches
focused on the expert heritage-making (Heinich, 2009), I suggest that senses and affects are one
possible component in the qualification of a thing as heritage (Barbe and Tornatore, 2006; Dassié,
2006) together with actions and justification. Finally, the notion of attachment stresses both the
similarities between houses and elements of heritage – they share affects, senses, conflicts, qualities
– and shows that the house-as-home does not exclude the house-as-heritage. The qualities of home
and heritage are however different as heritage results from a "plus of attention" and relates to
nostalgia or a feeling of threat, loss and disappearing; values related to purity, materiality and time;
and actions of preservation and transmission.
16
Houses may be heritage through their qualification, but heritage is also something else than
houses in Fez, such as a label or a justification for members of institution in charge of tourism
development or heritage preservation, a tool for sustainable development in the context of
international projects, a definition assorted with criteria, an object to preserve for experts, an object
of research in the field of social sciences, or a legal object. In a last time, I consider the forms of
heritage encountered in Fez and I address their circulation between situations in which they anchor
and are actualised. Following Latour (2012), I define a form as something that lasts in time and
remains through its transformation and circulations – through the media for instance – and anchors
– by qualification or by translation – in situations. Each form has its own characteristics, its own
criteria of valuation, while all the forms share similarities that I gather under the notion of "heritage
fiction." Rather than a value or a sign, I argue that heritage is a fiction composed by a specific
relation to the past, the idea of culture as a specific entity, the importance of experts, and moral
principles – Smith (2006) underlines similar features in the "authorized heritage discourse." I finally
take as a basis the circulation and the anchorage of the heritage fiction and its forms to think of the
local and the global as qualities and not as scales or levels. After Collier and Ong (2005) and Latour
(2007), I argue that the global is what circulates intensively while the local is what is framed and
anchored in a situation.
1.2.2. Methodology and epistemology
"Ce qui se passe vraiment, ce que nous vivons, le reste, tout le reste, où est-il? Ce
qui se passé chaque jour et qui revient chaque jour, le banal, le quotidien, l’évident,
le commun, l’ordinaire, l’infra-ordinaire, le bruit de fond, l’habituel, comment en
render compte, comment l’interroger, comment le décrire?"
Perec (1989: 11)
"For we are made of lines. We are not referring to lines of writing. Lines of writing
conjugate with other lines, life lines, lines of luck and misfortune, lines productive
of the variation of the line of writing itself, lines that are between the lines of
writing."
Deleuze and Guattari (1987: 215)
Doing ethnography and anthropology means choosing within a family of methods of
encounter and of writing up techniques of this encounter. In Fez, the encounter was mainly
threefold. Firstly, I carried out semi-directed interviews with inhabitants (Moroccans and foreigners,
17
living in the new or the old city), and members of institutions (in Fez but also in Rabat and Paris). I
met inhabitants in their homes, and members of institutions in their office or in a café in the New
City. I also had informal talks during dinners and on the street. Some inhabitants became
acquaintances and having dinners with them gave me an access to a different discourse about their
house than they had in the context of a formal interview. For example, as regards foreigners, we
talked about their personal life and trajectories, security in the medina, problems with Moroccan
employees and workers or with the administration more generally, the development of tourist
accommodations and their threats, or tourists and comments on TripAdvisor, that is to say what
really matters to them. As far as Moroccans are concerned,9 after I had explained the reasons of my
presence in Fez and had answered the question "how one could only come to study houses in the
medina," we spoke about religion, the weather; the presence of foreigners, or the future of their
children. Inhabitants offered me to visit their house or their building site, even when construction
works was in progress. I discussed with Moroccan shopkeepers on the street and with the
acquaintances of the Moroccan family members I lived with for three months. When I rented a flat
in the medina, I was invited by the neighbours to visit them, mainly to eat and drink (and to watch
television). I interviewed informants in English (all non French or Arabic speaking informants),
French (French speaking foreigners and Moroccans) or Moroccan Arabic.
I also observed the world around me. I took pictures of houses and of the medina – and by
the way of people who wanted their picture taken. I took notes during the many hours I spent in
houses, discovering their inner workings and functions – which rooms were most frequently used,
what the trajectories of people are, or how the furniture is used. As anthropologists know,
observation doesn’t happen without participation. In participative terms, I lived during three months
with a Moroccan family and I managed four guest-houses for a total amount of four months. In the
first case, I learnt the language faster, as I’ve already mentioned it, and I had an "insider’s
perspective" of the life in the house. I also met family members and had the door of several houses
opened to me. Managing guest-houses while their owners were away gave me another kind of
Translation was an issue. I mainly spoke French and English but I also needed some Moroccan Arabic as Moroccans
sometimes don’t speak French. I started the fieldwork with one month of intensive Moroccan Arabic learning at the
American Language Institute of Fez (ALIF). Moreover, I lived in a Moroccan family whose only member speaking
French was most of the time away. I learnt quite quickly a basic, although far to suffice for interviewing people, Arabic
vocabulary. In a first time, I worked with a male translator, a freelance photographer – occupation that gave him a lot of
free time as I paid him for the translation. In houses, we were invited in the living room, and welcomed with tea and
sweets. But we hardly had a tour of the house. After a while, I get used to the questions and the vocabulary. Also, many
opportunities of interviews occurred by chance in the street, and instead of calling the translator, I decided to interview
Moroccans on my own. I asked them to record the interview and I listened the recording with the translator within the
week to translate everything. I sometimes went back to one house to deepen the interview or some information I missed
the first time. Also, in the house or in the street, somebody, such as a child, speaking French and Arabic could most of
the time help translating and makes a mutual understanding possible. Finally, alone with the interlocutors, I was often
offered a tour of the house, and I then had an access to other rooms than the living room dedicated to the guests.
9
18
"insider’s perspective": how to deal with daily problems in the house (plumbing, electricity, or air
conditioning) and with tourists (what are their expectations and how to satisfy them?). I also met
Moroccan employees who invited me to their house afterwards, and who became informants.
To base one's work on speaking and observing raises the issue of the access to senses, affects
and tastes – three major topics in my research. I decided to rely on my informants' discourses in the
final analysis. I observed obvious behaviours related to senses and affects, but I always asked
informants what they felt at that time. The problem, then, was: how to make informants talk about
their affects, senses or tastes? Scholars highly discussed the problem of "putting into words" that
which one experiences but do not think of, the obvious and ineffable emotions (Lutz and AbuLughod, 1990; Dassié, 2006) or feelings (Dassié, 2010). I showed pictures of houses interiors10 and
asked informants what they thought of the picture or how they would rank them according to their
appreciation ("which one do you like the most, where do you want to live?"). It made a discussion
in terms of tastes and evaluation easier. Also, when they didn't make it themselves, I asked people to
use metaphors in order to express their feelings, and then to compare them with other situations
during which they had or might have they have felt the same.
Finally, I used written documents. I worked in the archives of the city, looking at work
permits delivered before and after the World Heritage nomination in 1981. I read books written by
scholars (architects, historian and art historians, geographers, archaeologists) and members of
institutions, tourist booklets and guidebooks, and Moroccan magazines about architecture, history
and decoration. I browsed Internet websites such as TripAdvisor for tourists’ comments about
houses, promotional websites of tourist accommodations and of Fez, and the World Heritage
website for the reports and conventions. The National School of Architecture in Fez (ENA)
Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/ArchitectureMaroc?ref=ts&fref=ts) was also of prime
interest. The ENA director posts pictures with comments and descriptions, and his Facebook
friends11 react by posting comments.
To make sense of all this information in the written report, I describe the experiences I
encountered in Fez. As everything – and anything – is experienced, scholars have to tell how it
is/was experienced (Dewey, 1958 [1925]). To describe these encounters, I take the materiality of
houses as my starting point. I follow Latour's idea (2012) about the network and I consider houses
as a nub to explore the surprises – rather than the universals or invariants – houses bring to actors –
rather than hide and reveal to them. The scientific materialisation of this network first takes the
form of a map, offering an overview of all its components.12 My starting point to draw maps was
10 Cf. appendix p. 319.
11 Most of them work as architects or are involved in a building work in Morocco.
12 Researchers draw flat maps with different purposes. Inscribed in a material perspective,
Ingold (2007a) focuses on
19
the following question: how to inhabit Fez medina houses? Inhabiting exceeds the mere
accommodation. It involves living, investing the place with a function, a project, a spirit, an
imaginary, developing affects and a spatial and a temporal relation with the place. As Herzfeld
(1991: 133) asserts about houses in Rethemnos, "the houses and shops in the Old Town are not
merely properties that people rent or buy as places to live. They are also materials expressions of
family relationships, political connections, and social status." I focus on the material expressions
offered by houses to review the various ways in which to inhabit a medina house.
As James (1978 [1907]: 106) writes, "experience, as we know, has ways of boiling over and
making us correct our present formulas." To make sense and to write it may be an endless process.
The present dissertation then constitutes a breaking point in this process.
1.2.3. The choice of Fez
I base my investigation of houses and heritage on the case study of Fez. I came to work in and
on this city during my Master Dissertation, dedicated to the interest of young generations in World
Heritage. I spent two months in Fez, attending to a summer work camp gathering young people
from France and Morocco to help builder workers in the medina. After this Master Dissertation, I
continued working in and on Fez for the Ph. D. dissertation because of an interest in and an affinity
with the medina.13
However unique this experience was to me, the medina of Fez is by no way a unique case in
North Africa or in the world. On the contrary, Fez and its medina share many similarities with North
African and Middle East cities concerned with a post-colonial setting. These cities are characterised
by a change in their urban landscape in the second half of the 20th century due to a population
growth, to a displacement of elites and their replacement by rural migrants. These changes occurred
in Damascus (Salamandra, 2004) and Cairo (Abu-Lughod, 1971) among others.
lines that represent the trajectories of components and their meeting – or enmeshment – with other components. He
looks at components in their movements across time and their crossings with other lines. It is the first map in the
appendix (cf. p.322). This idea, close to Deleuze and Guattari (1987) notion of rhizome, stands against the tree and root
metaphor that only allows a binary logic and a relation between and object and a subject without taking account of the
environment. In a relational perspective, the Actor Network Theory (ANT) scholars, such as Latour (2007) rather focus
on the situation and its various components. It is the second map in the appendix (cf. p. 322). In other words, Ingold
(id.) focuses on the line and the movement "along" the line, while Latour (id.) is interested in the localisation and the
situation "across" the line. Latour’s lines connect entities of a network while Ingold’s lines are possible connections left
by a live being. Both nonetheless share the idea of flattening the pleats. Ingold (id.) unravels the ball of threads to
follow the line and Latour (id.) irons the folded sheet to follow what sustains the movement. Both are also concerned
with bringing humans and non-humans in a same environement but the ANT forgets materials to focus on the
materiality of things.
13 This affinity partly came from an initial feeling of exoticism in the medina because of its architectural features and
because of the different way of life the medina suggests. Warmth, sun, the smile of inhabitants are among the cliché –
weighed afterwards – inviting for a longer stay in an anthropological purpose.
20
In these three cities, as well as in Rethemnos (Herzfeld, 1991), several rural families inhabit
former houses of elites while elites have moved to the New City. In that context, owning a house or
an apartment in the New City is the clearest mark of social prestige. Although many rural migrant
dream to move in a comfortable and convenient apartment in the New City, the Old City has
regained a prestige value in the eyes of many elites (Salamandra, id.). After having been the symbol
of backwardness, Old Cities are a contemporary concern at least for elites and foreigners –
inhabitants of Old Cities still consider them as backward. However, elites do not intend to move
back in their Old City because of a lack of modern conveniences. They mainly revalue the unique
architectural heritage and promote it as a national resource. The return of elites in the Old City is
then a myth, as is the return of the Old City to its past golden age (Salamandra, id.). Old City
inhabitants, elites and foreigners indeed share nostalgic feelings and expression for Old Cities, and
make them a symbol of resistance, of anti-colonial struggle (Çelik, 1997). For instance, inhabitants
see the kasbah of Alger, studied by Driss (2005) as the witness of an idealised communitarian past,
a unique urban model. Its historical legitimacy lays in its identity values. The kasbah was a place of
claims and struggles. It is now a myth of social and cultural cohesion. It is at the same time a
marginalised neighbourhood, with no centrality, a place of poverty.
Old cities, and particularly Damascus (Salamandra, id.) are associated with a prestigious and
famous urbane and cultural life-style. Fez and Damascus were taken as models of Islamic cities, and
the mosaic metaphor helped scholars to make account of their religious, ethnical and regional
diversity. Both also had the status of commercial and political capital cities located at the crossroad
of commercial and religious roads. Similarly to Rethemnos (Herfeld, id.), Fez hosted several
populations and was an administrative centre. Also, the implementation of official policies of
monumentalisation and heritagisation went together with the development of tourism, and many
conservation actions in the Old Town turned buildings into tourist accommodations and restaurants.
Fez also shares these features with Luang Prabang, a World Heritage site located in Laos (Berliner,
2012; Berliner and Istasse, 2013), Florence in Italy (Amahan and Fantoni, 2008) and Hoi An in
Vietnam (Vo Sang, 2004).
21
2.
Fez
In this section, I introduce the Fez medina, its history, its populations and the cultural
heritage policies orienting the preservation of the city. I also focus on the arrival of UNESCO and
its consequences in the appraisal of heritage. In closing, I address the development of tourism in the
city. These features constitute the general setting of my research.
Pic 1. The heart of Fez medina with the Quaraouiyine mosque (white minaret) and the Moulay Idriss shrine (green
minaret). Credit: M. Istasse
Fig. 1. Map of Fez medina (Fez el-Bali). www.decouvrir-fes.com
22
2.1. History of Fez
Fez was Morocco’s first capital city of. Its established reputation as a holy city (the city of
Moulay Idriss II), as a cultural centre (the city of the first university in the world, the Qaraouiyine)
with a unique architectural style (the Arab-Andalus style), is still recognised nowadays. According
to tourism guidebooks, local guides, foreign and Moroccan inhabitants, scholars, or members of
various institutions, Fez is a traditional city (the most conservative in Morocco),14 a mysterious city
(a city with a "deep spirit", with a maze of small streets where it is easy to get lost), and a medieval
city (no cars are allowed within the city walls, where donkeys still carry goods).
In 808 (192 H)15 Moulay Idriss II founded Fez. His father, Moulay Idriss I, had fled Bagdad
and the Abbasid repression in 786 and founded the city of Moulay Idriss Zerhoun, a religious centre
located 60 kilometres west of Fez. His son established his own city in a former Berber camp in the
Saiss plain along the Oued Fes river – an affluent of the Oued Sebou river. The Oued Fes cuts the
city into two banks. The right bank is the former Berber camp, madinat Fās,16 in which migrants
from Andalusia arrived in 818-819 and replaced the Berbers. It then became the Andalus bank. The
Arab newcomers, mainly from Kairouan, settled on the left bank, named Fās al-'liya or the
Kairouan bank. Moulay Idriss II chose the location for its natural advantages: fresh and abundant
water, agricultural land, stones and clay, salt, surrounding forests of cedar and oak. Fez also sat at
the crossroads of major commercial and pilgrimage routes going from the Mediterranean Sea to
Sub-Saharan Africa. Climate also played a positive role, for both intense solar exposure and
frequent winter rain characterise the region.
Scholars and writers discuss both the history and the name of Fez. They base their argument
on the writings of medieval Arab scholars (Le Tourneau, 1949; Levi-Provençal, 2001 [1922]), on
numismatic analyses (Colin, 1936), or on linguistic analyses (Pellegrin, 1952; Benchekroun, 2011).
However, all agree that the foundation of Fez gave birth to the first Moroccan dynasty, the Idrissid.
Berber and Arab dynasties followed, successively the Almoravid (end of 10th - mid 12th century),
the Almohad (mid 12th - mid 13th century), the Merinid (mid 13th - end 15th century), the Saadian
(early 16th - mid 17th century) and the Alaouite (mid 17th - nowadays). Although these dynasties
14 Inhabitants often compared Fez to Marrakech. "I always give this answer. It is a bit strange, but to me it is true.
Imagine a family with two daughters. One is veiled, the other not. It is the comparison; Marrakech is the facility, the
glamour. She lives like this, it is good it is her nature. Fez, it is the veiled one, you have to take it with more... It is a
conservative, which needs to be discovered. You need a lot of efforts" (Fettah, Moroccan guest-house owner).
15 H means hegira in the Muslim calendar.
16 In the following, I write in italic the Arabic terms that are all gathered in a glossary p. 312. I slightly amend the
International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies system for formal Arabic. H is a deep aspirated h, - above a latter
mention a long vowel, ‘ stresses the guttural sound of ayn (/ʕ/ in the International Phonetic Alphabet), kh is a
consonantal sound similar to "loch" in Scottish English, u is translated into the sound "ou", q refers to the sound /q/ in
the IPA.
23
alternatively chose Marrakech, Meknes or Fez as capital cities, each of them took care of Fez.
Similarly to dynasties, various populations lived there: Berbers, Arabs and Sephardic Jews arrived
in the 9th century and after in the 15th and 16th centuries, Algerians, French under the Protectorate in
the 20th century, rural migrants since the 1950s, Sub-Saharan students attending universities and
high schools, tourists and foreign residents (Le Tourneau, 1949 and 1985; Burckhardt, 1992). This
mix of populations, dynasties and origins influenced, among others, the appearance and the
importance of the Fassi (i.e. from Fes) built heritage and urban planning.
The two main mosques, the Andalus mosque on the Andalus bank and the Qaraouiyine
mosque on the Kairouan bank, were built during the Idrissid period. A legend traces their origin,
sponsoring and initial building back to two sisters from the Fassi-Fihri family. Each dynasty
subsequently improved and extended them. The Qaraouiyine mosque became the first university in
the (Arab) world and was endowed with an important library. Famous scholars such as Ibn
Khaldun, Averoes, or Pope Sylvester II, studied and taught there. The Almoravid and Almohad
dynasties extended housing on the hill and linked the two banks within the same city walls. Merinid
sultans built 6 out of the 7 madrasa (sg. medersa: Koranic school providing an accommodation to
foreign – that is to say alien to the city – students), the shrine of Moulay Idriss II (whose body was
"discovered" at that period), and the area of Fez-Jdid, which hosted the Sultan’s palace and the
mellaH, the Jewish neighbourhood. One reason for this specific area was the arrival of Muslims and
Jews fleeing Spain at the end of the 15th century and coming to Fez where accommodations had to
be built for them. These migrants also brought their craft and architectural techniques, leading to the
development of the "Fassi style", also named the Arab-Andalus or Spanish-Moorish style. Finally,
Saadian sultans built four borj (i.e. fortified buildings) around the city.
The look of Fez dramatically changed between 1912 and 1956 under the French
Protectorate. The French authorities built a New City two kilometres away from the medina (Jelidi,
2012) and created more than 11 hectares (28 acres) of parks and gardens, with among others Dar el
Batha and Jnan Sbil – also known as Boujloud gardens. Fez also lost its status of capital city at the
time. Lyautey, the General Resident from 1912 to 1927, started centralisation along the Atlantic
coast. He made Rabat the political capital city, developed the Casablanca port to make it a new
economic centre, and created two new cities along this ocean side, Mohammedia and Port Lyautey
(nowadays Kenitra). Fassi elites, be they merchants, scholars or politicians, lost their interest in Fez
and moved to these new centres.
Major changes followed the end of the Protectorate in 1956 and Independence in 1957. I
will now do an overview of three of them, with respect to population, cultural heritage policies, and
tourism development.
24
2.2. Inhabitants in the Fez medina
According to the 200417 population census, about 20,088 households live in the medina,
which means 117,551 inhabitants – depending on other sources, the population estimate varies
between 160,000 and 280,000 inhabitants. Out of the 20,088 households, 20 live in a villa; 2,522 in
a flat (12.6%); 12,994 in a traditional Moroccan house (64.7%); 3,613 (18%) in a modern Moroccan
house; 123 in a shanty-house; 1 in a rural house and 815 in the "others" category. Also, 8,738
households (43.5%) own their dwelling (32% are private owners and 11% have a joint ownership);
8,992 (44.8%) rent it; and 1,566 benefit from free housing. In relation to nationalities, out of the
955,188 inhabitants in Fez, 1,682 are registered as foreigners. This figure drops to 193 foreigners
out of the 117,551 medina inhabitants. However, the low number of foreign nationalities is
questionable. For instance, British and Americans, amongst others, are notable by their absence in
the population census. However, in her investigation of foreign guest-house owners, Bakhella
(2008) counts about 300 foreigners. 50% of them are French, 17% British, 9 % American, Spanish
and Italians represent each 3% of the foreign population, and Algerian, Irish, Australian, German,
Canadian, Belgian, Swedish and Iraqi owners each represent 1%.
The 2004 population census stresses that, in terms of educational attainment, 58,989 of the
Moroccan medina inhabitants went to or are in school: 3,848 (6.5%) attended Koranic school (preschool); 28,023 (47.5%) attended primary school; 13,903 (23.6%) finished junior high school;
8,140 (13.8%) finished secondary school and 5,075 (8.6%) have a university degree. Out of the
81,333 persons aged 7 and over, 34,909 (42.9%) are working. There is only one member of the
family working in 69% of households, and two working members in 19% of them. Occupations
relate to the industrial sector and crafts (40.5%), business such as shops (26.2 %), services (13%)
and the public sector (12%). Finally, 1,608 (8%) households live under the poverty level (60%
median income threshold, which means 2,100 Dh – 191 € or 246 $ – per month).
The Fez medina also witnessed two important population movements. On the one hand, the
Fassi elites started leaving Fez in the late 19th century, but a massive departure occurred after
Independence in 1957. These people now live in the New City, in Casablanca, Rabat, or abroad. On
the other hand, when Fassi elites left, they rarely sold their houses. The latter remained empty, were
occupied by caretakers, or were rented out to several rural migrant families – sometimes up to one
17 http://www.lavieeco.com/documents_officiels/Recensement%20population.pdf. If the figures do not perfectly fit the
reality of the medina inhabitants, they give an idea. Also, nowhere in the census is a definition of categories such as
"traditional Moroccan house" or "poverty level" is given.
25
family per floor or per room.18 Some Moroccan elites, administrators, and scholars (LahbilTagemouati, 2000; Idrissi Janati, 2001) point to this population change to explain the material
degradation of the medina, as migrants neither have neither the money nor the motivation to take
care of houses. Some speak of the medina "ruralisation" or "proletarianisation" because rural
migrants don’t become urban citizens – they maintain their old way of life. Others mention its
densification or "foundoukisation"19 (El Faiz, 2002) for more and more migrants are settling in the
city. Many stress the growing insecurity resulting from the lack of education among migrants. For
instance, in a tourism development study published by the Ministry of Tourism in 2003 (Europraxis,
2003, my translation), the rural exodus is seen as a major problem in the Fez-Boulemane region.
This exodus creates visible economic and socio-demographic pockets of poverty in and around the
medina, and leads to "high population density, wrong building transformations, building and
facilities blight, socio-economic changes, craft and architectural heritage plundering by illicit traffic
(bazaar keepers, touts, antique dealers)."
Fassi elites made – and still make – the fame of Fez.20 By Fassi elites, I mean the great
families and the great names in Morocco (Le Tourneau, 1949; Benhaddou, 2010). These families
are associated with the foundation and the rise of Fez and they now control positions in the senior
administration and technocracy and manage public or private companies. There are three main
categories of elites: chorfa, oulema and merchants. Chorfa (sg. charīf, pl. churafā) descend from the
18 To share a rented house was not a new practice. In an autobiographic novel, Ahmed Sefroui (2006 [1954]: 16, my
translation) writes about his childhood in the medina during the late 19th century. His family, coming from the
countryside shared a house with 3 other families. "We were Fassi by accident, but we remained faithful to our rural root
of seigniorial peasants."
19 A house is "foundoukised" when at least four families without any kin relationship inhabit it (El Faiz, 2002).
20 Fassi elites are associated with the refinement of Fez and the specific personality and temperament of Fassi
inhabitants. According to Letourneau (1949: 205-206, my translation), "the Fassi personality appears to be very strong.
[…] It is normal that urban citizens having reached a certain degree of civilisation be proud of themselves. Fassi are no
exception to the rule: they willingly underline the glory of their past, the excellence of their urban organisation, the skill
of their craftsmen, the perfection of their culture." Fassi are very proud of their culture and are famous for their
refinement, be it in their cooking or in their clothing. Together with refinement comes politeness. As the Tharaud
brothers (2008: 37-38, my translation) wrote it at the beginning of the 20th century, "[there is] one quality which, pushed
to the point we see it in Fez, becomes really a virtue. This virtue is politeness. […] In Fez, where the mind is more or
less similar and where only wealth creates differences between people, everybody is equally polite. […] Morals are
ordered by this qaïda [i.e. law] that everybody respects, less as a personal learning than as a familial legacy, a secular
heritage. For centuries, this politeness hasn't changed. […] This politeness is undoubtedly an elementary shape of
civilisation, but how long would it take for our Western civilisations to create such a universal refinement in morals?"
The fame of Fassi people is not always positive, as they are said to be hypocritical and obsessed with decorum and
appearance (Newcomb, 2006: 302). The Tharaud brothers (2008: 38, my translation), after having praised politeness,
follow as such. "I fear there is not much interesting thought in the mind of a Fassi: his feelings are equally mediocre, but
such wealth of politeness manages to erect a wall of smoke over them." Fassi also have the reputation to be weak and
soft, and the Tharaud brothers (2008: 37, my translation) describe them as "[p]roud, fanatic, corrupt, corrupting,
narrow-minded, jealous of each other, always swift to criticise and not prone to recognise services one favoured."
Finally, the resistance and arrogance of Fassi was underlined during the Protectorate. Fez was seen as a dangerous and
conservative city where revolutions were born. A revolution headed by Moroccan soldiers and citizens lasted three days
in April after the Protectorate treaty was signed in Fez, a popular revolution arose there in August 1954 after the
announcement of a possible return of Mohammed V from exile, and the manifest for Independence was written in Fez
in 1944.
26
Prophet Mohammed and his wife Fatima and were – and still are – named "Moulay" or "Sidi" for
men and "Lala" for women. They bear the family names of Idrissi, Alaoui, Skalli. Oulema (sg.
‘alim, pl. ‘ulamā) held religious knowledge. They taught at the Qaraouiyine university, frequently
participated in decision- and law-making in the makhzen (i.e. government), and were responsible for
the respect and transmission of traditions. El Fassi, Bensouda, Mernissi, Guennoun are among
family names of this category of elites. Finally, there were numerous merchant families, such as
Berrada, Tazi or Benjelloun. These traders came to Europe to export leather and carpets and to
import industrial goods.
As the preceding paragraphs suggest, identity and origin are matters of importance in Fez.
Idrissi Janati (2002) studies the spatial distinctions between the various populations inhabiting Fez.
The first difference separates inhabitants of the right and the left bank sides of the medina. The right
side, madinat Fās, founded by Idriss I, was Berber, while the left side, Fās al 'liya (i.e. the high
Fez) founded by his son Idriss II, was Arab.21 The latter was said to be more urban than the right
side, because Muslims, and then Jews, arrived with their techniques, know-how, arts, and ways of
life. They constituted the intellectual, commercial and artistic elite of the medina. A second spatial
distinction relates to the opposition between Fassi and 'aroubi (i.e. peasants). The Fassi were ahl
Fās (i.e. people of Fez), oulad Fās (i.e. children of Fez), oulad a'ila (i.e. children of the family).
These categories are based on genealogy rather than geography: in order to be considered Fassi, one
needs to have a Fassi paternal ascendant – as opposed to being born in Fez. The remaining
inhabitants are 'aroubi. Even if their family has lived in Fez since more than 100 years, they will
never be Fassi. Being 'aroubi means lacking civility, urbanity, taste, refinement, that is to say what
composes the "Fassi ethos."
The arrival of foreign residents questions these categorisations. Foreigners are not rural
migrants, are generally wealthier than inhabitants and are not Fassi because they don't have the
family names and they do not hold in the high traditional politic and commercial occupations.
2.2.1. Presence of foreigners
Due to the new political and economic centres and to the arrival of rural migrants, the
medina has partly lost its qualities of a spiritual, political and intellectual centre to become a centre
of poverty and marginality instead. This negative image, deeply anchored since the 1980s, deters
the elites from coming back into the medina, but not foreigners from settling there. The first foreign
21 A distinction that the Berber dahir (i.e. royal decree) in 1930 strengthened by creating specific status for Berber
people.
27
purchase – after Independence – occurred in 1997, and several pioneers settled in the late 1990s.
Because of the Iraq war and the events of the 11th September 2001, the arrival of foreigners stalled
between 2000 and 2003 but it exploded again between 2004 and 2006, with more than 60 houses
bought by foreigners in 2006. The decline in purchases started in 2007 and real estate managers
speak of a crisis since 2008. In the first months of 2012, foreigners owned about 300 houses in Fez.
The presence of foreigners in the Fez medina is not new. According to some historical
sources, Berbers descend from Vikings (Ben Amor and al., 2003) and many Moroccans take it for
granted that Sephardic Jews were the first foreigners in Morocco. Jews coming from the Middle
East first settled at the centre of the medina in the lihoudi (i.e. Jewish) neighbourhood before
moving to the mellaH in the 14th century. French and other Europeans (mainly missionaries) also
took up residence in the medina before the Protectorate. In April 1912, following a mutiny of
Moroccan soldiers, Moroccan inhabitants killed foreigners living in the medina. These casualties
included the owner of the Hôtel de France, Missis Imberdis, and Father Michel Fabre. Others, in
the Batha and Douh neighbourhoods, remained prisoners in their own house before being
evacuated. Tranchant de Lunel recounts this event in his book Au pays du paradoxe, Maroc
published in 1924. This French artist attended a French delegation meeting with the Sultan and was
hosted in Dar Glaoui in the Batha neighbourhood. After this mutiny, the Residence of the French
Governor was Dar Tazi, located at the entrance of the safe Batha neighbourhood. Indeed, as Hassan,
the employee of the Historical Monuments, recounted, "there were incidents in the beginning.
General Lyautey was besieged in a house. He was so scared! At that time, he decided to leave the
place. He asked people to be careful, and not to enter religious buildings. He implemented the law
forbidding access to mosques for non-Muslims. It was to protect foreigners in the beginning, not to
respect the intimacy of people. They [i.e. foreigners] were afraid in the medina."
The presence of foreigners, be they tourists or residents, changed the visual aspect of the
medina to different degrees. The appearance of some neighbourhoods, such as the residential areas
of Ziat and Douh, the tourist place of Boujloud, and the popular square of R'Cif, dramatically
changed the last decade. Owners and public authorities repainted facades, repaved streets and made
them cleaner. Guards keep watch of the areas at night. David, an American resident, complained
that in some neighbourhoods 6 out of 10 houses belonged to foreigners, while they were 100%
Moroccan-owned just 10 years earlier. However, areas such as Sidi Boujida or Bab El-Khokha,
lacking tourist accommodations and the presence of foreigners, remain neglected.
In general, scholars resort to the theory of gentrification22 in order to explain the settling of
22
According to Veschambre (2008), gentrification is the appropriation of heritage by upper social classes who deprive
28
foreigners in Morocco (Escher, 2001; McGuinness, 2006; Nguyen and Schoepfer, 2008). However,
this approach is over-simplistic to describe the situation in Fez. As I have mentioned, foreign
residents are not so numerous. Kurzac-Souali (2007) warns against the lack of distinction between
the real demographic presence of foreigners and their visual weight due to their fast settling, their
presence in media campaigns, and their intermingling with tourists in the public space. Veschambre
(2005) argues, for his part, that gentrification by elites is opposed to heritagisation for everybody.
How can buildings be a piece of heritage if elites and dominant classes appropriate them? He then
proposes to replace the term "gentrification" by those of "expropriation" and "appropriation."
One can rather look at the reasons of the foreign presence in Fez. Foreigners either came to
Fez to buy a house – and open a business – or they fell in love with the city and decided to settle
there. A lot of them had travelled a lot before settling in Fez or they had lived abroad for a long time
– French resident Gigi lived in the Ivory Coast for 20 years, Simon lived in the Emirates after he
had left France. Due to this mobility, McGuinness (2006) names them "polymigrants."
Transportation and the ease of access played a major role in their presence in Fez. The road and
train networks have improved during the last 10 years and the 2006 Open Sky (i.e. aerial agreement
between Europe and Morocco) broke the monopoly of Royal Air Maroc – Morocco’s airline
company – and opened the Moroccan sky to foreign low-cost companies. Ryanair brought a lot of
buyers and tourists with its direct cheap flights from Europe. Many informants correlated this
company with the waves of buyers and tourist in Fez. After the British buyers wave in 2003,
Spanish tourists were numerous in 2010, concurrent with Ryanair’s opening of four new flights
between Fez and Spain. Finally, the presence of foreigners is due to the fact that Marrakech has
become too expensive and too crowded.
Bakhella (2008) investigates the activity of tourist accommodation owners and correlates
foreign investments and tourism development. According to her, "touristification" – rather than
tourism development, which is a State planned development – best characterises the presence of
foreigners in Fez. Bakhella (id.) particularly underlines the cheap property market, the ease of
property purchase and economic opportunities that attracted foreigners to settle there. For instance,
according to the law 18-95 of the Investment Charter,23 retired foreign residents have a 30%
discount in tax rates. Kurzac-Souali (2006) also stresses the role of publicity in the home-country.
Television documentaries, trade shows and property exhibitions, positive ear-to-mouth, and
Moroccan national programmes, invite foreigners to invest in the region.
lower social classes from their heritage. If rehabilitation and gentrification are two levers of heritagization, they also
bring negative side effects. In that context, lower social classes can never inhabit heritage, for this latter is either
demolished because of its deterioration or is appropriated by upper social classes.
23 Dahir n° 1-95-213 of 14 joumada II 1416 (8 novembre 1995).
29
Foreign informants added personal justifications for settling in Fez. Few came back to the
country of their birth. More often, they wanted to change their life. Fez is, according to some of
them, "a chance to refresh myself," "a new start in my life." For example, Olivier was working as a
consultant in a bank in Belgium, leading an intense life without free time. At 30 years old, he
wanted to change his life and to provide happiness for himself and for other people. Ruth, a German
guest-house owner, experienced her move like a rupture, facing "a different culture, a different way
of life, a different job." She didn't fully choose moving to Fez. She had to build a new life, which
was not easy on a day-to-day basis. "In order to stick it out here, I work on my inner being. I
wonder if I'd be better off in Zurich, commuting to work at 7am on a bus. Well, truth is: I wouldn't."
30
2.3. Cultural heritage in Morocco
According to several scholars (Radoine, 2003; Dakhlia, 2010), there was no official cultural
heritage policy before the French Protectorate (1912-1957). Cities in Morocco emerged from the
desire of a Sultan, and Fez didn't escape this "rule." Moulay Idriss II founded Fez, and almost every
other important building is associated – if not reduced – to its builder. The Sultan Abou Inan built
the Bouanania medersa (i.e. Koranic school) in the mid-14th century. Fatima Fassi-Fihri gave her
fame to the Qaraouiyine mosque. According to Radoine (id.: 458), "[s]ince the days of the Idrissid
dynasty, successive rulers in different dynasties have respected the tradition of 'sultan-builders.'
Without destroying their predecessors' achievements, each dynasty had to compete with them and
erect new works."
However, Dakhlia (id.) argues that the end of a dynasty is equated with the end of its capital
city, that is to say its pillage for the creation of a new capital city. She takes as example the Al Badï
Palace, built in Marrakech by the Saadian Ahmed al Mansur at the end of the 16th century and
demolished by the Alaouite Moulay Ismaïl in the early 18th century. Moulay Ismaïl used materials
from the palace in Marrakech to build his palace in Meknes. Dakhlia (id.: 61, my translation) sees in
this recuperation an "original form of heritage, a category of heritage transmission in itself." With
the destruction and decay of former dynasty buildings, sultans transmitted history in several pieces.
They turned the traces of the former dynasty into evidence of the present dynasty's power and glory,
and they provided the people with a new common history. To transmit heritage, sultans didn’t
appropriate elements from the past, didn’t make monumental heritage, but restored moral and
symbolic shared history and ruins to the people.
More generally, the Makhzen (i.e. government of the Sultan) and the Habous (i.e. Ministry
of Religious Endowments and Islamic Affairs) managed cities (Barrou, 2005). Three main
characters helped the Sultan in his management task. The amel, or bacha, the city governor, was in
charge of security and urban management. Mokhzani and moqaddem (i.e. representative of the
government in a neighbourhood) helped him on the field. The mohtassib, the commercial provost
marshal, fixed the price and checked the commercial exchanges as well as public amenities for
health and hygiene. Finally, the qadi, or judge, helped by the adul (i.e. Islamic notary), was in
charge of legal and religious power. He controlled the Habous goods and funds. He managed the
Qaraouiyine mosque and university, libraries and Koranic schools. He appointed and paid the
teachers, checked the matters taught, and managed the funds to up-keep the building. The qadi also
supervised hammamat (i.e. public baths, sg. hammam), the water network and hospitals. Among the
civil society, members of Zawiya (i.e. Muslim religious building close to the tomb of a Saint.), head
31
of guilds (amine) and local elites helped in managing, funding and taking decisions. But their role
was limited.
A focus on the Habous is useful to better understand the management of heritage at that
time. The term Habous refers to a public institution in charge of services and goods that are referred
to as Habous or waqf (literally: immobile, locked), to these Habous goods and services, and to
funds serving to maintain these goods. A Habous good is a perpetual and inalienable endowment of
an immovable property whose revenue earnings are devoted to social charity work (waqf khayri) or
to specific beneficiaries (waqf ahli).24 In the first case, the property served as a provision for a
designated social service financed by the revenue of the endowed property. For instance, public
ovens, shops or agricultural lands were made Habous in order to fund mosques, to provide the
imam with a salary and to up-keep the mosque. Services in education and social help, cultural and
religious buildings and their maintenance were usually funded by the earnings of these Habous
goods. In the second case, when Habous goods benefited to a specific beneficiary, the endowment
was different from the familial heritage inheritance based on the Koran and religious rules. With
Habous endowments, the owner could preserve an entire property against the dismantling of
familial heritages, could secure a property against confiscation, and could look to satisfy Allah. A
manager (mutawalli or nedhar) appointed by the owner took care of the property in the owner's
name, and usually received 10 or 15% of the Habous property revenue.
2.3.1. The Protectorate period (1912-1957)
Official policies of cultural heritage started with the Protectorate25 (Fadili-Toutain, 2010).
Their inception is often attributed to the General Lyautey, the first General Resident in Morocco. An
amateur of art and trained in the Algerian heritage preservation and urban construction, he had a
particular interest in Fez as a place of beauty and know-how in danger. According to Holden (2006),
French authorities favoured the preservation of Moroccan traditional cities, and Fez in particular, to
prevent social and political unrest and to provide economic security to Moroccan elites and
workers. Elites had their medjless26 (i.e. communitarian council) to control the medina and workers
were employed and trained to preserve buildings. French authorities also legislated rules about the
design, the architectural elements and the decorative aspects, which aimed to give a feeling of
return to the city’s Golden Age and to force inhabitants to comply with the vision of the medina as a
In 1996, there were 748 charity Habous goods and 262 familial Habous goods in the Fez medina.
Venkatesan (2009) shows that the preservation and the romanticization of elected items of Indian craft also occurred
during the British colonisation.
26 There were three councils during the Protectorate: a Muslim Council, a Jewish Council and a French Council.
24
25
32
medieval relic. "If wealthy Moroccans built hybrid courtyard houses, with, for example, fireplaces
for heat and private baths, he [i.e. the Director of Fine Arts and Historical Monuments] believed that
Europeans in Fez would jump at the chance to live in these picturesque dwellings. He wanted to
prevent the construction of 'dwellings that were half European and half Moorish.' Through a strict
interpretation of the design of a Moroccan house, he intended to ensure that new housing would be
rented to ordinary Moroccans in need of shelter" (Holden, id.: 311).
The first law about the conservation and preservation of national cultural heritage goes back
to 191227 and the listing of monuments in Fez started two years later with the city walls and their
surroundings. The entire medina was included in the list in 1954. On the one hand, official heritage
policies in Morocco preceded the French ones. For instance, listing the surroundings of a monument
became official in France in the 1930s – and as early as 1914 in Morocco – and the listing of sectors
waited until 1963 with the famous Malraux law – against 1954 in Morocco. On the other hand, the
law was reformed several times. In 1945 the law took into account natural and urban sites, the
historic centres of old cities, and in 1980, the categories and procedures of inscription changed.
Once a building was listed, the Fine Arts and Historic Monuments Department had to agree
with any change. Part of the ruined city walls were restored, even if Tranchant de Lunel, the first
director of the Fine Arts and Historic Monuments Department and an Orientalist artist, had a very
Ruskinian28 approach of consolidating without restoring or demolishing. As early as the late 1920s,
the French implemented a tax for the restoration of monumental buildings and legislated building
codes to control private constructions. Since April 1923, inhabitants have to apply for work permits,
issued or refused by the head of Municipal Services together with the Service of Fine Arts and
Historic Monuments. In 1925, about 300 work permits were issued, about 600 in 1926 and 1,123 in
1929. In 1925, the department also had to control the building site and added rules about hygiene,
materials and aesthetics. At the same time, short-staff in the department and the taste of owners
made it difficult for the rules to be efficiently implemented and observed.
The development of institutions started with the creation of the Fine Arts and Historical
Monuments Department29 by vizier decree in 1912. The department was responsible for the
inventory, inspection and conservation of historical monuments. Its attributions remained more or
less similar through time but its title changed several times. It became the Department of Historical
Monuments, Imperial Palaces and Residences in 1920; the Department of Historical Monuments
Cherifian dahir (29/11/1912) according to which "it is of common interest to protect with care the relics of the past
related to the history of our Empire as well as artistic creations that embellish them."
28 From Ruskin, a British art critic who, in the mid-19th century, promoted preservation over restoration which he saw
as the most total destruction that a building could suffer. On the other hand, to preserve means to keep in state and to
bring only necessary repairs. He wrote his main ideas in The Seven Lamps of Architecture, published in 1849.
29 In French: Service des Antiquités, des Beaux-Arts et des Monuments historiques.
27
33
and Fine Arts again in 1925; the Inspection of Historical Monuments, Medina and Listed Sites –
with Henri Terrasse at its head – in 1935; and the Department of Historical Monuments, Arts and
Folklore in 1958. From 1958 until 1974, the Ministry of National Education, Tourism and
Communication, and the Ministry of Cultural Affair and religious Endowments both supervised the
department. In 1974, with the creation of the Ministry of Culture, the newly named Division of
Museums, Sites, Archaeology and Historical Monuments rapidly became the Direction of Cultural
heritage, composed since 1985 of the Division of Museums and Archaeology, the Division of
Monuments and Sites – whose Inspection of Historical Monuments is part of – the Division of
Inventory, and the Division of studies and interventions. Within this institutional specialisation, the
role of the Inspection diminished but opened debates about laws and practices of heritage
preservation.
As established in the 1912 law, the Fine Arts and Historical Monuments Department
controlled architectural plans and issued permits to build in the medina. Through architectural rules,
the department controlled the integration of Moroccan features in the colonial architecture and
supported indigenous arts and crafts. Members of this department ordered the use of indigenous
materials, techniques and know-how for aesthetic as well as economic reasons. They aimed to
support Moroccan crafts, to create jobs, and to attract tourists. Lyautey promoted the respect of the
"indigenous picturesque" and of the "local colours." Prosper Ricard – the Indigenous Art
Department director from 1920 to 1935 – defined this local colour as "the external features that
gives things their own nature, their specific appearance. These features depend on varied and
complex elements: shape, colour, light, climate, latitude, altitude, human life, animal and vegetal
life, absence of life, proximity of water, and so on" (in Terrasse and Hainaut, 2006 [1924]: 34, my
translation).
The aspect of many buildings, whose roots in the past are taken-for-granted, dates back to
this period. For instance, Moroccans asked to put lattice screens at the entrance of mosques to
prevent passers-by from peeping in. Many Moroccan inhabitants nowadays assert this is a Koranic
request. Also, in the early 1930s, members of the Department of Historical Monuments restored the
Seffarine square. They built a new library, renovated the medersa (i.e. Koranic school) as well as
several shops. They respected the structures and shapes of existing buildings but they used
reinforced concrete for walls and foundations and they refined the architectural decoration. The
square is nowadays presented as a model of traditional Moroccan architecture. Among other
examples, Tranchant de Lunel decided to "maroccanise" the Campini gate, named as such after the
Italian architect who built it in 1880. Tranchant de Lunel judged its Florentine style at odds with the
Fassi style and aimed to blend the door in with its environment. The new door was inaugurated in
34
1916, first under the name of Boujloud gate – creating confusion with the other Boujloud gate
located just 100 meters away – and subsequently renamed the French gate (cf. appendix p.323).
Nowadays, nobody mentions these transformations that changed the look of the medina and
contributed to the creation and anchorage of an image of Fez as a city out of time and unchanged
for centuries.
To preserve heritage, and aside from the Fine Arts and Historical Monuments Department,
the Indigenous Arts Department collected, sorted out, and made inventories of objects and
knowledge related to crafts. Members of this department made of authenticity a category assorted
with criteria such as the kind of work, the kind of object produced, the place of production. In this
context, Berber art was opposed to urban art and traditional crafts emerged in opposition to
industrial goods brought by the French. Members published their writings in books, such as Les
Arts décoratifs au Maroc (i.e. Decorative Arts in Morocco) by Henri Terrasse and Jean Hainaut
(1924), or specialised journals, such as Hesperis or France-Maroc. They also displayed objects and
collections in museums to show the Moroccan tradition and to present them as models and
standards for craftspeople – the museum of Fez opened in 1915 was among the first ones. Prosper
Ricard mainly implemented these standards to avoid both the decay of Moroccan crafts as well as
exoticism, which Europeans cherished. For instance, foreign residents needed furniture – too scarce
and basic in Morocco – that had to follow a Moroccan or Berber style. Moroccan craftsmen on their
hand had – and still have – to follow the colonial standards and models in their education and
training (Girard, 2006).
The Urbanism and Housing Department for its part implemented policies which influenced
those related to heritage. Urban and housing laws mixed subtle and paternalist ideas with
authoritarianism and radicalism (Dethier, 1973). Since 1912, Lyautey and Prost, the lead architects
of the Moroccan urbanism in the early 20th century, separated traditional Moroccan cities and
French New Cities.30 On the one hand, they aimed to preserve cultural heritage and, on the other, to
develop a modern urbanism and housing specific to Europeans. This resulted in a style mixing
Western, and mainly Art Deco, and Muslim architecture in architectural decorative techniques (the
Cité des Habous in Casablanca is a glaring example of this style). After Lyautey and Prost's
Inhabitants often talked of the medina in terms of contrasts, for instance quiet and lively, marginalized and promoted,
silent and noisy. The main contrast opposed the medina and the New City. Jelidi (2012) traced this opposition in her
study of the construction of the New City in Fez between 1912 and 1956. Jelidi (id.) focused on the official terminology
used in administrative reports. This terminology firstly contrasted the European and the Indigenous city, with race and
religion as main references to distinguish both spaces. After 1925, the official terminology used the old and the new
city. The opposition related to civilisation and was based on the comparison between the medina and 12th century
European cities. Incompatible habits justified the separation. The opposition was not as clear in reality, and moves and
exchanges between the two cities have always been intense. Those living in the New City lauded the space, the view
and the air. They underlined the medina faces a problem of transportation if somebody dies or is injured, if a fire start,
or simply to bring a TV or a fridge home. On the other hand, they regretted shops are not always open in the New City,
there were no relationships between neighbours and people did not talk to each other.
30
35
departure in 1926, urban planners and architects continued to respect and implement their rules and
principles. It changed in 1946 with the arrival of Ecochard, a proponent of the Athens Charter and
Le Corbusier’s31 principles. He promoted a progressive model, the international style, a functional
architecture and economic housing.
After Independence in 1957 and until the end of the 1970s, a functionalist and modernist
approach dominated in architecture and construction. In the late 1970s, Moroccan architects and
urban planners rejected that approach and called aestheticism back in the promotion of a nationalist
architecture. Members of public authorities, feeling a loss of cultural identity, showed interest in
authentic and traditional forms of architecture. Nonetheless, they limited their actions to marginal
and formal aspects (Navez-Bouchanine, 1991, 1994, 1997) and they based this revitalisation and
preservation on stereotyped Islamic characteristics without any adaptation of these characteristic to
the modern context (Arkoun, 1995). Laarsi (2009) speaks of the "Moroccanisation of architecture"
to refer to this search for forms without any knowledge or concern for their use or way of life.
The early descriptions of the medina, by both scholars and novelists, as an aesthetic, historic
and symbolic place while at the same time a city in decay and decline, justified the French
intervention. What French authorities implemented however didn’t answer what Rosaldo (1989)
names an "imperialist nostalgia," that is to say a nostalgia of colonizers for the traditional culture
and for "the form of life they intentionally destroyed" (Rosaldo, id.: 109), a nostalgia used to claim
one's innocence and to make the colonizer a collector of fairly harmless memories. The preservation
and conservation actions and policies implemented during the Protectorate rather aimed at
preserving and collecting what was disappearing and which the French preserved, having arrived
just in time to record the last pieces of a disappearing past.
2.3.2. UNESCO and the World Heritage nomination
The first capital city of Morocco, Fez was also the first Moroccan World Heritage site. It
was listed in 1981 after the criteria ii. – "to exhibit an important interchange of human values, over
a span of time or within a cultural area of the world" – and v. – "to be an outstanding example of a
traditional human settlement, land-use, or sea-use which is representative of a culture." Seven other
Moroccan, and strictly cultural, World Heritage sites joined the medina of Fez: the medina of
Marrakech, the Ksar of Ait-Ben-Haddou, the historic city of Meknes, the archaeological site of
Volubilis, the medina of Tetouan, the medina of Essaouira, the Portuguese city of El Jadida, and the
modern capital and historical city of Rabat. In 2012, 12 sites, of which 5 are natural, were waiting
Le Corbusier, a Swiss architect, was instrumental in the establishment and the publication in 1943 of the Athens
Charter. This document of urban planning set guidelines about living, working, transport and recreation in cities.
31
36
on the tentative list.
The UNESCO adventure started in 1974 when the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and Religious
Endowments requested the restoration of several buildings in the medina. UNESCO consultants,
Bianca, Burckhardt, Foulon and Van De Kerchoven among them, proposed to take the entire
medina as a historical monument into consideration. Bianca (1980a: 31) writes that although the
medina was still alive economically as a commercial centre, "the physical skeleton has fallen into
an almost fatal state of neglect that elicits only despair and perplexity on the part of the
administrators and technicians." The matter didn’t concern the "preservation of a small historical
centre with a few markets and monuments, but rather the rehabilitation of an entire urban organism
which shelters the majority of the population" (Bianca, id.: 31).
As a consequence, in 1975, UNESCO, Morocco and the United Nations Development
Programme (henceforth UNDP) decided to draft a Master Plan, that is to say an urban document
with no legal force but providing guidelines and recommendations. It was effectively drawn up
between 1976 and 1978 by Moroccan and international technicians with a UNDP loan of $700,000
(523,287 €) and it was approved in 1980. "The Master Plan for the Rehabilitation of the
architectural legacy of the medina satisfies two closely related requirements. It preserves a historical
and architectural patrimony of great value, and it maintains buildings which, if abandoned, would
confront the government with insurmountable problems" (Bianca, 1980a: 36). In this Master Plan,
scholars, heritage experts and members of institutions established guidelines directly related to
heritage. They also recommended a decrease in the medina population and in the pedestrian flow.
They planned to build a new housing area eastward, and to improve public transportations with, for
instance, the rearrangement of R'Cif square. They aimed to remove mechanised crafts from the
medina and to regulate commercial activities, preventing shopkeepers, for instance, from turning
their houses into shops or workshops. Finally, they advised improving living standards by
introducing a minimum of hygiene and comfort, and by encouraging initiative and responsibility
among owners and inhabitants.
In 1976, the UNESCO General Director proposed to open an international campaign of
financial and technical support to realise these recommendations. The International Campaign for
the Safeguard of Fez officially started in 1980 after a declaration of the King, Hassan II.32 An
amount of $541 million (about 421 million €) was forecast to be needed to restore several
monuments and to improve public infrastructures such as water and electricity supplies. Moroccan
technicians from the Ministry of Housing undertook sector-specific studies. A workshop for the
safeguard of Fez was created in 1978, and a Delegation for the Safeguarding of Fez, under the
32 Cf.
appendix p. 324.
37
umbrella of the Ministry of Interior, replaced the workshop in 1981. Finally, in 1989, the Agency
for the Development and the Rehabilitation of Fez (henceforth ADER) was implemented as a
technical institution in charge of works in the medina and of sector-specific studies.
UNESCO also sent consultants to Fez. Titus Burckhardt worked as a UNESCO consultant
and adviser there between 1972 and 1977. He then became a member of the grand jury of the Aga
Khan Award for Islamic architecture in 1979 but inaugurated the UNESCO International Campaign
for the Safeguard of Fez in 1980. Three consultants brought technical help in 1978: Bianca, an
architect, Mackel, an engineer, and Prieto Moreno, a restorer. Michon later joined them. Frank
Foulon and Frank Van de Kerchove arrived in Fez in 1981 and 1982 respectively. In spite of these
experts’ presence, the first campaign did not work as well as expected because of the insufficient –
and insufficiently trained – Moroccan staff (Hardouin, 1982). For instance, one permanent
technician alone composed the Delegation for Safeguarding. In 1982, the technical preparation was
still in process and the funding had not yet started, for too many decision levels slowed any
decision-making. All of this besmirched the credibility of the Campaign. Hardouin (id.) urged the
Moroccan Government to introduce a national board of management; to provide the Delegation
with an office – such as in the Dar Tazi Palace in the medina – as well as a status – to enable legal
procedures – and a budget – to employ experts and technicians. He also recommended a better
coordination between UNESCO and Moroccan institutions and a focus on the socio-economic side
of the project more than on the cultural one when sending a request to the UNDP.
The next key event occurred in 1992 with a study ordered by the UNDP in order to plan a
$64 million (about 50 million €) project. Preliminary studies gathered Groupe Huit (a French
multidisciplinary office specialised in urban and municipal development), Urbaplan (a Swiss team
working in urban development and management), Sides (a French firm specialised in security),
ADER and UNESCO – whose consultants between May 1991 and January 1992 were Drocourt,
Lazrak and Baati, three architects, and Aouini Lhaj, an archaeologist.33 In the final project proposal,
seven domains of action defined the "Safeguard Project for the city of Fez" (UNDP, 1992):
•
The improvement of access to the medina.
•
The restoration and urban development in a reference zone (‘aïn Azliten).
•
The improvement of housing, with the rehabilitation of traditional buildings.
•
The improvement of activities by restructuring economic areas and activities and removing
the polluting activities out of the medina.
•
The preservation of cultural heritage with targeted restoration works.
33 UNESCO,
the UNDP and the WB didn't hire any anthropologist as consultants. The only anthropologist working as a
UNESCO consultant was Isabelle Riaboff, sent in 2005 to investigate textile art.
38
•
The improvement of the environment and urban public services.
•
An institutional strengthening with the improvement of institutions to organise and carry out
actions.
However, the project didn’t go further than these preliminary reports.
The biggest project, the "Fez Medina Rehabilitation Project," was headed and funded by the
World Bank (henceforth WB) between 1996 and 2006. It took as a basis the UNDP project while
upgrading it and making it an integrated project. It aimed not only to restore heritage and to
improve the quality of life in the medina but also to favour the participation of its inhabitants. The
ADER and the Unit of Housing and Urbanisation of Harvard University carried out the planning
stages between 1996 and 1998. The WB then agreed on a $29 million (22,5 million €) loan to
Morocco. Half of the money went to the Government, the other half to the Fez-medina municipality.
In 2012, two international projects were ongoing. The Hammamed project, consisting in the
restoration of an old public bath (Seffarine Hammam), was carried out by the University of
Liverpool, Institut Francais du Proche Orient, ADER, and the Vienne Institute, plus several national
(Ministry of Culture) and local (National School of Architecture in Fez) partners. A second project,
funded by the American Millennium Challenge Corporation,34 aimed to improve and to promote the
craft industry. The project "Craft and Fez Medina" is divided into four parts: Makina, related to the
city walls – but it has been given up–; Square Lala Ydouna with an architectural competition to
restore the eponymous square; ‘aïn Nokbi, and the funduk (i.e. caravanserai). The whole project is
estimated to cost $111, 870, 000 (about 83, 705, 000 €).
Pic. 2. Bab Jdid, a new gate built in 2012.Credit: M. Istasse
34
http://www.mcc.gov/pages/countries/program/morocco-compac
39
Pic. 3. Restoration of the city walls. Credit: M. Istasse
Given all these projects, it would be simplistic to reduce all the international interventions
around heritage in Fez to UNESCO. On the one hand, institutions from several countries in Europe,
Asia and the United States have been working hard in the city. On the other hand, national
institutions and private sponsors also initiated and undertook actions around heritage. King
Mohammed VI instructed the restoration of the city walls, Princess Lalla Hasnaa – the President of
the Mohammed VI Foundation for the Protection of the Environment – inaugurated the renewal of
the Jnan Sbil garden in 2010, the Ministry of Culture restored an ablution room, the municipality
redid the facades in the two main streets; the Association des Jeunes Volontaires des Chantiers
Internationaux (A.J.V.C.I.) organises summer work camps for teenagers from Europe and Morocco
to help ADER workers in house; the National Office for Drinking Water (UNEP) restored several
fountains. Among private sponsors, the Arabic Fund for Social and Economic Development
(FADES) gave money for the traditional water network at Bab Makina. The project "One
monument, one sponsor" started in 1992. 7 private sponsors committed to restore 7 monuments in
the medina. Although this project was a failure (only 3 sponsors finished their restoration), the
Foundation Benjelloun Meziane (BMCE Bank) funded the Bouaniya medersa (i.e. Koranic school)
works and the construction of two new gates – Bab Batha in 2010 and Bab Jdid in 2012. The Karim
Lamrani35 Foundation restored the Neijjarine funduk (i.e. caravanserai) and turned it into a museum
35 Former
Prime Minister.
40
of wood. The Popular Bank funded the Bab Mahrouk gate works.
In a way, UNESCO has succeeded in turning Fez into a city of universal concern, a place of
encounter between international sponsors, academics, public authorities, and tourists interested in
its cultural heritage. However, in their reports, UNESCO consultants and scholars criticise the
projects implemented by UNESCO and other international institutions. On the one hand, they
underline the necessity of multidisciplinary teams. According to Michon (1982: 9, my translation),
"the research for punctual projects to carry out in a very dense urban fabric, where functions are
interwoven and where balances shouldn't be disturbed without any major reason, is an exercise that
can only be done in a team."
On the other hand, they denounce the too many actors involved in the medina preservation
and their lack of coordination (Akdim and Laaouane, 2010). Scholars also mention a top-down
model that is too technical and architectural (Lanchet, 2006). They emphasise the failure of projects
to take into account the perceptions and practices of inhabitants (El Bouaaïchi Nadri, 2006). They
condemn unrealistic and overly global projects lacking precise strategies and resulting in no real
change (Lahbil-Tagemouati, 2001; Abry, 2005). Boumaza (1999) describes international projects as
semi-failures, for they have nonetheless contributed to enhance knowledge about the medina thanks
to the studies carried out.36 Kurzac-Souali (2006: 342, my translation) asserts that "[t]he
preservation of this heritage progresses through residential tourism, the ryad trend and the punctual
work of sponsors. The most dynamic actors in these transformations are private actors, and their
approach is barely inscribed in a more general policy of preservation. It is essential to underline that
the first actors of restoration and safeguard in the medina are foreigners."
Roughly speaking, the medina experienced what Fabre (2009) calls the promotion,
depreciation and over-promotion process. After having been the cultural and spiritual capital of
Morocco and the core of preservation during the Protectorate period, the medina became a marginal
and poor neighbourhood. Left by elites, it has lost its centrality and its role of integration of the
newcomers – mainly rural migrants – into the city life. It has been promoted again after its World
Heritage nomination in the early 1980s, and had its public infrastructures modernised thanks to,
among others, investments of private and public international sponsors.
In addition to the Master Plan, the 1981 nomination was surrounded by several sector-specific and academic studies.
ADER published punctual reports about the medina or its activity. The Centre interdisciplinaire d'études urbaines of the
University of Toulouse and the Department of Geography of the University of Fez drawn the Atlas de la médina de Fès
(1990).
36
41
2.3.3. UNESCO: a visible absence
A billboard on the motorway points out Fez as a World Heritage site. In the medina, the
billboard of the International Centre for the Promotion of Craft Industry (CIPA) displayed the
UNESCO logo, but it was removed in January 2011. Tourism guidebooks present the medina as a
World Heritage city worth visiting and many local guides remind tourists about this in the first
minutes of the city tour. Some owners of tourist accommodations make mention of this listing in
their promotional website.
Pic. 4. Billboard of the CIPA. Credit: M. Istasse
A discussion I had with Jawad, a Moroccan inhabitant, better gives an idea of the UNESCO
presence and its role in Fez after 30 years of listing.
"Me: Do you know the medina is listed as a World Heritage site?
Jawad: Yes.
Me: Do you know when this happened?
Jawad: No.
Me: And do you know what UNESCO means?
Jawad: No.
Me:. Do you think what it does is important?
Jawad: Yes.
Me: What does it do?
Jawad: Precisely, I cannot tell you. But it is good the city is a UNESCO
heritage. Yes, it was a glimpse from the outside. And it attracts tourists."
42
This "visible absence" (Berliner and Istasse, 2013) gives UNESCO the appearance of a
"myth" (Lahbil-Tagemouati, 2001) in the mouths of inhabitants. When I asked them, most, like
Jawad, didn't know when the medina was listed or what UNESCO is or does. As Gigi, a French
guest-house manager, declared, "I have never thought about that! I think it is good, as I see around
me and from what people say, because my information sources are much reduced. So, I've heard
that part of the money helping in restoring the medina comes from UNESCO, and the other part
from the European Union. So, I think it can be only good." Abdelhay, a Moroccan inhabitant who
own a home-stay, was among the rare informants who knew when the medina was listed by
UNESCO. He thought UNESCO was important for the city, but "precisely, I cannot tell you [what
UNESCO is], but it is good the medina is a listed heritage."
Informants usually associated UNESCO with several specific consequences. UNESCO
bears the positive image of a Savior acting when the situation is desperate and giving money in
order to fix houses or sewage. Aïcha, a Moroccan inhabitant, thought UNESCO "does a lot of
works now. When a beldi [i.e. traditional] house is damaged, UNESCO gives 4 millions to do the
work. No, UNESCO doesn't give 4 millions, UNESCO gives 2. Noss noss [i.e. half half]." Only a
few, like Helen, the British manager of a renting agency, knew that "UNESCO doesn't fund
anything. They haven't given any money. They don't have any money to give. Being a World
Heritage site attracts money, like the Italian Government restored Dar Adiyel.37 But I don't think
UNESCO gave any money."
Many Moroccans thought that UNESCO brought tourists and money. Jawad was one of
them. "You know, Fez medina, as it is listed, there is a lot of people coming. A lot of tourists are
coming only for that. So, we have to safeguard the medina. Moreover you know, when tourists
come, it creates a lot of jobs. Everybody finds a job, and it is good." Mohammed, a Moroccan
home-stay owner, shared Jawad's view. "Heritage site or not, it is not interesting for us. It is
interesting for the future of Moroccan tourism, particularly in Fez. It is interesting for tourists from
Europe. They hear it is a heritage site and they come." To many tourist accommodation owners, the
World Heritage label is like a brand. Amélie, a French guest-house owner, insisted on the prestige
given by UNESCO. "I know that at the international level, it is rated. It is listed, so it makes
references in books."
Also, Hassan, a member of the Inspection of Historical Monuments, lauded the listing of the
medina as a World Heritage site. Firstly, "the listing is a label that attracts tourists and financial
influx." Secondly, the listing "attract[s] sponsors, but also make[s] the population aware of
heritage," as "it is very important for the whole of humanity to preserve them [i.e. World Heritage
House restored between 1993 and 1996 by Italia, Morocco and UNESCO, and currently the museum of Andalus
music.
37
43
sites] everywhere in the world. A genius created World Heritage in order to involve the world in its
preservation." According to him, inhabitants have to be involved in the preservation process, and he
promoted an integrated view of preservation, that is to say to include the various institutions in
charge of the medina and inhabitants into projects aiming at the development of the city.
On the other hand, Idrissi Janati (2001) presents Fez as an example of emblematic safeguard
for two reasons: Fez benefited from the first UNESCO policy implemented in North Africa, and its
safeguard and promotion is symptomatic of the difficulties and ambiguities between modernity,
tradition, past, future and identity. He then investigates the images of the medina of both inhabitants
– which he defines as bottom actors – and politicians – which he defines as top actors – in order to
understand the system of values underlying their images, and then to determine the interest and
advantage of preserving the medina. These images fall into two opposite categories. Politicians see
the medina as a place to preserve and to promote as an architectural and cultural heritage while
inhabitants define the medina as a depreciated place, a marginal and unsafe neighbourhood.
Roughly speaking, a nostalgic discourse on the medina goes together with a discourse about its
contemporary needs and lacks.
Other inhabitants were critical of UNESCO. In their view, UNESCO did nothing in Fez. "I
think they [i.e. UNESCO] do fantastic things, fantastic. And, maybe you will refute what I say, but
they moved the Abou Simbel Temple? I find it brilliant, I'm amazed. It is something Pharaonic to
preserve things like that. But I haven't seen any Pharaonic actions in Fez," complained Amélie, the
same French guest-house owner. Sarah, a French resident, gave another example. "I lived in the Val
de Loire. It is listed, classified, categorised, I don't know how to say. Listed as a World Heritage
site. And actions are lead, concrete actions, which we can see as inhabitants of the Val de Loire.
There was the conversion of the banks of the Loire into green roads for cycles. We saw every year, I
don't know, 50 or 60 kilometers of banks improved in this way. Some areas have been equipped for
walkers, people who want to sit on the river bank, benches and so on. So, there, it is concrete. But
in Fez, today, are there actions carried out? I don't know." Omar, Nordin and Mehdi, three
Moroccan guest-house employees, accused Moroccan politicians of hindering UNESCO's work. As
Omar said, "UNESCO, I know what it means: to preserve cultural heritage. But it is useless. It is
only money. Give money to Moroccans, they buy Jaguars or they send their children to study
abroad."
Catherine, a French architect working for the Millennium Challenge Corporation project,
also criticised UNESCO and ICOMOS members for having "overly theoretical approaches. When
members of an international organisation such as UNESCO, which I know better, give their
44
opinion, I noticed a complete lack of understanding on their part, of the relations between the social
and the built environments for instance. Experts, generally they are Italians, come and says 'Olala,
there is a lump there [i.e. on the facade of a house].' Generally, it is additional toilets. 'It has to be
removed straight away.' Ok, well, nice, but then nobody can live there anymore. So you have to
think before taking any decision. And often, they take executive decisions to preserve the
monumental aspect of the buildings without taking account of people living there, without taking
account of the social aspect."
Hassan, the Inspection of Historical Monuments employee, underlined the limits of the
listing and the role of UNESCO. "UNESCO policies? There are none. It is a convention. It is very
limited. In fact, UNESCO does not aim to intervene directly. It intervenes only to give its opinion
about the modification or the transformation of a place. All the countries that signed the convention
have to apply it, to respect it. But UNESCO intervenes solely in case of important projects." In his
view, the medina does not belong to UNESCO, but to the Ministry of Culture – UNESCO only has
a right of inspection – as the medina is first and foremost a national heritage since 1954. He added
that "Fez suffers from its heritage burden" because the money needed to ensure its preservation
cannot be fully given by the Government or the local authorities. Fettah, a Moroccan guest-house
owner, accused both UNESCO and Moroccans. On the one hand, "UNESCO thought that the listing
of Fez would made Moroccans aware of their heritage and take care of it, but it didn't work." On the
other hand, "Moroccans hoped that, as a World heritage site, the world would come with money to
take care of the medina."
Some, such as Laïla, a Moroccan architect born in Fez but living in Rabat, even talked of a
UNESCO resignation in Fez. "UNESCO took its leave a long time ago. It only funds conferences.
Debates about the medina are very interesting but become annoying after a while. It becomes
comedy-like! We bring international experts together in the medina but nothing is done. We bask in
our own status to be experts and to recognise others as such. Now, UNESCO is completely
bureaucratic. Honestly, I don't see its militant action in the city." Ruth, a German guest-house
owner, has also completely lost faith in UNESCO. "UNESCO? Let me laugh! People build
whatever they want! In front of the Bouanania minaret [i.e. minaret of a famous Koranic school], a
Moroccan has built a very ugly skyscraper. We cannot see the minaret anymore, which is one of the
most beautiful ones. So UNESCO, yes. But where and how? And what does it mean?"
Others were critical of the entire UNESCO enterprise. "UNESCO listings don’t mean
anything. They list everything. In my opinion, there should be another listing between the 7
wonders of the world and UNESCO, because they list everything, everything, everything. In
France, small chapels in the middle of nowhere are listed UNESCO" (Jean-Pierre, French guest-
45
house owner). Steve, an American guest-house owner, evoked the lack of pedagogy of international
projects. "I think I may criticise one thing. These huge machines, World Bank, UNESCO, they have
a lot of very good initiatives, but they are weak in communication. When leading such projects, you
have to consider who you are talking to."
Finally, inhabitants show indifference. "Personally, I don’t care," said Olivier, a Belgian
resident. "When you fight for a house, to make it live, and to restore it, you are in the reality of
things. So, it is nice, UNESCO, but it is very abstract to me. What does it bring?" asked Evelyne, a
French guest-house owner.
2.3.4. Definitions of heritage
Scholars have intensively discussed the plural meanings and definitions of heritage in terms
of dissonance (Tunbridge and Ashworth, 1996; Bruce et Creighton, 2006), resistance toward
heritage and UNESCO politics (Collins, 2008), or multivocality (Owens, 2002). Fez doesn’t escape
this norm of heterogeneity in heritage. In the following, I do a review of the definitions informants
gave heritage.
First of all, informants, whether Moroccans or foreigners, agreed on two issues related to
heritage. The first one concerns the ubiquity of heritage, which is "everywhere in the medina. I
think a small house is as important as a huge house or a palace. The smallest fountain, craft, all is
heritage. It is a whole, I do not make distinctions" (Amélie, French guest-house owner). As
Abdelhay, a Moroccan home-stay owner, said, one can find heritage "in houses, mosques, madrasa
[i.e. Koranic schools], suqūq [i.e. markets, sg. sūq], craft, food." The link between these elements
makes "the spirit of Fez." Jawad, a Moroccan inhabitant, asserted, "turāth [i.e. heritage] is
everywhere. It is anything qdim [i.e. old], very old. Old, but zuin [i.e. beautiful]." He then described
the medina as taqafiya (i.e. cultural), tarikhiya (i.e. historic), l’asima l’ilmiya (i.e. world wonder).
A second agreement relates to the Golden Age of the city under the Merinid dynasty (13th –
15th centuries). Fez was at the core of a large empire, hosted a famous university welcoming
teachers and students from the whole Arab world and beyond, was famous for the quality of its craft
industry, and benefited from an active cultural life thanks to the various populations. However, this
Golden Age is now over. Fez is not anymore what it was. One could only imagine what it must have
been like, losing oneself in the maze of the narrow streets. This image of a lost Golden Age goes
back to the Protectorate. Novelists insisted on the glorious but bygone past of the medina (Harris,
1921; De Lunel, 1924; Loti, 1929). They urged to come back to this past time, or at least to preserve
what remained. The Tharaud brothers (2008 [1930]) characterised the medina by torpor and
46
mystery, while others compared the medina to its European equivalent, a medieval city, with its
labyrinth of narrow and dark streets, and donkeys. Scholars also participated in making of Fez a city
out of time with theirs writings in Hesperis or France-Maroc (Holden, 2006). Nowadays, as
Newcomb (2006: 293) writes, "the medina serves as an object of nostalgia, as a symbol of the
former apogee of Moroccan civilisation, and as a place over which they feel proprietary even if they
no longer own property there." Inhabitants superimpose a mythical and romantic image of a Golden
Age on the reality they experience everyday. They tend to focus on the decay and the negative
aspects of the medina, and are nostalgic for a lost paradise.
In the following, I distinguish the Moroccans' and the foreigners' definition of heritage.
Scholars usually underline this distinction: locals and foreigners do not allocate the same values to
heritage. Also, informants, and more precisely Moroccan elites and foreigners, asserted that
Moroccans do not care about heritage and do not have any heritage skill. In their view, most
Moroccans do not even know what heritage is.38 I then reproduce this distinction between
Moroccans and foreigners while I put their definition and approach of heritage in perspective in the
following section with the specific example of houses. One shouldn't think that all Moroccans or all
foreigners have similar definitions of heritage and constitute a homogeneous category.
2.3.4.1. "Moroccans" and heritage
In a study dedicated to the attitudes, perceptions and knowledge that Moroccans have of
their heritage, Bouziane, el Maliki and Hakik (2010) underline two drawbacks in the study of
heritage in Morocco. On the one hand, heritage is first and foremost a private good in Morocco –
what belongs to familial ancestors – before being a public one. Public heritage, what a nation – and
not a family – passes on from generation to generation, is a recent notion. Heritage was born during
the Protectorate period and Moroccans discovered the heritage quality of things in comparison and
in competition with modern, new and industrial items. Meriem, a young Moroccan architect,
underlined this lack of awareness. "I think that few people are aware, or more precisely know what
it [i.e. heritage] is. I'm an architect, I know what it represents, what it means. But people who are
not familiar with this profession, I wonder if they are really aware of it. I think that when we speak
of turāth [i.e. heritage] here in Morocco, we speak first of all of immaterial heritage. For instance,
turāth lmusiqi [i.e. musical heritage] is often performed in TV shows. People hear about music
There is no essential or natural difference between Moroccans and foreigners. Following Descola (2011), one could
say that they have different schemes of transcription and distinction in their experience of reality and then favour such
or such kind of relation to the world. I distinguish them in this section while I underline similar practices of
transcription, qualification and distinction in the section 5.
38
47
bands, Amazigh music, Andalus music. There is the Sacred Music Festival in Fez. We also speak of
kaftan [i.e. traditional dress], taqāfa maghribiya [i.e. Moroccan culture], or mint tea. And people do
not especially associate them with the medina, because they have all of this at home, in the New
City."
The second drawback consists in the fact that there is no single word in Moroccan Arabic to
talk about heritage. In Fez, informants used several words. Warth is a Moroccan word for
"inheritance," what parents pass on to their children. To talk about public heritage, Moroccans use
classical Arabic terms, turāth and āthar. Āthar is "an historical monument. An historical monument
is something linked to the government. And we cannot buy it. We cannot undertake works in it. And
it is old, very old. […] Because āthar, it is things we do not use, that we only see but do not use.
Like Volubilis, we do not use it because we are not going to live in Volubilis. And pyramids, they
are āthar. We visit and we see" (Nordin, Moroccan guest-house employee).
Turāth on the other hand points to the material and immaterial objects handed down by the
forefathers, most of the time connected to religion (din) or traditions (taqālīd). It is, still according
to Nordin, "all what the grandfathers left, and we have to keep them. We call it turāth. If the grandfathers left respect, respect is heritage. There is turāth when we speak of sentimental things. For
instance mosques, the flag of Morocco, are turāth. Also, when we arrived [i.e. were born], we found
them. We did not experience their beginning. This is why we say turāth. The grandfathers lived its
beginning, not us. […] A house in the medina is turāth, a sūq [i.e. market] is turāth. Because they
do not change, they remain like they were at the beginning." Hamid, a shopkeeper, distinguished
turāth (i.e. cultural heritage) and taqālīd (i.e. traditions, way of life). In his shop, he sells turāth,
that is to say "old jellaba,39 old Haïq,40 old capes. They were made in the 1910s, 1920s, 1930s.
They are old." A jabador41 made a week earlier is "a copy. It is not turāth, it is taqālīd. You find the
same things than the old ones, but it is not made by hand. And it is not the same material. And it is
not the same price."
Given these drawbacks, Bouziane, el Maliki and Hakik (2010) show that the interest of
inhabitants in heritage relies on the kind of heritage (tangible and intangible), the proximity to
heritage (to live close to a site or far away in the countryside), and the person's characteristics
(urban or rural, literate or illiterate, man or woman).
39 Long dress with short or long sleeves and a hat, worn by men and women in North Africa.
40 White veil or mask in lace covering the bottom of the face of women in North Africa.
41 Large pants and assorted shirt.
48
2.3.4.1.1. Tangible heritage
Among monuments and buildings, Moroccan informants mostly cited the Qaraouiyine
mosque and its university, Bab Boujloud, the city walls, the Moulay Idriss shrine, some madrasa
(i.e. Koranic schools) such as the Bouanania, and the tanneries. Informants mentioned these
monuments with pride. As Fettah, a Moroccan guest-house owner, put it, their architecture reflects
the culture of Morocco and makes the medina unique and exceptional in the world. Monuments
reflect a long and glorious past, they characterise their Fassi origins, and they are predominantly
religious buildings. According to Abdu, another Moroccan guest-house owner, Fez is a heritage
because "there is no second Fez in the world. Fez is unique. It is the jewel of the Arab world. It is
the Islamic centre of the Muslim world. We could speak of Fez for days and nights." Emotions,
spirituality and identity mix in the relationship that Moroccans develop with these monuments and
buildings. Other monuments are linked to a bygone past. For instance, Omar defined the entire old
medina and parts of the Ville Nouvelle built by the French as heritage because nobody builds
buildings such as, for instance, the Moulay Idriss shrine, anymore.
Moroccans generally perceived houses positively whatever their state of decay. Jawad, a
Moroccan inhabitant, stated that traditional and old houses are more beautiful and bigger than new
ones. Nordin, a Moroccan guest-house employee, asserted that some houses may be heritage,
"houses āthar, that is to say houses that are difficult to correct the situation inside [i.e. to restore],
houses that are about to collapse. People feel the danger and leave. And the house is like an
historical monument." Many Moroccans are not eager to live in these houses. During our
interviews, they linked houses with negative perceptions as soon as they talked of daily life. They
complained about the state of decay, the cost of the maintenance work, and the pains of housework.
According to Omar, a Moroccan guest-house employee, Moroccans do not consider a piece of zelij
(i.e. mosaic) as heritage because "they have it in front of their eyes everyday." As a consequence, it
has no value for them and it is normal they decide to replace traditional mosaic by industrial tiles
that change from those they are used to. Omar emphasised that this change is not so radical because
industrial tiles reproduce the mosaic patterns.
Informants spoke of movable properties in terms of tradition, culture and age rather than in
terms of heritage. Antique dealers collect antique and ancient objects and sell them to foreigners,
but also to Moroccans owning a business – restaurant or tourist accommodation – and the few
Moroccans living in the New City interested in antiquities. Some foreigners criticised antique
dealers as being thieves stealing from empty houses but many of them praised the knowledge of
their favourite antique dealer. Similarly to some bazaar keepers (Cauvin-Verner, 2006), antique
49
dealers can tell amazing stories about one particular object, about its origin, its use, or its technique
of fabrication. They nonetheless prefer selling objects at "a good price" in the clients' view instead
of selling it at "its real price." In other words, they would rather keep their clientele than increase
the price of things to their proper market value.
Few Moroccan informants mentioned movable property located in their house or in
museums as being heritage. In fact, few of them had ever visited any museum in Fez or elsewhere.
They know the Batah museum (the town museum), the Neijjarine museum (museum of wood), and
to a lesser extend the North Borj museum (museum of weapons). To them, only items they do not
use anymore deserve to be displayed in a museum. Aziz, a Moroccan manager in a guest-house,
described lqa, small squared cushions "of 50 cm by 50 cm. We put them in a corner of the salon,
directly on the ground. And there were the big carpets with cushions here and there. People liked
sitting on the cushions, like this, on the ground, with the plate to make tea." The banquette has now
replaced cushions. Moroccan inhabitants also mentioned what their parents passed on to them, such
as Moroccan banquettes or jewels.
Clothes were of particular interest. Moroccan inhabitants cited jellaba, babuch (i.e. shoes),
serual (i.e. pants with a low crutch close to the knees worn by man), jabador and tarbuch (i.e. red
hat in felt) as specifically Moroccan clothes. They also described which clothes to wear for
particular rituals such as the Friday prayer, weddings, funerals or the ‘aïd el Kebir (i.e. Feast of the
Sacrifice). For instance, a kaftan (i.e. traditional dress) is a must to wear to attend weddings, and
many shops – mainly located in a specific street – are devoted to kaftan renting. Also, the bride has
to wear five or six different dresses during the public evening of her wedding. Clothes were also at
the core of debates. Informants discussed the legitimacy of hanging up a kaftan on the wall as a
decorative item (cf. infra p. 147). Moroccan inhabitants also commented on women' scarves.
According to Aziz, a Moroccan tourist guide, in the past, women wore a litham (i.e. a veil hiding
the inferior part of women's face) while another veil covered the head and hair. Nowadays, women
wear an Oriental scarf, and even sometimes a niqab (i.e. integral veil) even though these are not
typically Moroccan. Moroccans, men and women, had their specific clothes, which respected
religious principles but were also "moroccanised."
2.3.4.1.2. Intangible heritage
Many Moroccans mentioned what has changed in the medina, which mainly concerns the
way of life. Informants linked this way of life to the Merinid period when, in the 15th century,
"[t]housands of families took to the sea. In their retreat, these families came to fill our history, to
50
revive our culture, to alleviate our habits, to embellish our cities, to dress our rituals with tolerance
and our every-day life with well-being. […] This micro-civilisation was born from the encounter
between Kairouan and Andalus on an Arab-Berber field. It remains today only as a way of life, an
ill-assorted culture and traditions 'à vau l'eau' among an elite walking for fortune beyond Fez. […]
It [i.e. the micro-civilisation] is over now. It is ruined because of the rural depopulation, and the
lack of education. […] It is priceless, but it has disappeared" (Berrada, 2000: 65, my translation). As
Abdelhay did, Moroccan inhabitants compared their heritage to the former empire of Al-Andalus,
the Cordoba mosque and the Alhambra in particular. Laïla, a Moroccan architect, rather connected
the way of life with the Fassi bourgeoisie. "There is the bourgeois aspect of Fassi who are very
proud of their culture. Fassi are famous for being refined, be it in their cuisine or in their clothing. It
is a long-time reputation, which was legitimate at a certain period of time, but which is less so now.
But it remained because of the history of Fez. Now, Fassis content themselves with this past glory.
And somehow, they are proud of it."
Be it bourgeois or Andalus, this way of life has disappeared and many informants asserted
that "things were better before." Electricity, neon lights and satellite dishes appeared in each house.
As Sefroui (2006 [1954]: 234, my translation) writes, "our time is weirder and weirder. Nowadays
young women are not like those of yesterday anymore. They lack reserve, they do not know about
the sense of modesty. They ignore their modesty to obtain a temporary satisfaction. They prefer
marrying young men without a brain they can rule just as they want." The past medina is then
described as a place of mutual respect among ages, social classes, and populations; as a peaceful
place full of spirituality where everybody went to the mosque on Fridays and wore their best white
clothes and yellow shoes. Healthy inhabitants had donkeys and porters for their journeys in the
medina. Many families had pigeons. Amal, a Moroccan landlady, explained that "breeding pigeons
on the rooftop was a characteristic of Fassi houses. Before, in every big house, children had this
passion. They liked breeding pigeons, exchanging them with neighbours. They liked the song of
pigeons in the morning. Because pigeons, if you open their birdcage, they are free, but they come
back in the evening. It is not like other birds. And pigeons like the people who breed them."
Some Moroccans evoked senses in the description of these changes. Jawad regretted the
gushing water in the streets from the fountain in the house to the fountains in the streets and
mosques, passing by the open-air piping in the streets.42 "When I was a child, there were fountains
42 Water is a striking and recurring element in discourses about the medina. Rachid, a Moroccan architect, gave an
overview of this association between water and the medina. "Water preceded the foundation of Fez, was important in its
development, and is a modern day problem. The entire city is governed by water." He firstly underlined the location of
the medina in a gap between the Saïss plain and the Sebou valley, the only way for water to go down from the Atlas
Mountains. This hilly area is rich in water springs, water seepage, and ground water. Fez, or the city that never lacks
water. Secondly, Rachid mentioned water is present in the fountains one may find in the streets, houses and religious
51
everywhere in the medina. But some times ago, the RADEEF43 said they had no money anymore,
and they cut the fountains. […] Now, there are no more fountains with running water, except two in
the Talaa [i.e. one main street]. And Neijjarine [square]. These are the only ones remaining."
Mohammed, a Moroccan inhabitant, said that sqaqi (i.e. mural fountains) were provided with lma
beldiya (i.e. traditional water) from l’ayoun, tabi’i (i.e. fresh and pure water). But now, it is water
from the State (dula). Jawad also cited sirens announcing the end of the fast day during Ramadan. A
canon fire nowadays replaces them. According to Jawad, this canon fire is less efficient, as not
everybody can hear it in the heart of the medina, by contrast to the sirens. Some Moroccans also
evoked the possibility of walking in the medina blindfolded and of finding their way thanks to
smells and sounds.
The changes also relate to respect and security. Aziz, a Moroccan guest-house manager,
explained that, "in the 1940s and 1950s, the doors of houses were never closed. They were open all
the time. And the garbage man came with his donkey, he entered the house, at 3 or 4 in the morning,
took the rubbish and left. But it is not usual anymore to leave the door open, even during the day"
because "there is no security at all" and even the neighbours steal. "Sometimes, during the day, one
can see people on the roofs stealing a bicycle or a television." In terms of security precisely, in the
past, the doors of the neighbourhoods and the medina were closed every evening. In
neighbourhoods, "the biyat [i.e. guardians] closed in the evening and pushed the latch to open only
to those whose voice he recognised and whose name he remembered. Monumental wooden doors at
each opening in the city wall stalled the city to stabilise it from outside and forbade foreigners to
disturb its intimacy at night" (Berrada, 2000: 66, my translation).
Jawad, a Moroccan inhabitant, explained that under the colonial rule, peasants didn't have
the right to live in the medina. After the 1957 Independence, they arrived in great numbers and after
a while, there were not enough jobs left for them. As a consequence, those peasants "sit in the street
buildings. "You have to know that under the Merinid dynasty, the medina was provided with three kinds of water
circuits: the water from the oued (river) for domestic tasks, spring water to drink, and a sewage disposal. And each
house was connected to three circuits." This water system explains why people throw their rubbish close to fountains in
the medina when there is no more water. "In their unconscious mind, the fountain, even if it doesn't work, its water will
take rubbish away." Thirdly, Rachid linked the urban planning and the water network, for agricultural exploitations
oriented the urban development. According to a quite famous hypothesis, the road network follows the former irrigation
channels bringing water to the gardens and orchards located on the hill sides. The street network replaced the hydraulic
system. The main streets, Talaa Kbira and Talaa Sghera, are located on the former main rivers, while the smaller and
smaller streets match with the smaller and smaller diversions. "That's why there is no straight street in the medina."
Houses replaced the plots of land. "The medina was built little by little, by capillarity, and without planning. " Finally,
water constitutes a main topic in Fez, because of its scarcity and its lower quality. A recent documentary, "Hidden
waters" by Joe Lukawski, tackles some issues such as the lack of water in public fountain cut, pollution and the building
of a wastewater treatment plant. Also, several academic researches have been made (Ameur, 1987; Fejjal, 1991; Naciri,
2002). Madani (2003) dedicated a part of his Ph. D. dissertation to the medieval hydraulic system in Fez, and one part
of the 1980 Master Plan was dedicated to water and hydrology in Fez.
43 Régie Autonome Intercommunale de Distribution d’Eau et d’Electricité de Fès – Inter-communal and Autonomous
Public Company for the Distribution of Water and Electricity in Fez.
52
the entire day" drinking (tea and alcohol), smoking (cigarette and hashish), looking at people, and
they create a feeling of insecurity.44 Jawad worked as a waiter in Boujloud, a neighbourhood located
on the top of the medina, and lived in Zkak Rouah, a street located in the centre of the medina. He
was sometimes afraid – and his mother even more so – when he had to come back at night. In many
families, women did not move in the medina without a man or a group of women and children in
the evening. In Moroccan discourses, the medina was safer before. Jawad also mentioned the arrival
of satellite dishes in the medina landscape. He concluded, "a long time ago, it wasn't like now.
There was charm in the medina. You couldn't see people fighting in the street. It was Hchouma [i.e.
shameful]." According to him, "it was better before." More than the disappearance of things, he
deplored the fact that the qaïda (i.e. rules) are not respected anymore.
The medina has however not completely changed, and what remains from its olden way of
life is part of heritage. According to Abdelhay, a Moroccan inhabitant, the way of life makes the
tradition of the medina. "Fez succeeded in what other cities couldn’t. Come on, the medina
managed to keep a lot of its traditions and habits. Although it is open, it is as the same time a bit
enclosed on itself. So we managed to keep a lot of things [such as] this proximity between people in
the medina, be it in houses, in neighbourhoods, in shops. There is this proximity that gives life to
the medina. There is human warmth in the medina." As such, the medina is still a lively place. Lotfi,
a Moroccan who grew up in the medina but now lives in the New City, declared: "when I think of
the medina, I think of the vivacity and liveliness in the old medina. I do not see houses, I do not see
the city walls, I see people going for their shopping. To me, there is heritage as long as there is
liveliness, people who go and come. Heritage is the presence of human beings and not what they
have built. […] When I go to the old medina, I meet a lot of people. And people stop you in the
street to give you a date or a fig even if they don't know you. And this is heritage."
Food and music constitute specific categories of heritage because of their liveliness.
Moroccans still consider tajine,45 couscous, and bastila 46 as part of their daily life. These traditional
44 Ahmed, a Moroccan guest-house owner, had a striking discourse about security whose disappearing equates to the
disappearance of human values. "When I say we, it is me as a Fassi Moroccan. I was born here, in this city. I know this
city as it was, I know how people behaved. I remember the respect in our society and behaviours. […] We started to lose
it more and more, because the rural exodus, people came to Fez, and occupied it, they were like Apache. […] We lived
in a difficult system, as authorities had the control over life and the city. Authorities were really present. Family was in
charge of education, school was in charge of education, authorities were in charge of education, but with the truncheon.
People walking in the medina with swords in their back, they couldn't have done this in the 1980's, 1990's during
Hassan II reign with the Minister of Interior, Basri. We have suffered from whatever is this concept of Human Rights.
We do not have it. This culture is not ready to practise Human Rights. It is as if you asked a man wearing 56 to wear a
42 T-shirt. But with the implementation of Human Rights, I think human values are vanishing. Authorities were doing
their job, but now it is a period of resignation: resignation of school, resignation of parents, and resignation of
authorities. They are looking at what's going on, but they don't move. They have the human rights stick; they have the
Human Right associations. […] Insecurity we suffer in Fez, it is not only in Fez but everywhere. It is a social insecurity,
established by Human Rights, because people are not afraid anymore."
45 Dish with stewed vegetables and meat.
53
dishes do not especially suffer from disappearance, except specific recipes and family secrets.
Festivals, such as the culinary festival in Fez, and TV programmes, the Choumicha daily show for
instance, rather promote the diversity and creativity of food than fight against its disappearance. To
have an idea of cultural heritage in present day Morocco, Aziz, a Moroccan tourist guide, advised
me to watch TV rather than to read books.
In the musical realm, many festivals flourished during the last decade, promoting one kind
of traditional music. Among others, we find the Gnawa festival in Essaouira, the Andalus Music
Festival and the Sacred Music Festival in Fez. Issawa and other Sufi brotherhoods have left their
private dhikr (i.e. evocation and repetition of the name of Allah) to give public performances. For
instance, the Hamadcha brotherhood of Fez has its own website (http://www.hamadcha-fez.com/),
performs Sufi music and fairy evenings (during which musicians combine the telling of fairy tales
and music) in ryad, shot a movie in 2010, participates in various festivals and meetings, and
recorded audio CDs. One member wrote in the website (my translation) that "Morocco faces a
process of globalisation which reduces traditional practices to the benefit of behaviours and
activities from the West. In this context, brotherhoods such as the Hamadcha, have less and less
space to express themselves, and they lose a bit more of their audience every day. Paradoxically, the
news networks of tourism and shows (television, festivals), resulting themselves from the
modernisation of Morocco, offer new spaces of expression and performance. In this context, the
framework of their ceremonies has changed, but these new opportunities allow them to exist, to be
paid for their music and to preserve their ancestral and amazing practices."
Moroccans mainly saw heritage when the item was old (qdim), beautiful (zuin), not used
anymore in the case of āthar or still alive in the case of turāth and taqālīd, owned by the
government (Habous), remaining the same (continuity), bygone or disappearing ("it was better
before"), exceptional or unique, and representing the Moroccan identity and roots.
2.3.4.2. "Foreigners" and heritage
Me: How do you define cultural heritage?
Gigi: "I would say it is what you find in only one country. It is part of this
country; it is typical of this country. Heritage, it is buildings, culture too, for
instance works of art. Heritage is authentic anyway, but it is not obligatory
typical. Heritage may be inspired from another source. Here, you have the
46 Hot
puff pastry filled with pigeons, almonds, onions and raisins.
54
Arab-Andalus style, coming also from Spain."
Me: But you said heritage is typical of a country.
Gigi: "You find it only here. Because even if the Fassi style is from an Andalus
inspiration, it was adapted to the needs of the country. And this is heritage. It is
authentic in a way, but not original. It is not typical. Typical means you find it only
there. For instance, you see, round huts, it is typical of Africa. After, I don't know,
in Asian countries, I find they have mainly square houses, or rectangular on stilts.
But the round hut, it is a typically African style."
Me: So, if I say Moroccan heritage…
Gigi: "I see the Hassan tower in Rabat. It is typical, traditional. No, not traditional, there are
no towers. It is not a country of towers. They have minarets and defensive towers, but no
monolithic tower as such. And the Great Mosque of Casa. It is also heritage, it is
architecturally well proportioned. It is beautiful and it is well located. And heritage is also
the kasbah, and Fassi houses. But heritage, it is more refined, more cultural I would say. But
heritage may also be... I think the word doesn't only admit a cultural or artistic aspect.
Heritage, it is also the population, cattle, agriculture. It belongs to heritage."
Bossuet (2005), in his study of a French medieval village, stresses that newcomers usually
settle there because of the living environment. This environment attracts people who had no former
link with the village or the heritage of the region. For instance, Benoit, a French guest-house owner,
appreciated Fez for its liveliness. "If the medina wasn't this set of such old houses, well, it would
have no interest. Four monuments are not enough to constitute the soul of a city, and of a medina. I
like Fez because it is not an empty shell, people are still living here. Not like Marrakech. Remove
the sūq [i.e. market] in Marrakech, remove all the guest-houses and I wonder what remains."
More generally, the medina reminds foreigners the past way of life in Europe. Gigi took the
example of religion that is still important in the everyday life of Moroccans. She compared it to
what she had experienced in France when she was a child going to church every Sunday and
noticing religious habits in everyday gestures. Jean-Marc, a French guest-house owner, asserted, "it
is the only medieval city of such proportions and so well preserved in North Africa. We can find
traces of the past everywhere. And the way of life has hardly changed." At the same time, he said
that "nothing is simple in the medina. When you come back from the supermarket, you have to walk
500 metres or more with the shopping bags. It is a different logistic. But that's why it is so charming
here." Foreigners associated images of a former way of life with the medieval aspect of the medina
– no cars in the medina, presence of work guilds and corporations, deep spirituality, human warmth.
55
They shared this image of immutability even if postcards, paintings and discourses prove the
medina has changed a lot since the early 20th century.47 For instance, Simon, a French guest-house
owner, declared there was no house on the hill facing his house ten years ago and numerous
foreigners and Moroccans mentioned the improvement of the water and electricity supplies.
As a consequence, foreigners relate heritage to a certain kind of exoticism in time and space
rather than to a remote past that their ancestors experienced. To foreigners, houses constitute an
element of heritage because they represent the Arab-Andalus style that does not exist in Europe. As
Kate, an American guest-house owner, explained, "here [i.e. in my house], things have not passed
down that many generations, because it is a young house. But the features of Moroccan or Islamic
architecture are all here." To recognise it, foreigners compared heritage in Fez with other kinds of
heritage they know – Lascaux in France or the Egyptian pyramids – and to their perception of the
environment. As Sarah, a French resident, declared, "I think I feel more the fact of living in a
heritage here than in France. It is because of our knowledge. We know this city was founded so
many years ago, so many centuries ago and traditions are still perpetuated, perpetrated, what is
correct? Perpetuated in this city. You see the muleteer with the small cart. I think we are more
sensitive to this heritage in everyday life."
Foreigners connected this Moroccan heritage to several features and values, such as the
identity of Morocco, and Fez, the specificity and the uniqueness of its heritage. As Gigi, a French
guest-house manager, voiced, "there is so much refinement, so much work. The contrast with Africa
is so clear! When you come from Europe, you are used to visiting museums, to seeing works of art.
You know what a culture is. In Black Africa, culture is very light. It is a very poor culture, what
Chirac called primitive art. It is sober, it is simple. It doesn't mean it is ugly, but it is limited. While
here, you have mathematics at the basis of almost everything. You have writing. You have sculpture
and carving on wood, plaster, copper, bronze and so on. It is a huge wealth."
In American guest-house owner Kate's view, heritage is "where you come from. So it is your
values, your cuisine and everything that defines you as a nation, as a tribe, as a group. It is how you
define yourself and what you decide to pass on from generation to generation." Philippe, a French
art historian managing a property agency in Fez, underlined the specificity of Fassi heritage. "The
city of Fez is characterised by its architectural and geographical landscape, this bowl, these walls,
these mausoleums. This city is full of holy places that emit something. In my opinion, there are
vibrations in this city one cannot find anywhere else. And heritage is part of this. It is anchored in
the city." He also raised the property issue. "Even if we [i.e. foreigners] buy houses here, this
heritage remains Moroccan, even if we try to posses it. I mean we do not master it, really, we do not
47 Cf.
appendix p. 326.
56
own it. Do you understand what I mean? Heritage remains, and we are only passing by. And even if
we furnish and restore the house, it doesn't belong to us. It belongs to Morocco, its culture, its
history, its time."
Foreigners also associated heritage with history and traces of the past. In a French guesthouse owner’s view, "heritage speaks of history. An element of heritage is something that tells a
story." David, an American resident, gave specific attention to the patina of things and wondered
about which former state the house should be restored to. Emma, an Australian guest-house owner,
declared that she loved "around Seffarine square. And particularly you go around the back, and you
see the guys shaping the knifes and using the wheel with their foot. The places where they're doing
everything just like they were doing centuries ago." In its more intangible aspect, heritage is,
according to Emma, "something that shows the way of life of the people, from centuries ago. […]
And for me, that's like a cultural heritage, because that has been the way the women made the meal,
grinding the spices for couscous or tajine. And I know that is a very simple thing, but for me, it is
how they live their life." As such according to Ruth, a German guest-house owner, heritage is
"hidden. I would say cultural heritage is in the memory, in the soul, in the heart, sometimes in the
actions of people."
Other foreigners insisted on transmission. According to Philippe, the French art historian, "it
is important for this heritage to last, because I think we cannot live, and we cannot go ahead without
roots. I travel a lot, but I do not travel without roots, I know where I come from. I think if we cut
somebody off from his roots, like a tree, he dies. It is the same if we cut a city from its past, its
history. If Fassi living in the New City do not know where they come from, in my opinion,
something is missing in their balance, in their life. And I think this past is important because of that,
for stability, and to go ahead in the future. In order to project oneself, it is important to know where
we come from. One has to know this city was important, was a capital, and one has to be proud of
it." As a consequence, "there is also the need to restore people's minds. You have to do so, otherwise
it [i.e. preservation] is only drops on a warm ground" Ruth whispered me.
In the view of many foreigners, transmission and Moroccan heritage link to religion. On the
one hand, they spoke of the atmosphere in the medina, distinct from the built heritage. Jean-Pierre, a
French guest-house owner, explained, "you have various kinds of heritage. You have the spiritual
heritage, which is impossible to hide: madrasa [i.e. Koranic school], the Qaraouiyine mosque, and
even the spirit of the medina. […] I feel the spirituality of the medina. And we are numerous to
think like this. You feel an atmosphere in the medina. You feel that it is a believer environment, that
there is something, a soul. And you see it physically with the built aspect [of heritage]: doors,
houses in the medina."
57
On the other hand, many foreigners took the Sacred Music Festival as an example of a
heritage event in Fez to spot the transmission through generations. As Philippe explained, "the
Sacred Music Festival is held in Fez because it is a holy and sacred city. And now, it is part of the
city heritage. But well, Arab-Andalus music specific to the North and Fez lives without this festival.
[…] The Arab-Andalus music has existed for centuries without this festival. And Moroccans
appreciate it. They listen to it in specific places. People are totally passionate about what they are
listening to, and they live this music. And it is a perfect music for the city of Fez. It is a refined
music for a refined audience. It is not gnawa music48 for instance. It is in no way similar. […]
People continue to attend to performances, which are more frequent than we thought, and this music
does not need tourists and guides. So it is a heritage, like architecture, that is old and that lasts,
beyond festivals, activities, concerts here and there from time to time."
In this context of transmission, foreigners presented crafts and skills as disappearing. They
complained about the difficulty of finding skilled workers, they were affected in front of an old
piece of mosaic or wood, they were shocked by the destruction of buildings or architectural
decoration. As Kate, an American guest-house owner, put it, "craft is dying. It is hard to find skilled
people. Those things are disappearing. Zelij [i.e. mosaic] is very difficult to find... Can you see the
zelij there? It is damaged. If you see the part above it, the work is so fine, so fine. I interviewed I
don't know, maybe 16 zelligi [i.e. tillers], and said 'Can you recreate this work with the same
quality?' [They answered] 'No. These skills don't exist anymore, they died with my grandfather.'
They've lost the skill, and it is impossible to get it back." This diminution of know-how is due,
according to French guest-house manager Gigi, to a "loss of knowledge. It is also expensive to
make, so they make it simple. And people do not know the meaning, some said 'Oh no, I do not like,
I remove it and let's do something else.' So, something is lost, a pattern that had existed but won't be
reproduced." Workers lost skills, but also the meaning of what they reproduce. "At first, they [i.e.
workers] wanted to represent the cosmos. But later, it has been lost. Nowadays, it is only empirical.
Workers do something because their forerunners made it, but the meaning behind it has been lost."
Some foreigners insisted on affects linked to heritage. Jean-Marc, a French guest-house
owner, declared himself to be very critical of heritage in Fez, because "we are critical when we love
something, when we value it. Otherwise, we are indifferent." As such, he urged his guests to visit
the Glaoui and Mokri palaces before they definitively close, he complained about the impossibility
of visiting the Dar Ba Mohammed Chergui (another palace) anymore. David, an American resident,
didn’t hide his disappointment with both the aborted actions he initiated in the medina and the way
Moroccan music performed by the brotherhood of Gnawa in the South of Morocco. Essaouira hosts a famous festival
of gnawa music.
48
58
foreigners baldy behave and inaccurately restore houses.
Finally, few foreigners admitted they used the word "heritage." Amélie, a French guesthouse owner, declared she used the word "maybe when I speak with clients, but I'm not aware of it.
It is possible I evoke it. I'm not sure. Maybe to introduce the medina, I say of it that it is an
incredible heritage. Maybe when people ask me why I live in the medina of Fez, I answer it is a
heritage of a rare density. Maybe at that moment I use it as a general term to present Fez." On the
other hand, Frederica, a Spanish resident, had thought of her use of heritage. "Heritage is something
abstract. I think it is an imported word. For instance, in our association, when you fill up a form to
propose a project, even if you think about the real needs of people, you have to sell it in a different
way, with words such as empowerment, heritage, and sustainable development. There is on one side
the association that works with the real needs of people. And I'm on the other side, writing reports
with big words. In Chaouen [i.e. Chefchaouen, a city in the north] for instance, they propose trips in
the natural environment. And when I write the report, I say they learn the natural heritage of the
region."
Foreigners took for granted the cultural and spiritual aspect of the medina. They first and
foremost saw exoticism in heritage, with the meaning of what is unusual in time and space. Heritage
is what is remote in time – but not linked to their ancestors' past –, what doesn't exist in the West but
is still lively in Morocco, yet is disappearing. In this context, specificity and uniqueness,
representativeness of architectural features, identity and roots, continuity in history and
transmission, tradition and authenticity are among the values they underlined to define heritage.
They also stressed the importance of knowledge in their appraisal of Moroccan heritage, and they
sometimes put to the fore their affective link with heritage.
2.3.4.3. Members of institutions and heritage
"I asked myself whether the Old City might have inwardly changed during
the twenty-five years that I had been away from it. It still looked the same as
before: ancient, weather-beaten, withdrawn inside its walls. […] Fez had
once been familiar to me, well known and yet full of inexhaustible secrets. In
it I had experienced another world and another age, a world of the Middle
Ages such as perhaps now no longer existed, an austere yet enticing world,
outwardly poor but inwardly rich."
Burckhardt (1992: 3-4)
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Hassan is a member of the Inspection of Historical Monuments. Heritage is at the core of his
daily work and really matters to him. He gave weight to definitions and categories of heritage. For
instance, he distinguished tangible and intangible heritage in the medina. "When we speak of
cultural heritage, we also speak of immaterial heritage, which is in our behaviour, in our way of
talking. I wouldn't say in our way of life, it is a bit wider, a little more complicated. Cultural
heritage is inside us in its immaterial aspect, but on the field in its material aspect, visible, tangible.
Intangible heritage is inside us. It is also found in music and social practices, arts and traditions.
Material is mostly buildings. And natural heritage is something different." Contrary to specific
categories, a member of the UNESCO office in Rabat explained that "there are the definitions of
UNESCO, established during the Mexico meeting. But in general, it is an intellectual, scientific,
cultural product, a work of human genius."
Catherine, a French architect working for the Millenium Challenge Corporation project,
explained why funduk (i.e. caravanserai) in Fez constitute an element of heritage. "We speak of
material heritage. It is the building itself, with its decoration, and its architecture, that composes a
historical monument, a vector in the transmission of memory. In fact, it is the vector of a
constructive memory because it is a building and of a functional memory with these craft traditions
it hosts. We can say that both are linked in this structure: at the same time transmission of the
memory of a practice, and the architectural, decorative and constructive memory. […] Their beauty,
their authenticity, the fact that there a few changes in reality make of funduk a heritage. These
buildings come from as such from the past. And I think old age is an important value. And the fact
they include old materials, all this know-how, this work."
Catherine spotted a second main feature of heritage, namely "the fact they [i.e. funduk] are
located in a traditional environment. They link to their surrounding; they relate to this
environment." A National School of Architecture (henceforth ENA) Facebook friend49 underlined
the importance of this environment. "The 'nzaha' [i.e. picnic outside the city walls] still exists
because/thanks to – according to anyone's view – the urban shape of the medina. People [i.e. rural
migrants] didn't receive this practice from their ancestors, as they didn't live in the medina. But this
practice is transmitted by the confined, cramped and labyrinthine space where they came to live,
yielded by the need for open space, by the scarcity (if not absence) of spaces dedicated to leisure in
the medina."
Catherine finally insisted on the fact that "time and detachment are needed to consider a
building as a heritage. Except that now, we consider there is a 20th century heritage, and we are in
Among informants were Facebook friends of the National School of Architecture Facebook page
(http://www.facebook.com/ArchitectureMaroc). These friends were mainly students in architecture, architects, and
individuals involved in construction or interior decoration, in Morocco or abroad.
49
60
the 21th century. So that in 10 years time, we can consider a building is a heritage." As such,
members of institutions and others professionals take the colonial heritage into account. Hassan
asserted that heritage may also include "constructions from the early 20th century that we have to
consider as heritage. I give as examples of this colonial architecture between quotation marks, the
Banque du Maroc, the cinema Bijou, the cinema Empire, the Central Post Office. They are part of
the Moroccan heritage." The whole Fez "is a fortune, a treasure."
Pic. 5. Buildings of the Central Post Office (above) and the Banque du Maroc in the New City.
Credit: M. Istasse
Some informants compared the medina to a body. Rachid, a Moroccan architect, stated that
"the medina is heritage, the entire medina. You can take a house, alone. Maybe it is a heritage. But
the strength of the medina is the 14.000 houses. What makes it a heritage is what I described, its
architecture, its road network, this interlocking that results in several characteristics such as the
61
pedestrian area, the density of population, the homogeneity of the urban environment. Do you
understand? The entirety makes the heritage. Problems occur when we remove a house, because it is
like a human body. If I prick your finger, all your body reacts. This is how I understand things."
In the ENA Facebook pages, Facebook friends wrote general remarks about a bygone past –
"these neighbourhoods remind us of the great dynasties and the ancient art" – and compared it to
"our lost Andalus, the Cordoba mosque, the Alhambra Alcazar in Sevilla." Facebook friends also
evoked familial heritage – commenting on a picture: "look, it is our familial cemetery. In the
foreground is the dome of my great-grandfather" – and about decay. Tayyibi, the ENA Fez director,
even made a state of heritage malfunctioning in one picture album. "1. a rich built heritage but in
continuous decay and threatening ruin; 2. loss of knowledge and know-how related to traditional
materials and building techniques; 3. stakeholders not skilled for advice, help and expertise; 4.
absence of preventive preservation; 5. arts of building and architectures internationally recognised
but insufficiently documented." More than history, they evoked memory and identity. They stressed
reasons "to be proud to belong to a country having such a wonderful heritage." In this context,
"identity matters, especially for those who follow blindly the culture of the other and do not do
enough of their own or do not try to understand the links that made the relationships between
civilisations. What matters after all is to take the necessary measures to protect our heritage (and not
authenticity) that witnesses our past (in its glorious as well as inglorious time)."
Finally, some professionals spoke of heritage in affective terms. Hassan recalled his
childhood in the medina and declared being nostalgic for that time. Also, he expressed fear about
the medina being listed on the World Heritage in Danger List. The few UNESCO employees I met
in Paris and Rabat mentioned the beauty, the charm and the magic of this bewitching medina.
Mohammed Berrada (1986: 36-37, my translation), a university teacher, wrote in the journal
Lamalif, "I go down in the street crowd, amazed as if it was the first time I visited you, as if my
childhood was not confined in your folds. Where does this amazement come from which I thought
my experience and scenes of travel and migration would have taken from me? Voices, shouts, looks
go together well. That's how I read the faces that reappeared to me through the intimate deposit that
memories blended with my deep being. […] Dense space, aged time by traditions and the presence
of spoken memory... Although several aspects reveal that the image of Fez has changed: anxiety in
the eyes, unavoidable misery for the eye, and numerous beggars. Near the Qaraouiyine, the sūq
dlala [i.e. market dlala]reveals the medina secret: misery and destitution. […] Fortunately, Fez, the
real one, is in our hearts. In the past, when springtime arrived, we closed the shops and went for the
nzaha [i.e. picnic] in the gardens and orchards surrounding the city. But go and look at how they
62
cleared to build houses, carboard... Work was real and pleasure was an orgasm. The malhun,50 ô my
lord, and the Andalus, the gnawa and aissawa evenings... […] Wandering in the streets of my
childhood city, my feet do not get tired... Did I want to give my soul the illusion I could possess it?
'Fez, Fez, the memory similar to the woman we love and we cannot possess as such because we
love her... So we enter in the game of eternal love, the pursuit of dancing and fleeing shadows.
Slowly, we sink in its chaos.' This is what I thought when leaving the old medina."
Aside from the importance of definitions and categories, members of institutions referred to
identity and memory, the anchorage in a specific environment, authenticity, beauty, the need to take
distance and to consider the medina in its entirety, transmission, values to preserve, familial
heritage, continuity in time, decay and disappearance. They also compared heritage to Andalusia
and the medina to a living body.
Several remarks emerge from this overview of various appraisals of heritage in Fez.
Moroccan inhabitants, foreigners and members of institutions at the same time differ and resemble
each other in their appraisal and definition of heritage. They compare elements of heritage in Spain
(Alhambra, Cordoba mosque or Al-Andalus), France (Provence, Lascaux), Africa (Egypt), and Fez.
They also stress the link between heritage and economy (heritage brings money and who has money
can do what he wants with heritage) or the need of knowledge and distance to appraise heritage
properly. Many informants mentioned continuity in time, continuity with similarity – transmission
of "what has always been" – or continuity with the rupture with the past – decay, loss and
disappearance. Informants aware of the temporal rupture most of the time spoke in terms of
nostalgia for a "better past." In this temporal context, oldness – length in time – is of prime interest.
Informants also related heritage with a specific location in space, that is to say the ubiquity
of heritage in the medina or, on the contrary, its hidden aspect, and the link with a specific
environment orienting the shape of heritage. Specificity, uniqueness, exceptionality are other oftmentioned features of heritage, as is its representativeness of the culture, the country, and Moroccan
identity. The liveliness of heritage is another recurrent feature. Some informants compared heritage
to a living body – which involves considering its entirety – and they emphasised the liveliness in the
medina – inhabitants still live like before – and of the medina – the medina has a soul and an
atmosphere. Informants also mentioned a link with spirituality. Finally, they mentioned the beauty
of heritage and their affects.
50 Melodic
poem inspired from Andalus music, urban sung poetry performed by men of craftsmen’s guilds.
63
2.4. Tourism in Morocco
Tourism has always swayed between seaside and cultural tourism, both attracting distinct
kinds of tourists and requiring distinct infrastructures (Berriane, 2002). During the Protectorate,
French authorities implemented cultural tourism in Morocco. They developed tour circuits with
Moroccan or foreign tourism agencies. Prosper Ricard, a member of the Fine Arts Department,
wrote tourism guides (the Blue Guide between 1919 and 1948) and promoted the development of
tourism accommodations for tourists travelling on their own. In Fez, French authorities
implemented a tour of Fez and the city walls by carriage. They improved the access to the medina
with a 15 kilometres road around the city walls. They created sites, such as the Merinid tombs or the
eponym hotel, for tourists and French people living there to get views over the medina. The Merinid
tombs or the Boujloud gate51 became symbolic images of the medina.
Before the 1950s, the Moroccan Imperial Cities tour attracted more tourists than seaside
resorts located in Oualidia or Moulay Bouselham. At that time, seaside tourism was geared toward
internal and not international tourism. However, in the 1970s, seaside tourism, supported by public
authorities, supplanted cultural tourism. Mass and residential tourism replaced the mobile cultural
tours, and tour operators, such as the Club Méditerranée, proposed organised stays in seaside
resorts and village-clubs. At the end of the 1970s, the tourism map of Morocco looked like main
seaside resorts and Imperial cities linked by roads. In the late 1990s, local and private initiatives
extended public ones to develop mountain and desert tourism – recently joined by rural tourism – in
the South. Since then, cultural and seaside tourism, pushed by a growing international tourism, have
proposed more and more diverse options such as horse riding in the countryside, trekking in the
desert, sailing, golf, water cures or marinas.
In the 1960s, King Hassan II made tourism into an essential sector in the successive triennial
Development Plans. The Government created tools, such as Commissions, and ordered studies to
control and direct tourism development, and it encouraged the private sector to follow the trend.
Although the Government has later limited its economic investment in tourism development,
tourism hasn't left the political agenda. On January 10th 2010, King Mohammed VI ratified a
Ministerial strategy and programme, "Vision 2010," which aimed to welcome 10 million tourists in
2010, to create 600,000 jobs, and to offer as much as 230,000 beds for tourists in various
accommodations. The programme gathered public and private investors to engage in concrete
actions such as planning investments and starting building sites. For instance, the Plan Azur
51
Despite being a symbol, the Boujloud gate was inaugurated by Lyautey in 1915. It firstly received the name of Bab
Medjless, as the Muslim council requested, before becoming the now famous Bab Boujloud.
64
implemented the construction of six seaside resorts, and many cities were provided a Regional
Tourism Development Plan (PDRT) aiming at improving each destination with regards to its
opportunities and needs. In 2002, tourism brought 21,6 billion Dh (1,94 billion €) to Morocco, for
22,4 billion Dh (2 billion €) brought by migrants living abroad. In 2011, tourism benefices reached
59 billion Dh (5,3 billion €) while Moroccan migrants brought 58 billion Dh (5,2 billion €). On
November 30th 2010, the Ministry of Tourism presented the extension of "Vision 2010" with
"Vision 2020", aiming to welcome 20 million tourists in 2020, and focusing on regional promotion
of tourism based on authenticity, historical depth, diversity, quality and sustainability.
In the academic area, scholars use the notion of tourism development (Saigh-Bousta and
Tebbaa, 2005; Bakhella, 2008) to investigate the changes initiated by public and private actors and
the link between foreign investments and tourism development. Kurzac-Souali (2007) asserts that
private actors are the most active in the preservation of Moroccan medina. Porter (2001) assigns the
active role of private owners to the change in the political regime between Hassan II and
Mohammed VI. Hassan II, the former king, undertook numerous restoration works in Morocco,
including in Fez. Among others, he called for the listing of the medina as a World Heritage site and
he re-opened the religious educational system at the Qaraouiyine mosque. In so doing, he aimed to
promote Islam as the main image of the country, and himself as the Commander of the believers.
Mohammed VI, the current king, promotes culture over religion, for culture – more than religion –
attracts private actors in the tourism sector. This political and economic agenda geared toward
private actors has been seen as the royal will to reinforce the private sector in Morocco, or reducing
the Islamic image of the country, or as a proof of royal interest in various fields.
2.4.1. Tourism in Fez
Two institutions are in charge of the promotion and development of tourism in Morocco, the
Ministry of Tourism and its local delegations, and the Tourism Regional Council52 (henceforth
CRT). Contrary to permanent civil servants appointed by the State working at the Ministry of
Tourism, elected members also compose CRT. The latter oversees and implements the Tourism
Development Regional Plan (PDRT) that started in November 2005 in Fez. It has a threefold goal.
By 2015, Fez should become a city break, a destination for conferences and seminars, and a fullfledged tourism destination – and not a one day visit city included into a larger trip. In other words,
CRT encourages economic, cultural and tourism investments by developing the airport, creating
new activities, improving tourist accommodations and reception capacities, training professional
52 There
is a CRT in each region.
65
workers, and participating in international tourism fairs and shows. In this context, the medina has
become a "leading resource." The CRT website (http://visitfes.org/) provides information to
facilitate investments, such as a professional directory, information about culture and history of Fez
and the region, key tourism figures published monthly by the Ministry of Tourism, a press book,
and information on what to do and see – accommodation and restaurants, transportation, sport and
discovery, well-being, nightclubbing, tourism circuits, craft and art.
Also, two kinds of tourist accommodations blossomed, both framed by a specific institution.
On the one hand, guest-houses started developing in Marrakech in the 1960s when pioneers –
mainly hippies, artists and couturiers – bought houses in the medina – Yves Saint-Laurent acquired
the Jardin Majorelle in 1967. Essaouira hosted two celebrities, Orson Welles in the 1950s and
Jimmy Hendrix in 1969. This trend became a phenomenon in the 1990s, when purchases exploded.
In 2012, there were nearly 700 guest-houses in Marrakech and even more houses owned by
foreigners. With this "ryad phenomenon" (Kurzac-Souali, 2007), the word "ryad" became part of
everyday life and acquired three different meanings. The media used it to refer to any house located
in a medina in order to attract buyers, foreigners linked it to Orientalism and exoticism in their
imaginary (Saigh-Bousta, 2004), and Moroccans made it any house owned by a foreigner and any
tourist accommodation in the medina.
In the late 1990s, the wave reached Fez and other Moroccan cities such as Meknes or Rabat.
The first guest-house, La Maison Bleue, opened in 1999 and was Moroccan owned. A second
Moroccan-owned guest-house opened the same year, followed by a French owned guest-house, the
Riad al Bartal. In December 2012, the Regional Association of Guest-Houses (henceforth ARMH)
listed 63 official guest-houses and 16 locations de meublé.53 Out of the 63 guest-houses, 34 are
Moroccan owned. However, the development of tourist accommodation in the medina competed
neither with its development in Marrakech nor with hotels in the New City. In 2008, out of the
7,224 beds in Fez, only 850 were located in the medina.54 Although the tourism value of the city lies
in the "heritage richness of the medina" and its "way of life inherited from the past and integrated in
the urban fabric," this resource is underexploited according to the Ministry of Tourisms (Europraxis,
2003). The "fairly new" concept of guest-house attracts tourists with a high buying power and is
still limited.
The ARMH is responsible for guest-houses in Fez. A double office – one Moroccan, one
foreign – of elected members heads this association whose official document, the Charter of
Quality, compels owners to respect very general principles such as to obtain all the administrative
53 This category of tourist accommodation, specific to Fez, allows owners to welcome tourists if they have less than five
bedrooms.
54 http://www.tourisme.gov.ma/francais/5-Tourisme-chiffres/CapaciteHoteliere.htm
66
authorisations, to respect the Working Code, to declare employees to the CNSS,55 to pay the
employees more than the SMIG,56 to subscribe to all the needed insurances, not to embezzle clients
or employees from other guest-houses, not to denigrate other members, not to practise dumping, to
support ARMH decisions, to promote Fez and its region in all places and circumstances, to study
carefully each client request carefully, to keep the reservation as simple as possible and conform to
the initial terms, to present pictures of the house fitting with reality on their website, and to promote
a tourism of quality participating in the social and economic development of Morocco. ARMH for
its part commits to promote and defend official guest-houses satisfying the Charter. For instance,
the association fought to diminish by 15 Dh the 30 Dh communal tourist tax that guest-houses of
the second category had to pay per host and by the day. ARMH also helps newcomers to succeed in
the process of opening a guest-house and gives advice in case of conflict between owners. The
association is however criticised for being useless (owners have to pay subscription fees but they
hardly meet or get feedback), for being rotten at its head (members of the office are rich, powerful,
and long-term settled guest-house owners), and for a lack of communication.
On the other hand, Ziyarates57 is a totally groundbreaking and, at that time of its inception,
a unique initiative of home-stays in Morocco. Since June 2007, tourists can stay in Moroccan
families. On the website,58 the spirit of Ziyarates is described as an opportunity "to visit Fez in a
different way" – ziyara means visit in Arabic. Ziyarates presents itself as an "original concept
linking tourism and human development and seeking to present Fez under its most authentic and
unattainable aspect: the spiritual Fez." If 10 houses composed the first batch, this number reached
30 in 2008, and 26 at the end of 2011 (4 houses have been dismissed for not satisfying the rules).
The project is usually attributed to Laila Skalli, an architect and (at that time) director of the
development of the medina section at the Regional Tourism Council. After she submitted the project
to the UNDP in 2005, Skalli gathered several partners with precise functions. The Fez-Boulemane
Region Wilaya (District) funded the management, the Fez Medina baladiya (Municipality)
undertook improvement and restoration works, CRT held and promoted the project and controlled
its legal framework, the Union des Associations et Amicales humanitaires de la Médina de Fès
(Union of Humanitarian Associations of Fez Medina) was in charge of managing and centralising
reservations, and the Agence de Développement Social (Social Development Agency) trained
families and created a common fund. In 2007, this partnership led to the creation of the Association
55 Caisse Nationale de Sécurité Sociale – National Body for Social Insurance.
56 Salaire Minimum Interprofessionnel de Croissance – Guaranteed Minimum Wage.
57 Cf. appendix p. 227 for the official documents.
58
http://www.ziyaratesfes.com/
67
des familles (Ziyarates families Association) and of the label "Ziyarates Fez" composed of criteria,
rules and charters.
In order to become a Ziyarates home-stay, owners must first conform to social and
patrimonial criteria. Among other such criteria we find the following: being Moroccan, owning the
house, having low income, having a patio and quality heritage features such as a wood halqa (i.e.
square opening to the sky at the top of the house above the central courtyard) or carved and/or
painted plaster, and overall for the house to not feature too many modern alterations. Secondly, they
have to conform to several rules related to general conditions, such as having at least two individual
bedrooms and/or a familial one with a permanent hot water supply, providing for the night and
breakfast, maintaining a certain standard of comfort, having an equipped kitchen and Western
bathrooms, providing information about cultural activities, as well as following training provided by
university teachers and professionals of the tourism sector.
The quality charter defines what a home-stay is. "The home-stay is an accommodation
necessarily owned by a Moroccan citizen and intended to complement traditional tourist
accommodations" such as hotels and guest-houses. It also describes how to become a member of
Ziyarates and to receive the label and what the rates should be. Finally, the ethical charter is geared
toward guests. It insists on the quality and sustainability of the programme, the integrated action
helping underprivileged inhabitants and promoting a tourism action based on culture and
spirituality. The ethical charter also stresses the safeguard of heritage and the respect of cultural
diversity as the encounter of different cultures may cause astonishment and misunderstanding. It
asks tourists to respect the family and the local traditions – to avoid some behaviours – as well as to
encourage the carriers of Fassi culture to remain in the medina.
Moroccans commented on the development of tourist accommodations. They felt concerned
with what happens in these houses. "Things are said to occur in guest-houses, unorthodox and
questionable things," said Saïd, a member of the Urban Agency. Moroccan owners hardly
mentioned sexual and gay tourism, except to condemn it or to criticise another guest-house. Adbu, a
Moroccan guest-house owner, said he has "never seen that. But according to the media, those things
happen in Marrakech and Agadir. I respect all the sex [i.e. sexual orientations], I respect everybody.
I don't mind, I don't mind people who feel good about themselves. Because it is democracy. But if
your freedom disturbs the freedom of others, freedom then has some limits."
Many Moroccans also talked about the consequences of tourist accommodations on the
preservation of the medina. According to Fettah, another Moroccan guest-house owner, public
authorities do not fulfil their tasks and responsibilities. As a consequence, "the tourism dynamic is
the only one, according to me, efficient enough to keep buildings and life in the medina. The wave
68
of guest-houses has proved to be the most efficient movement, because it brings viable solutions to
the restoration of the medina. Tourists come to see the medina and stay in it. And this is new.
Before, tourists came, walked in one of the main street with a guide, went to some bazaar, dived a
bit into the medina, and then returned to their hotel located out of the city walls. […] And one
positive aspect of the guest-house movement is that the medina is les crowded because houses
inhabited by several families have been sold." Abdelhay promoted the Ziyarates programme over
guest-houses because Moroccan inhabitants know better the complexity of the medina and how to
preserve it.
69
3.
Six main informants
To frame the abounding experience of houses I intend to describe, I follow six main
informants. During the fieldwork, I interviewed many informants (cf. Informants p. 316 for a list)
and I met even more of them in Morocco, mainly in Fez and Rabat, in France (Paris), and in
Belgium. I have however decided to focus on six main informants in this dissertation. Marcel
Griaule in Dieu d'eau. Entretiens avec Ogotemmêli (Conversations with Ogotemmêli: An
Introdution to Dogon Religious Ideas, first published in 1948) reveals the deep structure of Dogon
sacred thinking on the basis of his main informant, Ogotemmêli. Vincent Crapanzano also chooses
one informant, Tuhami, a Moroccan tiller whose daily life Crapanzano writes about from an
ethnographic perspective in the eponymous book, Tuhami, Portrait of a Moroccan (1980). FavretSaada (1977) follows only a few informants in her study of sorcery in the Norman countryside, as
Foote Whyte (1993 [1943]) does with the members of a gang in Boston. The writings of these
scholars, not least among famous anthropologists, raised criticisms. Besides ethical issues, we find
questions of truth and representativeness. How could one man – not to mention the male bias – hold
the knowledge of one human group – not to mention a whole society?
I chose six main informants because some informants give one more food for thought than
others. Also, it is easier to become intimate with some people – which is of prime importance in the
investigation of the physical engagement with materiality, of senses and affects. I spent a lot of time
with these six informants, sharing and attending moments of their daily-life. In addition to formal
interviews, I had many informal discussions with them, which I didn't record as I took notes – key
words, mostly – during the discussion or right afterwards, and our many meetings allowed at some
point to go beyond the usual first-encounter, façade discourse.
The six informants I present in this part are not statistically representative. Two of them are
foreigners, three of them own a tourist accommodation, one of them is a woman, one of them works
in an institution in charge of cultural heritage in Fez. Also, they barely know each other and it is I
who actually introduced some of them to one another. TAs such, these six informants do not hold or
reveal the truth, nor do they sum up all the relations one may have with houses and heritage. They
are rather exemplary or typical – the Weberian ideal type – of the diversity in the profiles of actors
engaged with houses and heritage in Fez, and I took them as a basis to explore and to think these
engagements.
70
3.1.
Jawad59
Jawad was born in the medina in 1976-77 and has never left Morocco. Holding a high
school degree, he works as a hairdresser and manages his own saloon in the kasbah Boujloud
located in front of the eponym medina gates. Before becoming his own boss, he worked as a waiter
in various restaurants. During my fieldwork, he also kept an eye on a house in restoration and
worked in a guest-house as an employee – after I advised the owner to employ him. The youngest
son of 6 children, he has lived since 2001 with his parents, who are retired, and his sister, an
unmarried primary teacher, in a house of 120 square meters in the same kasbah. The house was built
in the second half of the 20th century out of concrete and cement. Beforehand, they had lived in a
flat in the Guerniz neighbourhood, but the three rooms were too small for their 8 family members.
So they moved to a house in Skak el Bral, a street at the core of the medina, before buying the
house they currently occupy in the kasbah. Jawad welcomed me during three months in that house,
which I describe and picture in the following (cf. infra p. 88). He does not know any of the other
informants, while I mentioned them often during our conversations.
3.2.
Abdelhay
Abdelhay is Moroccan, was born in the medina about 40 years ago, and still lives in the
familial house with his mother and two nieces. The youngest son of the family, he is not married
and he takes care of the familial agricultural lands near Meknes. As an additional income, he hosts
tourists in the context of the Ziyarates home-stay programme. He is also the secretary of the Family
Association of the same programme – this latter activity being unpaid. I introduced him to Gigi and
they visited each other's house.
The familial house was built in the 18th century on former orchards. In the street, many
buildings (houses, zawiya – i.e. Muslim religious building) belonged to his family. Nowadays, they
only own the ground-floor of the family house. He explained this loss by the fact that "[b]efore,
extended families inhabited houses in Fez; parents, children, grand-children and so on." However
now, "there is this trend to go to the New City." Before he heard about the Ziyarates programme,
I faced the issue of the anonymity of its components. I worked with tourist accommodation owners who are
concerned with competition. I also worked with members of institutions who didn’t want to spread their ideas and
opinions. Legal issues and corruption also concern tourist accommodation owners and members of institutions as well
as Moroccan residents. Writing a name and even giving some information was not a naïve act. In the following, all the
informants have a nickname, except those having an administrative responsibility after I asked them if they saw any
problem in having their name mentioned. Hassan is the only exception, as he wanted no information about his identity
or his specific work to be mentioned.
59
71
"there were temptations [to sell the house and to buy a flat in the New City], because property
prices were attractive. And I think everybody was tempted at some point, because prices were
attractive. But we never yielded to this temptation; luckily we never yielded to it. And Ziyarates
helped keeping the house. […] So finally we made the choice to stay in the medina, in the familial
house […] because we are used to living in the medina. We prefer this way of life."
Pic. 6. Abdelhay’s living room. Credit: M. Istasse
3.3.
Fettah
Fettah is Moroccan, is aged of 53 years old, and owns a guest-house. He was trained in
linguistics but introduces himself as "a craftsman who overwhelmed his experience to inscribe
myself in a universal movement. I opened myself to the world. I'm not a businessman but I have to
be one in order to preserve my point of view. I'm a dreaming aesthete." This artistic quality goes
back in time, for members of his family took part in the Qaraouyine's building and later
improvements. His travels helped him to open up to the world. He lived in France and the UK, both
countries in which he got married and had children. He came back to his native medina in 1997 and
bought a house. He nowadays manages 3000 square meters split into four houses. Two houses
belong to members of his former French family, one is a guest-house and the last is under work.
Houses date from various periods. One is from the 17th century, two from the 18th, and one (the
guest-house) from the 20th century.
72
Pic.7. Swimming pool and inside garden in Fettah’s house.
Credit: M. Istasse
"When I came back in 1997, Fez was like a mosaic.60 All the pieces were there but
fragmented. I'm a tile settler who started to gather the pieces." It began with the creation of Fez
Hadara in 1997. In Ibn Khaldoun's typology, hadara means "urban people," in opposition to
bedoun, "people from the countryside." "I was saying Fez had to become a city again, not a
dormitory where peasants would come to sleep. Fez is a civilisation, not the countryside." He
explained he "intended to use my house as a cultural place with Fez Hadara. Most events were free
and as long as it was free, people came. But when it started to take a commercial form, when people
had to pay fees, they stopped coming. So, I had to abandon the concept after a few years, because I
couldn't make a living from it." In 2001, he founded the association Needa Fez (literally, the Friends
of Fez), which lasted 3 years and gave him "a voice that is heard in the medina." The association
gathered people from different languages, nationalities, trainings and responsibilities in the medina
to debate issues related to the medina. The association was "driven into the ground from the inside
by one of its members" who used it to face and master another rising association involved in
culture, Fes Saïss. Finally, he opened a guest-house in 2005, named Al Kantara (i.e. the bridge).
60 "In a mosaic, and especially in the Muslim mosaic, each piece has a name, a shape, and a specific role in a very
logical and precise geometrical layout. Nothing is left to chance. In the medina, I think everything changed after the
independence, after the Fassi exodus to more thriving cities, the neglect of culture, the move of administrations, of
commercial activities, of crafts and even of the Qaraouiyine university, the central piece of the mosaic. There is a master
piece in every mosaic, a unique piece around which all the pieces revolve. In Fez medina, the Qaraouyine was that
piece".
73
The medina was also a "dormitory town, a sleeping city, a rubbish dump." As elites had left,
poor inhabitants were sleeping there and tourists only spent a few hours in the medina. It has
changed since then. The medina is more dynamic because craftspeople and shopkeepers come and
go to work there, foreigners and members of administrations restore it, and tourists visit it. Fez is
also a "city of light covered by dust. I do not pretend to light it again but to remove a bit of dust."
And, last but not least, Moroccans have to inhabit the medina, unlike what has happened in
Marrakech. "The restoration of the medina should come from inhabitants, from the heart, and not
from the outside."
3.4.
Gigi
Pic. 8. Gigi’s patio. Credit: M. Istasse
A French woman of about 60 years old, Gigi manages a middle size (about 300 square
metres) guest-house. She has a beautician diploma and she is very interested in astrology. She
practises a humanist – and not an esoteric – astrology in order to understand – and not to predict –
what happens to human beings. Her family lives in France and she arrived alone in Fez in 2005 to
manage her cousin and business partner's guest-house. She had just come back from 20 years living
in the Ivory Coast and didn't want to stay in France. She took the opportunity of Fez to leave France
but without having really chosen the destination. She knows Fettah as they share an economic
activity in tourism, and Abdelhay as I introduced each other.
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3.5.
David
Pic. 9. Ground-floor of David’s private house (left) and
wall he had redone in his street (right). Credit: M.
Istasse
David is American, over 50 and single. He is the director of the Arabic Language Institute of
Fez (ALIF). He arrived in Fez in 1996, bought a house in the medina – he is said to be the first
foreigner to have settled there – and has purchased several more since then. When I did my
fieldwork, he owned five houses: his main house, which has being under restoration for more than
19 years, a restored house rented to tourists, a house close to a mosque, and two ruins. He
mentioned various reasons for these purchases. He bought some because he fell in love with them,
for the atmosphere they emit and not their size or their decoration. He saved other houses: he
bought a ruin because the possible owner had a project that would have spoiled the view over the
medina. Ruins are one of his main preoccupations, as those empty houses are threatened with
collapse and are robbed.
He has dedicated one website (http://www.houseinfez.com) to providing information on the
basis of his own experience, for those wanting to visit the city but also to buy and to restore a house
in the medina. He is a kind of gatekeeper for whoever wants to buy a house, mostly among the
English speaking community. Most of my Anglophone informants mentioned the importance, or at
least the intervention, of David in their purchase and/or restoration. "I had no intention to buy a
house. But I met David Amster. Everybody here knows David one way or another," declared Emma,
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an Australian tourist-accommodation owner. During the early 2000s, he wanted "to show people it
is possible to do it [i.e. to buy a house and live in it for cheap.]" So, he "encouraged," "convinced,"
"persuaded" foreigners to buy a house in the medina. He described it like his "mission" and himself
like a "missionary." He encouraged people to live in the medina because of the importance to
preserve it. For instance, he salvaged the big wooden doors of an old house in Rabat, persuaded
friends to buy the house the doors came from, and replaced the doors in their proper original
location. Since 2008, he has been less active and repeatedly said that investment into the medina
was a myth. He now advises people to live 6 months in the medina before buying a house, because
life is special there and does not suit to everybody. He still visits houses when asked, continues to
slowly restore his house, and gives advice to newcomers from time to time. Also, he had been very
active in leading projects and was part of Needa Fez. However, when he saw that Moroccans didn't
follow his actions, that they tried to put a spoke in his wheels, and that Fettah and him didn't see eye
to eye as far as preservation was concerned, he decided to take a hiatus in his restorationisit’s
activity. He said he was tired and needed to take some distance before coming back to action.
In 2006, David initiated the creation of Fez Ryads, a renting agency. He had been
undertaking works in the medina for some year and had a team of building workers. Also, he
wanted to undertake works on a larger scale. To gather money, he came up with the idea of a renting
agency, whose part of the profits would help paying for the works and the workers. Since 2007, Fez
Ryads is managed by an Australian woman, Helen. The renting agency has a website
(http://www.fez-ryads.com/) regrouping several guest-houses and houses for rent as well as
information about Fez and tips as to how to make a trip a success. Helen takes 10% commission on
every reservation, of which 2% is dedicated to restoration projects in the medina. Until now, 11
fountains and the window of a Koranic school have been restored, some streets cleaned, and a
garden developed, thanks to this fund.
3.6.
Hassan
Hassan is about 40 years old. He was born and grew up in the medina but is now living in
the New City. He has been trained as an archaeologist and a curator. Since 1993, he works at the
Inspection of Historical Monuments of the Fez-Boulemane region. He has also taught at the OFPPT
(Office de la Formation Professionnelle et de la Promotion du Travail – Office for Vocational
Training and Work Promotion) for 14 years and at the Fez antenna of the National School of
Architecture. Finally, he has written several books and articles about Fez.61 Hassan works with the
61
To remain his identity anonymous, I mention neither any of his writings nor his status at the Inspection.
76
official documents and rules related to cultural heritage but he considers studies and investigations
about the medina to be reference documents. For instance, the book written by Revault, Amahan
and Golvin about architecture in Fez "is a sort of inventory. Those studies have a peculiar value.
They reinforce the protection and promotion files. Every study added to the architectural or heritage
descriptions of the city has added value. And it becomes a reference, because changes are
permanent in the medina: maybe the building we see now will be different in 10 years. But the
document is there and it doesn't change." Finally, Hassan praised the politics enacted during the
Protectorate. "They did a wonderful work during the Protectorate. It contributed to the preservation
of the urban fabric." He underlined that "experiments" had been conducted in Morocco in the field
of heritage before being implemented in France.
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4. How to engage with the materiality of houses?
4.1. A first glimpse at the houses in Fez
What is it to live in a World Heritage site? I dedicate this section to the daily life of one
element of heritage, namely houses located in the Fez medina, or, in other words, to the description
of their (hi)story beyond the official heritage discourse. Although they are labelled as both national
and World Heritage for their location in the medina, houses do not benefit from a uniform
recognition as cultural heritage among their inhabitants.
However, houses are a privileged and central location to investigate the daily life of and the
engagements with an element of heritage. Firstly, they constitute a nub, a meeting point – not an
ending point – of numerous components. Among these components we find human beings –
Moroccan and foreign inhabitants, tourists, experts and members of institutions –, tangible and
intangible objects – furniture, rules, (hi)stories – and systems (arrangements, schemes) – conflicts,
restoration works. All of them are involved in the daily life of/in/with houses. In this section, I
explore the components meeting in houses, the networks that are formed around the house, the
surprises that houses provide. Secondly, houses are central because inhabitants fervently talk about
and act in the house they inhabit, and because inhabitants and members of institutions enact formal
and informal rules related to houses. Finally, houses are at the core of an abundant literature written
by members of institutions, scholars and novelists.
In point of fact, Brumann (2009b) asserts that cities are places where numerous documents
of all kinds may be found, and more particularly historical and visual sources. Before coming to
Fez, many foreigners, be they tourists or residents, have read about houses in Morocco or have seen
these houses in movies, television documentaries or coffee table books. They then have an idea of
what they are going to see. Before going to his/her field, an anthropologist usually reads about
his/her topic, as I did. These readings constitute the first approach I had of houses in Fez. As a
consequence, I start this investigation of houses with an appraisal through the academic literature. I
begin by presenting the general paradigm within which the description of North African houses is
generally inscribed, namely the Islamic city paradigm. Although no contemporary scholar clearly
claims to include his/her work within this paradigm, it still pervades many academic studies about
architecture and cities in North Africa. I then describe the structure and the symbolism of these
houses. I finish with distancing myself from the academic model of a unique North African house to
present the complexity of houses in Fez.
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4.1.1. The Islamic city paradigm
During the French Protectorate, numerous scholars (Marçais, 1928; Le Tourneau, 1949;
Berque, 1953) took Fez as the model of an Islamic city in North Africa, as Damascus and Alep were
models in the Middle East. According to Raymond (1994: 3), this paradigm is a "French affair"
developed by scholars of the school of Algiers and the school of Damascus. It was partly due to the
fact that there were only two important Moroccan cities in the early 20th century: Fez, with 90.000
inhabitants, and Marrakech, with 70.000 inhabitants.
Scholars in this paradigm follow three main approaches to study North African cities.
According to the first, Islam totally conditions what happens in a Muslim city. Some scholars try to
find and list the specificities Islam brings to Islamic cities. Among them, Marçais (1928) defines
Islam as an urban religion brought by nomads and bringing religious belief, laws and organisational
principles. Abu-Lughod (1987) scrutinises the forces producing cities. Alongside climate and
technique, she points out religious forces. For instance, the "legal system, rather than imposing
general regulations over land uses of various types in various places, left to the litigation of
neighbours the detailed adjudication of mutual rights over space and use" (Abu-Lughod, id.: 172).
These mutual rights take the Koran as their basis.
Other scholars defend the idea that Islamic cities lack political institutions and municipal
organisation. In their view, Islamic cities are non-cities. They stress the absence of autonomous and
formally organised institutions and they claim Islamic cities are mainly economic settlements whose
neighbourhoods are ethnically specialised, or gather members of a same guild or a same family.
Hassan Ibn Mohammed el Fasi el Wazzan, or Leo Africanus, already adopted this kind of
presentation of Fez in the 15th century. Scholars then focus on the centrality of religious and
economic institutions and buildings – the study of Sefrou’s sūq (i.e. market) by Geertz (1979) is one
example. They also refer to the notions of order and disorder, and favour comparison with other
cities, be they antique or medieval cities. For instance, Raftani and Radoine (2008) compare the
structure of hammam (i.e. public bath) in Fez and Volubilis (a roman site located 50 kilometres from
Fez) and its general inscription in the Mediterranean world.
The last approach consists in listing the specific features of Islamic cities, that is to say the
mosque, the sūq (i.e. market), the public bath, and the division in neighbourhoods. Idrissi Janati
(2002) describes Fez medina from the jiha (i.e. main neighbourhood) down to the derb (i.e. street)
with the hawma (i.e. neighbourhood) as the main stage located in the middle. Islamic cities also
developed according to a radio-concentric distribution of economic activities and residential areas.
The main mosque and the central market constitute the centre linked to the gates by the main
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streets. Funduk (i.e. storage buildings and hotel for merchants) are located along these streets and
close to the gates. Residential areas are located at the city’s periphery and are connected to the
centre by narrow streets and dead-ends.
The first criticisms of the Islamic city paradigm emerged after the 1960s in the Englishspeaking academy (Lapidus, 1984 [1967]; Eickelman, 1974; Abu-Lughod, 1987). Scholars
criticised the Orientalist and essentialist ideas that the paradigm carried, the generalisations from
too little and too specific case studies, and the focus on particular periods. For instance, Lapidus
(id.) highlights the historical character of these cities against their timeless conception. Scholars
also claim that Islam is "not the only cause of urban form but is a crucial contributing factor in
shaping cities" (Abu-Lughod, id.: 162). They then propose to talk of Oriental – and not Islamic –
cities.
Some Moroccan elites also discuss the images of and about Fez produced by foreign
scholars and journalists. In their view, images of Fez as a magic and majestic city out of time and
space are superficial and wrong, for the short stay of foreigners in the city scarcely allows
discovering its mysteries and complexity. "What moves, what exists does not strike the foreign eye"
(Amahan, 1986: 40). Foreigners omit the qualitative changes that deeply shaped the medina and
they mythologise the immobility of the architecture to the detriment of the mobile nature of
humans. Moroccan intellectuals then qualify the foreign description of Fez as an act of voyeurism,
of violence, of rape.
However, conceptions related to the Islamic city paradigm lasted through time and survived
to criticisms in the academic literature – among others are Barrou (2005) and El Idrissi (2010).
Bianca (1980b), a UNESCO expert, presents Fez as the model of an Islamic city characterised by a
particular mix between Andalus art and Sahara crafts. Kurzac-Souali (2007) defines the medina as
"a specific urban place" with a structuring religious trace, as a specific urban fabric, as an introvert
domestic space and as a place of production of cultural and symbolic values such as pervasive
religiosity or familial intimacy.
I distance myself from this paradigm while I agree with some of the urban characteristics it
spotted. The concentric structure of the medina with the main mosque and market at its centre and
residential area all around it hasn’t fundamentally changed since the early 20th century. However,
French authorities implemented specific institutions in charge of the city and neighbourhoods are
not organised according to an ethnic or familial scheme anymore. Finally, more than in the structure
and features of the medina, I have interest in houses.
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4.1.2. North African houses
Scholars have long been interested in houses in North Africa, in Morocco and in Fez. Their
writings address several topics such as the restoration of a particular house (Touri, Hassani and
Barbato, 1999), a house from a specific period (Maslow and Terrasse, 1936), houses approached
from an historic and architectural stance (Gallotti, 1926; Revault, Golvin and Amahan, 1985, 1989
and 1992), the relation between houses and religion in Fez (Burckhardt, 1992 [1960]) or in North
Africa (Zouilai, 1990), or the architectural regulating layouts and techniques (Paccard, 1981), the
origins of patio houses in Morocco after the Roman house (Gallotti, id.) or the Berber tent (Zouilai,
1990). According to Raymond (1994), these descriptions of the traditional North African house
present the courtyard house as a unique model and generally make them timeless, turned inwards
and blinded to the outside world.62 There is however a huge difference between a nearly-palace
house and a nearly-rural house, even if both share the characteristic of being organised around a
courtyard.
Fig. 2. Architectural plan or a "typical" North African house (Gallotti, 1926: 72)
Nowadays, there are about 12,000 buildings in Fez,63 of which 2,359 are empty. In 2004,
according to the population census, 14,523 households (74.5% of the total population) were living
in a house built before 1954; 4,048 (20.8%) in a house built between 1955 and 1974; 648 in a house
built between 1975 and 1994; and 284 in a house built after 1995. It means that most houses date
back to the Alaouite period (mid 17th – nowadays). Some builders however reproduced the Merinid
In Arabic, a patio house is a dār. It comes from the verb dāra, which means "to turn around something."
The figures differ from one authority to the other. According to ADER, there are 13,385 houses, out of which 11,601
are historical houses. The Urban Agency counted 12,212 houses whose 9,369 are historical.
62
63
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style, also called the Arab-Andalus or Hispano-Moorish style, which was probably set under the
Merinid dynasty between the mid-13th and the end of the 15th century (Paccard, 1981). Few others
took inspiration in the Art Deco style brought during the French Protectorate in the early 20th
century. These architectures of various styles and periods share the same materials.
Walls, arches and vaults are made of khyata (i.e. solid brick), stones and a mortar of lime,
water and sand (formerly earth). They are subsequently covered by a coating of lime and sand such
as cob or by zelij (i.e. mosaic, enamelled small tile of clay of various shapes and colours). Zelij also
cover grounds – together with tiles of marble and bejmat (i.e. enamelled half brick) – and fountains.
Stones, such as marble, are used to sculpt fountains or the capitals of columns. Gypsum provides
the plaster carved with chisels – and sometimes painted – by gabbassa (i.e. plaster craftsmen). This
plaster decorates flat surfaces such as the edges of interior widows and doors or arcades under the
form of a frieze with floral patterns or calligraphy. Some ceiling muqarnas (i.e. honeycomb) as well
as the inside of some walls are also made out of plaster. Neijjārīn (i.e. carpenters) mainly work with
cedar from the Atlas (Arz) that they cut and carve and that a zwāq (painter) may finally decorate.
The quality of the wood defines its use for gaïza (i.e. beams), warqa (i.e. plates separating two
floors, resting on the beams below and supporting a layer of 30 to 40 centimetres of rammed down
earth – dessāssa – above. The upper surfacing is set on this earth layer), halqa (i.e. square opening
to the sky at the top of the house above the central courtyard), doors, chassis and shutters.
Nowadays, one should naturally add the essential work of the plumber and the electrician.
Houses from various styles and periods also share the same pattern, that is to say a square
house with a courtyard open to the sky; 2 to 4 salons, a kitchen and a toilet on the ground floor; an
entrance with an elbow corridor; 1 or 2 floor(s), a steep staircase, a rooftop terrace and some store
or junk rooms. According to Chaline (1990), this structure tends to help thermal protection. High
houses receive as little sun as possible on the ground-floor, and architectural decorations bring
freshness. Finally, one finds the principles of symmetry and centrality in most houses, while each
house has its own proportions, colours, size, and decoration.
Before architects became unavoidable and compulsory in the construction of a house, the
owner or the muhandis (i.e. mediator between the owner and the workers) were responsible for
drawing two rectangles on the ground, the courtyard or patio (bust d-dār) and the external wall
(Galloti, 1926; Paccard, 1981). The patio can cover 25% of the house's surface area. The house may
exceed the patio and external walls outline. Foreparts widen rooms of the first floor and go over the
street when they do not cover it. These foreparts rest on corbelled beams supported by inclined legs
fixed in the external wall.
In the patio, one finds essential architectural element such as carved plaster (gabs), mosaic
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(zelij), carved and/or painted wood and the halqa, Iraqi glass (colour glass), wrought iron on the
windows, and a central (sahrij) or mural (sqaya) fountain. Ogive wooden doors leading to salons
are huge – 2 metres wide and 4 meters tall. The two mobile leafs open and close through a pivot and
socket system – the bottom of the door is in a carved stone while the top is in a piece of decorated
wood with a kiosk shape named rtej. A triple claustra (chemachech – decorative bay window above
doors and rectangular windows through which light is supposed to enter) generally hangs over these
doors. Most of the time, inside windows have a rectangular shape. They are not filled with glass but
are provided with wooden shutter inside and a wrought iron metal gate in the patio side. The
shutters link to the chassis with double nails. In huge houses, a portico goes round the patio. Either
lintels (a system of layered wooden beams links the pillars) or masonry arcades top this portico. The
latter may become a bartal (i.e. alcove opened in the patio) on the ground floor and a passage
(gallery) bounded by a wooden or wrought iron balustrade in the first floor.
Pic. 10. Mural fountain and Iraqi glass. Credit: M. Istasse
The patio is also the multipurpose centre of daily activities such as meeting, cooking, eating,
or sleeping. According to Marçais (1940: 227, my translation), "the house is aired and lit by its
inner courtyard, whose piece of sky belongs to it alone." Mouawad (2008) endows the patio with a
metaphysical value, for the patio allows the communication with other human beings and with the
Universe. In this view, architecture follows social, religious and cosmological principles. The pools
and fountains bring the water necessary for ablutions and cleanliness. Water is of prime importance
in houses. Each was supplied with three water circuits: the water from the oued (i.e. river) for
domestic tasks, spring water to drink, and a sewage disposal. Also, the patio lies at the intersection
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of the vertical – communication with the divine – and the horizontal – communication with Mecca.
One wall, usually the one with the bartal (i.e. alcove opened in the patio) is left "empty" of any first
floor room. This wall, which climbs directly up to the halqa and is often poorly decorated – if so,
with carved plaster – is said to be a passage to God.
In addition to the patio, the entrance door and the elbow corridor constitute a main
characteristic of the North African house.64 In order to enter into a house, one announces him- or
herself in a specific way – by knocking the door or calling – for the inhabitants to recognise his or
her identity. The visitor then has to wait in the corridor before a member of the house takes him/her
to the visitors' room. Sefroui (2006 [1954]: 200, my translation) describes it in his novel. "The door
opened. An old woman with an uncovered head and carrying a reed basket went out. She stared at
us quietly and nodded. We followed in a queue in the entrance doorway after we beat our babuch
[i.e. Moroccan slippers] on the ground. It was dark in the corridor. The pavement was irregular.
From time to time, my mother or Lalla Aïcha called the Prophet to help her. They butted against the
same obstacle: a pavement, a brick that was randomly lying there. The corridor turned left. Light
from the patio blinded us." The entrance door, sometimes overhung by a wooden canopy, is a
wooden rectangle of 2 metres wide on 2.5 meters tall. Wrought iron with a fork or trident shape as
well as nails decorates the street side. With a corridor in elbow (setwan), the doorway constitutes a
"border space," a screen onto the outside. Zouilai (1990) describes it as an internalised and
imaginary line between the outside and the inside world, whose symbolic function is one of
separation and link.
The rooms’ versatility is another feature of Moroccan houses. Rooms fulfil various, barely
exclusive, but sometimes preferential, functions. On the one hand, the rooftop terrace, described as
the typical place of women (Mernissi, 1994), had, and still has, specific functions: sleeping during
the summer, washing and drying clothes and food. A salon was dedicated to visitors while the other
salons served at once as dining room, bedroom and living room. This versatility in function
increases with the size of the house and the seasonal mobility. Inhabitants likely spent summer in
the fresher ground-floor rooms and winter in the warmer upstairs rooms.
According to Zouilai (1990), the versatility of functions explains the scarcity and the high
mobility of furniture. Low tables, banquettes composed by high and tough mattresses on wood
pallets, small shelves and chests are easily movable from one room to another. Nowadays, the trend
is to a specialisation of the rooms and to the lack of seasonal mobility (Navez-Bouchanine, 1994).
This specialisation marked in the more abundant decoration and furnishing, concerns firstly spaces
of/for representation – the room for the visitors – and spaces for the couple – the private bedroom.
64
Berque (2010) also shows the importance of doors and the rites related to their passage in China and Japan.
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Pic. 11. Furniture in the visitor's room, early 20th century. http://archnet.org/library/places/one-place.jsp?place_id=1675
Paccard (1981) asserts that furniture was scarce in Moroccan households because of the
profuse architectural decoration that adorned them. Decorations on the walls, grounds and ceilings
have primacy over furniture. The latter is integrated into the surfaces, as for instance the banquette
leans on the wall. In Paccard’s view, Moroccan architecture mainly consists in architectural
decoration – filling surfaces – rather than in volumes – filling space. Muslim architecture is an art of
‘clothing buildings.’ In order to do so, craftsmen and artists cannot represent living beings for Allah
is the only Creator and nobody can imitate His creation. As one Hadīth (i.e. saying or act ascribed
to the Prophet Mohammed) reminds, "those who will suffer from the worse punishment on the
Judgement Day are those who imitated the creation." This doesn’t prevent from diversity in
patterns, which splits into four main categories: calligraphy – the words of Allah –, plant and floral
decoration (turiq) – acanthus leave, fig tree leave, pine cone, Byzantine interlacing –, geometrical
designs65 – lines of circles, plaits, stars or geometric interlacing radiating from a central star (testir)
– and items to fill the gaps.
65 As Gallotti (1926: 23, my translation) writes, Moroccans decorate with "repetitive pattern following a geometrical
progression whose strength entirely rests on the almost blind respect of traditions and conventions."
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Pic. 12.
Top left: geometrical
pattern in mosaic (testir).
Top right: floral
pattern in wood and
carved plaster
Above: calligraphy
in mosaic and carved
plaster.
Credit: M. Istasse
Scholars refer to several principles or oppositions to explain the structure of houses. The
main dichotomy opposes the closed private house and the open public space. As Burckhardt writes
(1992: 91), "the true, the unveiled face of Fez remains hidden to whoever knows Fez only from the
street, and has seen only the shopping alleyways and the grey outer walls of the houses. The inside
of the house is the strongly defended domain of the women." Many scholars share the idea that the
structure of houses preserves the intimacy of the family living in the house, and particularly the
women’s. The organisation around the courtyard, plain outer walls, and mucharabieh (i.e. lattice
wood) protect the women’s honour – practices and activities are based on the notion of haram,66
which means the women’s flat. For instance, visitors are allocated a specific and autonomous room,
most of the time located near the entrance, in order to keep them far from the normal functioning of
the house. Built to host an extended family, houses may nowadays offer a dwelling to several
unrelated families. Inhabitants then protect their intimacy by raising walls, setting sheets or wooden
panels in front of a door, covering the free space of the courtyard on the first floor, or knocking
down plumbing to have water in each dwelling. This intimacy is also found in proverbs such as
"Enquire about your mate before travelling and about your neighbours before buying a house" or "A
Coming from the root h.r.m, harām means at once what is forbidden and what is sacred, and haram, whose plural is
harem, means the women's flat.
66
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small ruined house is worth more than a huge shared palace."
Pic. 13. Plastic sheet separating two parts of a floor.
Credit: M. Istasse
In addition to protecting the familial honour, the house’s closure materialises religious
concepts. For instance, houses imitate the layout of the Prophet’s house in Damascus (Mouawad,
2008). Also, the uncovered patio opens the house to infinity, and the courtyard structure represents
paradise with its symmetry and running water (Zouilai, 1990). According to Arkoun (1995),
spirituality – i.e. a religious quest – is projected in buildings and architectural works. In that context,
architecture provides a better life and an affective and aesthetic environment. Finally, the
architectural sobriety, purity, coherency, and the lack of external social distinction signs express the
egalitarian ideal and moral of modesty central to the Islamic religion. As Rghei and Nelson (1994:
147) put it, "one of the essential value in Islam is to emphasise the Batin (the inner aspect of the self
or a thing) and to subdue the Zahir (the external aspect of the self or a thing)."
The second main dichotomy opposes the clean, ordered and symmetrical house to the dirty,
messy and sinuous street (Gallotti, 1926; Tauveron, 1990). According to Newcomb (2006: 298),
"cleanliness is a social category associated with morality." Navez-Bouchanine (1991) presents some
actions undertaken by inhabitants in order to protect their house against dirtiness, such as to cover a
street with concrete, to build extra height stairs, or to implement rounds in rubbish gathering. This
latter action reminds me a lament of French owners living in the medina and undertaking works in
their house. They decided to clean the street everyday after the end of the work, in order to avoid
too much detritus from accumulating in the street. What a surprise when they saw all the neighbours
throwing their rubbish in the evening just before the cleaning occured! They decided to stop being
good neighbours and to clean the street only once a week.
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Finally, the Koran provides images and information about houses. The house appears
through several words: bayt (pl. bouyoūt), masakane or sakane (pl. masākine), dār (pl. diour). On
the one hand, one word may have various meanings. For instance, dār also means the tribe or the
country: dār al Harb is literally translated by "the house of war" but means "the country of the
enemy." On the other hand, the various words share similar meanings: the human house on earth
(sura 2, verse 84 for instance), the house of after life be it the Paradise (sura 2, verse 94 for
instance) or Hell (sura 14, verse 28), the sacred place on earth like a mosque (sura 2, verse 125 for
instance), the family or tribe (sura 11, verse 73 for instance). The topics of daily life (what to have
in the house, how to behave) and war relate to the house on earth and the tribe. There are also
advices: the house is a shelter, a godsend for those who could appreciate it and its value and can
make profit from it. As a good inherited within the family and shared by its members, both spouses
are responsible for the house. As a proverb asserts, "Undisciplined youth, house without a roof."
Finally, happiness of and in the house doesn't consist of luxury but of the love of God. Houses built
on the principle of faith and lightened by the Koran are strong compared to houses of non-Muslims,
which are weak or ‘spider’s houses’ (sura 29, verse 41).
4.1.3. Houses in the Fez medina
The foreigner as well as the anthropologist, whatever they have read or seen before going to
Fez, are generally in awe in front of the beauty and the diversity of houses in their structure and in
their architectural decoration. No informant, except few experts and guest-house owners interested
in architecture, talk about the symbolism or about the principles and oppositions explaining the
structure of the house. The description of two houses, in their architecture and their daily life, shows
the diversity and the complexity of the North African house.
4.1.3.1. Jawad's house
Five family members live in this house: Jawad, his mother Ftouma, his father Mohammed,
his sister Amina and his brother Rachid – who is sporadically present at home to bathe, eat and
sleep. No gender relations, no seasonal nomadism orients the organisation of the house. Members of
the family rather wantit to be a functional place to live.
The house, built in concrete in the middle of the 20th century, is humbly decorated with
traditional features such as carved plaster or mosaic. Modern tiles with the same patterns cover the
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ground in all the rooms. Before living in the kasbah Boujloud house, the family lived in two houses
in the heart of the medina. They bought the Boujloud house for several reasons. The four older
brothers left the familial house in Zkak el Bral after they got married and the remaining family
members didn't need a big house anymore. A smaller house would help the ageing mother and the
sister, who works everyday, in the housework. Also, according to Jawad, "the Boujloud area is open.
Here, it is the contrary of the medina. Here, you can see. […] Moreover, there are external windows
[in the house], so that you can see outside. And it brings light inside. But in the medina, you
absolutely need the halqa [i.e. square opening to the sky at the top of the house], because there is no
window on the street." The house location is of prime importance: close to a medina gate, it
facilitates moves and ensures a certain security. In the morning, the sister doesn't have to cross the
still quite empty medina alone. "Each time, in the medina, you don't know if you will get [home].
When there is nobody in the streets, you can find people drinking alcohol and so on. So, my mother
is always afraid something might happen to us." The latter doesn't have to climb the main street to
go shopping or to take a taxi. "As soon as we found the house, we bought it... Here, it is close to
everything, here."
The most permanent member of the house is the mother. During my stay in the winter
2009/2010, she hardly went out except to visit family or to go to the public bath once a week. She
took care of the house, opened the door when somebody – like me – rang the bell, and prepared the
meals. She spends most of the time in the salon watching television. This television is set on 2M – a
public channel – from morning til late in the evening. Ftouma even prepares food in front of the
television, shelling beans or cutting carrots. The father shares his time between the mosque for the
five daily prayers, a café located in a nearby square, and the house. At home, he remains alone in a
second salon – without television – where a mattress welcomed his naps, readings and prayers. He
eats alone – except when there is a celebration – or has his own plate on the common table. Amina,
the sister, works as a primary teacher in the New City. She goes to school everyday except during
the weekends. At home, she helps her mother in preparing the meals and doing the housework such
as cleaning and washing the clothes. Although she spends a lot of time in the salon with the
television, she often isolates herself to read parts of the Koran. Jawad for his part has his
hairdressing salon close to the house. He spends most of the time there or at the cybercafé, and
comes back home to eat and to sleep. He also manages the maintenance works in the house, such as
repainting the patio walls before the Sheep Celebration or improving the waterproofing of the
rooftop terrace.
This rooftop terrace is hardly used. Ftouma almost never climbs on the terrace. Once, while
I was reading, she joined me there to fill a pillow with sheep wool. Amina goes more often on the
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terrace to wash the clothes and dry them. Jawad and I used the rooftop terrace to have conversations
we couldn’t have downstairs, about religion or gender relations for instance. On the contrary, the
three salons are often used. They are located around the patio and are furnished with low banquettes
of a specific colour and low tables. They also serve as places of prayer. Three steps give access to a
green colour salon in which the father spends his time and in which Amina stocks her school books
and the biscuits for the guests in a huge plywood dresser. The fridge also impressively sits in that
room because of the cramped kitchen. A third salon – the bigger one – of a red colour is dedicated
to the guests. In the brown coloured television salon, members of the family watch television, but
also have meals and snacks. Amina and Ftouma sleep in that salon and receive members of the
family there.
Sometimes, the patio replaces the salon as a place to eat. Three yellow banquettes and a low
round table allow members of the family to eat and take naps there. A television sits imposingly on
a display case in a corner. Aside from the numerous items in the display showcase – calendars,
figurines, souvenirs from Mecca – two posters – one of the Kabba in Mecca and one of a girl in
prayer – as well as a clock in plastic decorate the walls of the patio. This patio was emptied before
the 2009 Sheep Celebration for Jawad to repaint the walls and for the sheep to spend the last two
nights in the house. The sheep were killed, hung and cut in the patio, where a sewer opening
allowed the water and blood to drain off. Because of the blood flowing, and in order to avoid any
problem with the jnun (i.e. genies) living in the house, Ftouma put salt in the mouth of each sheep
before the butcher cut their throat, because jnun are supposed to dislike salt. She also poured milk in
the sewer before and after the three Sheep Celebration days.
The small kitchen is located in a corner of the patio. Amina and Ftouma cooked and boiled
food on a unique gas burner, and sometimes, they grill liver on the kānūn (i.e. brazier, coal burner in
clay). A sink, which serves to wash the dishes and the food before cooking it, is located at the end of
the room, under a very small window that cannot be shut. On the wall in front of the gas burner,
there are two plastic shelves welcoming the crockery (glasses for the tea and for water, teapots,
Chinese porcelain plates and platters (which replaced ceramic earthenware), wide clay platters for
tajine and couscous, cutlery, and food such as onions or sugar. Pans and couscous steamers are
stored in shelves under the sink.
The bedrooms and the Western bathroom are located on the first floor. A Moroccan
bathroom (bīt-lma) – a hole and a tap with a bucket to flush and to wash oneself – is located
downstairs under the staircase. However, after two surgeries, the father was unable to squat
anymore, and Jawad built a Western bathroom. The latter is composed of a Western toilet and a pipe
on the ceiling bringing water in the fashion of a shower. A wide plastic bucket and a bowl transform
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the bathroom into a hammam where one has to pour water on his/her body. Next to the bathroom is
the father’s bedroom – where I never set foot –, then next to it is a storing room with a bed and a
wardrobe, and finally, Jawad’s bedroom. Nobody is allowed to enter his bedroom to clean it, and I
had the opportunity to visit it only once. At the bottom of the bed was the television. There was no
wardrobe or cupboard in that room and everything rested on the ground or in boxes.
Preparing food and doing housework are the two main occupations of women in the house.
Two days after I arrived in the house, I wrote in my field-notes, "I started writing, in front of the
television with Ftouma loudly blowing up her chewing gum and the father wordlessly praying in the
neighbouring room. After the romantic Mexican TV series ended and I thought I could watch a
news report in French, Ftouma decided to clean a room upstairs. Why not, after all, it is only 9.40
pm! Yalla, a sluicing water! We cleared out the room and I then swept. While I was picking up the
dust with the short-handled brush slice, Ftouma came and picked everything up with her hands. So
practical! As she has a heart problem, she gasped loudly and I soon relieved her of cleaning the
ground with a hand brush. The principle was the following: we filled a bucket in the bathroom, we
poured it in the room and we scrubbed. Scrubbing means squatting with a brush without handle –
that of the toilets – and to sharply scrub, knowing that the brush was not as new as it used to be.
Ftouma popped by again with a broom. Jawad arrived just on time to scrape the ground. Well. But
the room is located on the first floor. We throw water in that room and the hallway and the stairs
were full of dirty water. We just put the dirt out of the room and we were far from finishing
cleaning. But the house is well done. The dirty water drained off downstairs and arrived in the
sewer without wetting the entrance corridor. We scrubbed the hallway and the staircase with water,
and we were done at 11.30 pm."
Pic. 14. Jawad's patio.
Credit: M. Istasse
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Pic. 15. Jawad's kitchen. Credit: M. Istasse
Pic. 16. Jawad's bedroom. Credit: M. Istasse
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Pic.17 Jawad's rooftop terrace. Credit: M. Istasse
4.1.3.2. Ruth's house
Ruth's house is a tourist accommodation. Ruth, a German woman, bought this house located
in a neighbourhood at the heart of the medina in 2005. After long and costly construction works, she
decided to open a guest-house and to live in one of the first floor rooms. The fact that the house is a
guest-house makes the description of its daily life difficult. Depending on the presence of guests,
one to three employees are present in the house. Amina cleans the rooms and clothes while the
guests are away, Naïm welcomes guests, prepares and serves breakfasts, and cooks evening meals,
and Meriem helps Ruth in the administrative work. The three of them have the key of the house and
go in and out as they please, while the guests have to ring the bell. Ruth is present in the house as
much as possible and tries to personally welcome guests.
Ruth's house is bigger and more richly decorated than Jawad's house. In the patio, white
marble with small white, green, black and blue mosaic in between cover the tiled ground. On the
walls, starting from the ground, there is a 10 cm high blue mosaic frieze, then a white, green,
orange, black and yellow mosaic in a flower pattern on 50 cm, followed by another 10 cm high
mosaic frieze composed by black crosses surrounded by a white or yellow cross and a blue frame,
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and finally a 10 cm high frieze alternating black and white pieces of mosaic. It is followed by white
plaster wall leading to a triple gabs frieze with a floral pattern then, a geometric pattern and a floral
one with blue and white colours, and then a strip of painted wood. A wooden halqa painted with
floral patterns runs along the open roof. A metal wire encloses it, with a removable plastic roof
above.
In the patio, doors are 4 meters high and are composed of two leafs of painted wood with a
geometric pattern dominated by a red colour. Above the doors are a triple claustra with painted gabs
and geometric, floral and honeycomb patterns. The doors leading to the kitchen and the hallway are
simply varnished. Twenty windows of various sizes punctuate the patio walls. All of them have
wooden shutters on the room side and a wrought iron grid on the patio side. Above the four
windows giving on the salon, there is Iraqi glass in a half circle and a 10 cm wide of blue and white
painted gabs with a floral pattern surround the window. The patio is furnished with three low
wooden tables (one in the bartal, another covered by glass in the middle of the patio, and a round
one next to the fountain), a white three places sofa in the bartal (i.e. alcove), two pink Ottoman
pouffes next to the central table, and three plant pots. There is also a brass kettle to wash hands and
three candleholders on the fountain edge, three lanterns (two on the ground and a smaller on the
central table), a squared candle and a card holder on the bartal table, four wall lights and two other
lamps in copper (one in the bartal and one in the fountain), all made in copper, and a small djembe
next to the sofa.
The mural fountain (there is no central fountain) is composed of a tank decorated with
mosaic from the ground to the top of the tank – 10 cm high strip of blue mosaic, 8 branches white
and yellow stars on a white background and of 80 cm high. The edges are made of white marble.
From the tank to the top, there are 3 water arrivals, and a rib decorated with a 20 branches star.
Then, above a black and white with yellow and black crescents mosaic frieze of 10 cm high, there
are two strips of painted wood with floral patterns. In front of the fountain is a bartal of 2 meters in
depth. The ground is tiled like the patio. On the walls, there is mosaic from the doorstep to almost
two meters high, and then a 20 cm high strip of white plaster, followed by painted plaster with floral
pattern and writings. Above, there are 3 claustra with honeycomb and a floral gabs frieze before a
strip of painted wood. The ceiling is a painted wood one.
On the two other walls, a salon faces a bedroom. Ruth usually welcomes guests in the salon.
Orange and purple low banquettes run along three walls. Two low tables are covered with books,
magazines and leaflets about Fez and Morocco. In a corner, a stereo plays music the all day long.
The bedroom (and more generally the four bedrooms) is furnished with a double bed, carpets and
fabrics (the colour varies from one bedroom to the other), a table (low round hollow or desk style),
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leather Ottoman pouffes, a wardrobe, a wood chest, and wall shelves in wood. There are three kinds
of lamps: wall lights in copper, hanging lamps in copper, and atmospheric lamps in copper or
leather. There is not much decoration besides vases and chests. The in-suite bathroom is provided
with a shower (only one has a bath), a washbasin, a toilet, traditional soap and ghassoul (i.e. natural
clay used in cosmetics) in a bowl, and towels. Architecturally, the ground-floor bedroom is tiled
with mosaic on the ground, mosaic on the walls on 1,5 meter high followed by white plaster, and a
gaïza (i.e. beam) ceiling.
On the rooftop terrace, there are numerous plant pots (aromatic plants such as thyme or
rosemary, bougainvillea), tables in mosaic and wrought iron, seats in wrought iron or wicker with
cushions, solid banquettes with cushions, low tables in wood. The toilets and a shower are located
in a corner. The ground is tiled with terracotta. On one part of the rooftop, the ground has been
raised and covered with a pergola to protect it from the sun. Lamps are incrusted in the walls, and
there are lanterns of various sizes. Another part of the rooftop, the menzeh (i.e. pavilion in a garden
or isolated room on the rooftop), serves as dining room. Its walls are covered with plaster of a sandy
colour. The room is furnished with an 8-seats table covered with a pink napkin, and wrought iron
seat with pink cushions. Under the table is a carpet. On an iron shelf, there are teapots, glasses and
brass candleholders. The fridge is in a corner, and a brass plate with several objects decorates its
top. In another corner, there is the stove, and next to it is the kitchen corner with two electric
hotplates, an electric kettle, a coffee-maker, a toaster, a single sink and shelves covered in dishes.
The main kitchen is located on the ground floor, and is equipped with two sinks, an electric cooker
with an oven, a worktable and a big fridge. There are shelves for dishes, plates, a kettle, a coffee
maker, a blender, pots and pans.
Pic. 18: Ruth's rooftop terrace.
Credit: M. Istasse
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Pic. 19. Ruth's patio.
Credit: M. Istasse
Pic. 20. Ruth's bedroom
(first-floor). Credit: M.
Istasse
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Pic. 21. Ruth's kitchen (ground-floor). Credit: M. Istasse.
Rather than describing houses as they were supposed to be in the literature, or to give them a
status of taken-for-granted "picture-like world" (Keane, 1995), I took them as a starting point to
investigate all the networks of human beings and tangible and intangible things that met in houses.
These networks are links to ways to engage with the materiality67 of the house.
I start with the acquisition of houses by medina inhabitants and the works they undertake,
two modalities Navez-Bouchanine (1997) stresses as important for Moroccan inhabitants. Doing so,
I present the various actors involved in the construction works of a house, such as the owner, the
workers, members of institutions but also rules and permits. I then question the notions of legality
and ruses resorted to by those who undertake construction works. In the following chapter, I
describe ways of furnishing and decorating houses. Although I do not bring anything new in the
investigation of home furnishing, I stress the importance of taste as a principle to furnish and
decorate and as a criterion to judge other’s interiors. As such, taste is a criterion of social
distinction. I then describe the house used as a tourist accommodation. I then survey how owners
face the notions of hospitality, privacy and tradition and how these take shape. I then turn to the
agency of the house, describing what the house makes its inhabitants do. Doing so, I take a stance in
the debate between the subject- and the object- approach of agency. I finish with the question of the
inhabitants’ skills and competence in maintaining houses and in the preservation of heritage.
67
It has to be clear that the materiality of houses, what Miller (2005) studies, is different from the materials of houses
investigated by Ingold (2007b). Cf. Introduction p. 4.
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4.2. Undertaking works in a house
Medina inhabitants own their house after having bought or received it as a legacy, or they
rent it, or they in squat it.68 According to a Moroccan proverb, "the first thing one should own is a
home, and it is the last thing one should sell, for a home is one’s tomb on the side of heaven." In the
same vein, Jawad told me that "owning a house in Morocco is like being a king." His brother
bought half a floor in a house to make sure to have a roof. Asma, a Moroccan inhabitant, considered
people renting a floor in a house poorer than those owning it, as her family does. According to the
1994 population census, about half of Moroccan inhabitants rent their dwelling, that is to say a
house, a floor or a room. The number of households in a house may reach 17 according to Lahbil
Tagemouati (2001). Few live in a house they squat or in the house of a relative living far from Fez.
Amina, a Moroccan inhabitant working in a guest-house, lived in the ryad of her husband's family
with other family members because the owners had moved to Casablanca and didn’t take care of the
house. The latter, a very large ryad, was in decay and Amina and her family had no money to
undertake major works.
Pic. 22. Deteriorated column in Amina’s house. Credit: M. Istasse
80% of houses are melk (i.e. private ownership, including joint ownership), 9% are Habous (3.4% of public Habous
and 5.6% of private Habous), and 5% are in undivided possession. A house may host up to 10 households, which means
about 70 persons. A United Nations Development Programme report (UNDP, 1992) makes mention of a specific case
study. 8 households – 53 persons – lived in a 335 square meters house – one floor and a rooftop terrace, this later being
inhabited.
68
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Foreigners generally own their house. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, several media –
newspaper articles, television documentaries – spread the idea according to which it was possible to
buy a house in one weekend. In an article of a 2004 Architecture du Maroc,69 Zerhouni (2004: 9, my
translation), writes, "[d]o you want to buy an old house in the medina? Nothing is easier. Look up
only a few minutes at one door in the city of your choice, as any curious tourist would do.
Immediately, a serious and multilingual man approaches you and manages to offer you a visit of the
most humble abode to the small palace thanks to a simple phone call. Once the venerable doorsteps
hurdled, you are dazzled in the patio with the age of sparkling enamels of zelij [i.e. mosaic] shiny
with time. Bargaining the price is all that's left to do. Any house, or thereabouts, is for sale." A fast
and simple purchase may happen. Kate, an American guest-house owner, bought her house very
quickly, "between the day I saw the house and the day I had the keys, it was something like three
days. It's nice, it happens nowhere else in the world."
In fact, one has to distinguish finding a house and buying a house. According to Jean-Marc,
a French guest-house owner, "there are 30 millions of Moroccans, there are 30 millions of real
estate agents." Visiting a house, even if a family still lives in it, is not a problem. However, buying a
house may be more complex. The number of heirs constitutes a first problem. As Abdelaziz, a
Morocco-French guest-house owner, said, "there were 17, well I do not exactly remember, but a lot
of heirs. And it was a bit difficult for them to agree on the price. But in the end, I was quite lucky.
The oldest brother was on my side and he was quite straight-laced and reliable. But behind,
members of the family resisted and tried to fiddle a bit more." Sometimes, Moroccan families split
for money matters after they sell the house.
Another problem concerns the legal procedure by the adul (i.e. traditional notary) or the
public notary. The procedure may turn complex when the house is squatted. Because squatters
occupied the house, Jawad bought it for 26 millions centimes instead of 34.70 The squatting family
refused to leave as long as Jawad didn’t find them a new accommodation and the municipality’s
authorities were not really helpful. Foreigners for their part do not hesitate to pay for former
inhabitants to leave the house once they have bought it.
Price is a last problem. Philippe, a French art historian who managed an estate agency said
that "prices have risen very quickly. There is no standard to determine the price of a house, which is
always very affective. In case of a familial house, owners evaluate it very at a very high price. And
if a neighbour sells his house at such a price, whatever the size of the house, people want to sell
theirs about the same price or more. So, some houses worth 40,000 € were sold for 200,000."
69 Bimonthly magazine dedicated to architecture
70 About 26,000 € instead of 34,000 €.
in Morocco.
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Once a house is acquired, inhabitants generally undertake construction works.71 Foreigners,
because of their desire of comfort and their economic status, go for important construction works.
They add bathrooms and big kitchens, they improve and most of the time even change the
electricity and water supplies altogether, they strip the walls and woods, they cover the open rooftop
with a removable structure, they redo most of the architectural decorations, they add a fountain or a
chimney, they replace the mosaic by tadelakt (i.e. coating made of lime and water), they build a
second staircase, they raise the height of the rooftop terrace. It often results in houses of a cream
colour with plants on the rooftop terrace and an oiled and hobnailed entrance door.
Members of institutions and foreigners often assert that Moroccan inhabitants do not
undertake construction works. However, a Harvard study (World Bank, 1995) states that both
owners and tenants living in a medina house undertaken construction works. They only differ,
however, in the amount of money they invest. Owners who do not live in their house but rent it are
not eager to undertake works and they refuse spending money in maintenance works as long as the
tribunal does not force them to do so.72 Tenants on their hand do not undertake major works, as the
owner generally does not reimburse them. Moreover, the tax system – national tax, urban tax and
income tax – favours the construction of new buildings over the restoration of older ones.
Also, contrary to the aforementioned rumour, few Moroccans, be they owners, tenants or
squatters, claimed to not having undertaken construction works in the house they live in. During my
three months stay in his family, Jawad repainted the walls in the patio before the ‘aid el Kebir (i.e.
Feast of the Sacrifice), replaced the tiles and improved the cover of the rooftop terrace for better
waterproofing before winter, set a new entrance door because the former was difficult to open, and
changed the pipes in the corridor to avoid dampness on the walls. When Sarah, a French resident,
bought her house in 2010, the owner showed her the works he had undertaken. He had widened the
staircase, built a kitchen in the patio, and replaced the old ground mosaic with modern tiles. Amal, a
Ziyarates landlady, and her husband, improved the rooftop terrace to make it cleaner – and easier to
clean – as they have a pigeon aviary. Many families I visited told me about the "minor" changes
they undertook when they entered or inherited their house. As Mohammed, a retired soldier living
in the medina and renting a house for more than 13 years told me, "makan, fia ldo, lma (i.e. Now,
there is electricity and water)."
Nonetheless, Moroccans pointed out to the expensive price of traditional materials as a
significant hurdle to overcome in going for construction works. For instance, one square metre of
I use the expression "construction works" to refer to building, maintenance, restoration, renovation or improvement
works, without distinguishing them.
72 The law about tenancy relationship favours low rents to protect tenants. For instance, in the medina, the medium rent
is 250 Dh per month, that is to say about 23 €. It doesn't encourage owners to undertake works.
71
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modern tiles costs about 120 Dh (11 €) while the same surface covered with traditional mosaic
varies between 300 (27 €) and 1,200 Dh (110 €) according to the patterns and shapes. Jawad
explained that "we look at the price before we care for the quality [of materials]. Do you
understand? Because rich people, they do things like that. But for us, the working class, if we want
to do something, we look at the price first. […] For instance [he shows me the frieze in carved
plaster running at 1.60 meter high on the four walls], it is traditional painted plaster. But it is
industrial. A gabs [i.e. plaster] worker who wants to make one metre of this needs a lot of time. So it
is expensive." In addition to financial concerns, Jawad mentioned the mediocre interest many
Moroccans have in restoration – they content themselves with "very simple works."
Moroccans owning a tourist accommodation undertake bigger construction works. Owners
in the Ziyarates programme generally upgraded their house to fit the standards and conditions of a
home-stay. For instance, many families already had an equipped kitchen with a gas cooker and not
the usual gas burner. Some built an in suite bathroom in one bedroom – Abdelhay turned a junkroom into a bathroom – or added traditional decoration in the patio – another member redid the
patio entirely. All of them had to buy furniture such as beds or bedside tables. Guest-house owners
often had to enhance the house according to the international standards of tourism. They provided
the house with moderns and comfortable amenities, efficient water and electricity supplies, and
bedrooms that would be as private as possible.
Pic. 23. Works in a house. Credit: M. Istasse
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4.2.1. Qualifications of the construction works
Informants used various words to describe the works they undertook in the house they live
in. "I tried to keep it as it was" and "I tried to redo it in the same spirit" are the two oft-heard
sentences resuming the works undertaken. Informants who undertook preservation or restoration
works mentioned their will "to restore [their] house like a historical monument" even if they had to
keep features they disliked. Informants also evoked a passion for architecture or houses, a respect
for the house, or the obligation to conform to rules as main reasons to undertake preservation works.
They did not remove old items or did not replace what was old with something identical but new.
They favoured and promoted the use traditional materials and techniques. As a consequence, the
house "remains in its original state."
Renovation or rehabilitation works consist of redoing the house in a traditional manner,
identically, in "the same spirit" but with new or external materials. Renovating amounts to reviving
old ornaments while bringing modern comfort. Antoine, the French manager of a construction
company, described renovation as bringing modern comfort while respecting the architecture and
the materials. He also underlined that he gave free rein to his imagination in finding new functions
for rooms or in creating new spaces. Abdelaziz, a Morocco-French guest-house owner, declared that
his "house deserved to be renovated purely, and I think we did it." It implied the identical
renovation of what should be renovated, and the use of the best materials – even modern ones – and
workers.
This distinction between restoration and renovation mainly depends on the relation
inhabitants have with the house. Fatima, a Moroccan architect and the owner of two guest-houses,
made clear the distinction between renovation and restoration on the basis of her personal link with
her two houses. In her view, "you feel the restoration deeply," as you contribute to something that
"has a soul." She restored her first house because it was special to her – she knew it when she was a
child, and both the 150-year-old palm tree in the courtyard and the volumes of the house impressed
her. However, she renovated the second house, that is to say she "contributed to something existing"
and not special in her opinion.
However, informants often gave conflicting opinions on how to effectively undertake
restoration or renovation works. Philippe favoured the preservation of "the least square centimetre
of antique, of the oldest former state known," whereas his workers renovated and redid the house in
an identical way with new materials. He gave me the example of mosaic (zelij) that workers
removed to redo the ground and then simply replaced. "We do that sometimes when the zelij is
wonderful but bumped and cracked. We ask the workers 'You keep it,' but they really dislike it, for it
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involves much more work and it represents a waste of time in their eyes. Once, a client selected the
zelij to keep, and the workers throw everything out! All those old zelij she had saved and put aside,
she classified by pattern... She lost everything." According to David, preservation goes through the
training of workers. Before the 1950s, Moroccans living in the medina knew how to restore houses
because they had a work of quality in plain view. But those in the know left, and nowadays
inhabitants content themselves with approximate works. They have less knowledge and know-how
than before. Little by little, however, skilled building workers come up, and it is through meticulous
restorations that things are going to improve. David took the example of his carpenter, whom he
trained by giving him several tasks and who was later hired for a national project at the Attarine
medersa (i.e. Koranic school).
Both renovation and restoration differ from improvement, which consists of bringing
comfort in a house following an idea of modernisation. According to Omar, a Moroccan guesthouse employee, "the addition of modern elements in a traditional house is not compulsory. But it is
unavoidable. Modern elements improve comfort and make life easier." Improvements depend on the
inhabitants' priorities and needs in terms of electricity and water supplies, electric devices (washing
machine, television, air conditioning), facilities (kitchen, bathroom), and aesthetic (plant pots on the
rooftop terrace, coloured lights in the fountain).
As Emma, an Australian guest-house owner, declared about her will to have a Western
bathroom, "I don't know if in the medina they call it an improvement. But to me, it is an
improvement and even a priority." Also, in Jawad’s house, I benefited from a modern toilet and a
shower because the father, after several surgeries, couldn't use a traditional toilet. Aside from
bathrooms, staircases constitute a second touchstone in improving a house. "[In the patio], you had
a fountain, and behind the fountain, a staircase. The angle of the stairs was about 45 degrees. And
the staircase was narrow, 70 centimetres maximum. Of course, if you had missed one stair, you
would have fallen and probably killed yourself. Absolutely impracticable. So I said, I'll welcome
tourists in this house, the staircase must be comfortable" (Benoit, French guest-house owner).
Among other kinds of works, informants mentioned maintenance and "must do" works,
ranging from daily housework to basic and essential works. Only a few spoke of destruction, and
most of the time, they did so to qualify the "stripping" of the house (walls and wooden elements) or
the destruction of a ceiling to build a bathroom. Informants barely spoke of retrieval even if they
practiced it. They retrieved materials such as wood to save money and to keep everything in the
house. For instance, some kept pieces of wood to turn them into footboards, or used former doors
recovered with glass as tables.
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People in charge of undertaking and controlling construction works – architects, members of
institutions – had specific ideas about which works to undertake and how. Young Moroccan
architect Meriem claimed she had "a liberal approach and philosophy of restoration and
conservation." According to her, "when you dig into those buildings, you don’t discover one period
of time but layers of several historical periods. So, to restore identically leads to this question: to
restore identically, but from the first, the second, or the third period? And why not follow the
technical and material evolution instead of following the museification approach to restoration that
freezes a certain period of time? Why not restore with modern materials, with nowadays
techniques? Scientific progress is such that it would be stupid not to make the most of it."
Jean-Paul Ichter is a French architect and urban planner who has been working for more
than 50 years in Fez. Former Inspector of Urbanism but still working as an architect, he also headed
the Association Fès Demain, concerned with the future urban development of the Fez medina. In his
view, cities are similar to a living organism whose cells end up dying and "houses collapse
[because] life doesn't circulate anymore. […] In the medina, people live in holes. It is not a city
anymore, it is a ghetto for poor people." He had no problem in using modern materials such as
concrete to restore and build houses. He justified it with the prosthesis metaphor. When a surgeon
cuts a leg, he could replace it by a piece of wood, but also by plastic and metal to have a more
efficient leg. He also underlined the fact that Lyautey used concrete in the Bouanania medersa [i.e.
Koranic school] "and nobody sees it, nobody knows it, because it is invisible."
Antoine, the French manager of a construction company, also had no problem in using
modern materials when needed. He used normal steel girders for they are cheaper and stronger than
cedar wood beams. These metal beams are also more ecological than wood and the metal aspect can
be easily hidden behind thin wood strips. He also built a completely new tower in a garden and used
concrete for the underpinnings. In his view, the problem relies less in the use of modern materials
than in their characteristics. The qualities of concrete make its use difficult and dangerous in
traditional buildings because it fixes the building and doesn't allow it to move together with
surrounding buildings. As a consequence, it provokes collapsing or deterioration within the house or
within the neighbouring ones. He also made sure to not mix cement or concrete with sand and lime
mortars because concrete does not allow walls to breathe, and he insisted on security when one
choice had to be made over the other – he always proposed to his clients the price with traditional
materials and the price with modern ones, the latter being cheaper. For instance, he always fixed a
crack with traditional bricks.
On the other hand, David avoided modern materials to restore his house. David claimed he
inscribed himself in the more Western general trend of restoration consisting in not redoing
104
everything identically, but in redoing the necessary with traditional materials. For instance, he used
old wood to improve the deteriorated parts of the salon doors and after more than 10 years of work,
he still didn't have a kitchen or a bathroom. His main concern had to do with the former condition to
which the house could be brought back. According to him, a frieze in one salon had been added 100
years ago, and was "too much" in the decoration of the room. He then decided to remove it sooner
or later. But in the patio, the white and black marble paving, with blue, white, black and orange
small zelij (i.e. mosaic) in between was probably 80 years old, and there should be another zelij
underneath. But he wondered if he should remove the new paving to come back to the older (not
knowing its condition) or to leave it. He followed the latter, partly because the marble paving
matched his taste.
However, he didn’t always look at the aesthetic aspect of architecture. He wanted pencil
marks to be visible on the wood after the stripping, and described them as "patina." He didn't mind
that two coatings with different colours mixed on the condition that they were as traditional as
possible. However, as he was talking about the wall coating he had made redone some five years
ago, he showed and touched the wall. The new sand coloured coating partly crumbled – dust from
the coating stayed on his finger. The old one, of a white colour because of whitewashing, probably
about 200 year-old according to him, was still in perfect condition. There was no dust, nothing that
would stick to his fingers after touching it. In his view, it was a proof that builder workers are less
skilled than before.
In addition to theoretical concerns, Fettah added a practical aspect in construction works.
Craft isn't a written art, for the craftsman expresses himself while making the building. As a
consequence, one has to observe the craftsman at work and to train. He himself got trained with
houses belonging to foreigners – he was responsible for the Riad Al Bartal and Riad Laroussa
restorations – before restoring his own house. On the basis of this idea of restoration, he questioned
the efficiency of architects and experts in heritage restoration who, as they do not live in the
medina, do not have required knowledge to restore a house but tend to "museify" them, "to make
them a tomb for art."
Finally, we find institutional definitions of restoration, rehabilitation and renovation. Some
are specific to Fez. In the 1997 Master Plan (cf. appendix p. 343), restoration applied to "any
building listed or nominated on the national heritage list or evaluated as having a value by the
governmental authority in charge of cultural affairs and the agency in charge of the Fez Medina
safeguard." Restoration can then occur in zones M1, M2 and M3 defined by the Master Plan.
Rehabilitation concerns "any traditional building involving improvements and the implementation
of facilities and services for the inhabitant's well-being." Finally, renovation is "authorised for a
105
building without value or a ruin to rebuild." For each category, the Master Plan lists what is allowed
and what is forbidden, the materials and techniques to use, the features to preserve, the amenities
and supplies to provide. More than the actions undertaken, these definitions are based on the kind of
building and its value.
Other definitions apply in international institutions. Conservation is at the core of the Getty
Conservation Institute manual about values and heritage conservation (Getty Institute, 2000).
Knowing heritage values in specific contexts allows determining what and how to conserve. In a
wide definition, conservation is a complex social practice, involving all the fields of heritage
preservation: academic studies, technical interventions, and political publications. In a narrower
definition, conservation is a physical intervention, a specific treatment. Conservation requires an
integrated approach of all the fields involved in carrying the best possible intervention. However in
practice several fields succeed one another chronologically, according to an interest given to
heritage (archaeological excavation, movement of a community), its protection (evaluation and
listing of heritage), its management (managers are responsible for it) and interventions on it
(academics, architects, archaeologists are consulted).
The wide span of works and theories then make difficult the classification of works as it
gives free room to a great diversity in realising these works and to debates about the values
underlying construction works.
4.2.2. Values in construction works
In their discourses about construction works, informants referred to the respect of the house
or its architectural layout and features that they tried to apply. For instance, they avoided opening
walls and preferred running the electric cables along the walls. Guy, a French tourist
accommodation owner, was about to break some "ugly" mosaic when he started the construction
works. He finally kept it because the elements were so thin and the work was so refined that it
would have been a crime to remove it. Informants also said they respected the spirit of the house.73
This spirit replaces tradition and authenticity when these two are impossible to find out and
reproduce – the house is in ruin – or impossible to live in – displays and fittings are too precarious.
Simon, a French guest-house owner, found his house too sober in architectural decoration and
"typical of the Art Deco style." He decided to add some carved plaster around doors and windows in
the patio. He underlined that he respected "the spirit of tradition" by taking inspiration from the
73 For
more information about the spirit of the house, cf. infra p. 229.
106
original patterns in other rooms and by hiring medina craftsmen. "We didn't really respect the
original architecture, but we added some details to be closer to the Fassi architecture." In his view,
the recurrence and permanence through time of Islamic architectural principles facilitates the
preservation of the house's spirit.
Oldness is another value. On the one hand, oldness justifies which kind of materials and
techniques to use. In 2009, Hamza decided to build his guest-house in a "traditional way."
According to him, his house shares the same features as other medina houses except in terms of
oldness. Amélie and her husband, a couple who owns a guest-house and a private house, built
additional rooms in concrete in the guest-house because this house was not so old – built in the
early 1940s – and was already built with concrete. On the other hand, oldness raises the issue of the
older state of the house to conform to. Similarly to David’s issue with the frieze and the pavement,
Valentin, a French pilot owning three houses, said he should renovate the oldest one as a printing
shop if he took as basis the 20th century house. He should focus on painting on a 19th century basis,
and he should remove the house elevation, if it was to be in keeping with 18th century models. He
doesn't have information dating back to the 17th century about his house.
The values of tradition and authenticity74 generally raised debates. To support their stance
for or against swimming pools in the patio, informants recalled the argument of tradition. On the
one hand, they asserted that swimming pools are not at odds with Fassi houses and may replace
fountains and pools. On the other hand, "digging a swimming pool" to them was tantamount to
"mutilating the patio." Loïc, a French guest-house owner, thought a swimming pool "disfigures the
house, and the patio is not done for it. I rather agree with a fountain with a more or less big pool,
because it brings freshness, it is more or less traditional." In the guest-house managed by Aziz, the
swimming pool is located in another building because "we do not destroy a patio to dig a swimming
pool. A traditional house is worth more than a swimming pool. It has a lot of value. We cannot
destroy it. It is a heritage." In addition to a traditional argument, the swimming pool detractors have
the law on their side. Nobody has the right to dig a swimming pool and the term "swimming pool"
is forbidden in the architectural plans. Some added a moral accusation: "water is expensive, and it is
not ecological," said Gigi. Finally, guest-house owners sometimes mentioned a functional
accusation. Swimming pools are too small to swim in, they keep dampness going in the house, and
swimmers disturb other guests because of the noise.
Tradition also appeared in debates about materials and techniques. Informants then
connected tradition to the revitalisation and use of craft works. Foreigners generally underlined they
participated to the conservation of threatened traditional occupations such as tillers, plasterers,
74
Informants didn't distinguish them in their discourses, so do I.
107
carpenters by hiring traditional workers to undertake their construction works. Informants also
made clear that by undertaking works in their house, they saved it just as they strengthened nearby
houses. Some foreigners didn’t hesitate to go for works in the house of their neighbours because
these latter were too poor to fix their house or because the house was seriously threatening their
own house.
Scholars often oppose tradition and authenticity to fake. The inauthentic and the fake are by
no means new issues in historical centres. In a study of Troyes’ historical centre, Hsu (2005: 187)
raises the issue of "façadisme." According to him, the expression "to rebuilt identically" is
problematic. Rebuilding involves a former demolition and not especially a reconstitution or
restitution of architectural features after documents and archaeological information. The identical
and the traditional are then myths. More generally, the respect of tradition also creates the risk of
"fake olds" (Gravari-Barbas, 2005: 150). In Fez, Catherine, a French architect hired for the
Millenium Challenge Corporation programme, shared this concern. The risk with renovation and
rehabilitation is to fall into pastiche, an imitation realised with traditional materials but at odds with
the building or the needs of inhabitants. According to Owens (2002), pastiche and pretence occur
when there is a discursive heterogeneity without norms and result in the production of dead styles,
pseudo-replica of something that has never existed, of Disneyland.
Rather than an issue with fake, informants stressed the opposition between tradition and
modernity. Foreigners generally wanted comfortable houses looking "traditional" while Moroccans
preferred a "modern" house satisfying the basic needs. Michel, a French resident, made his new
doors look older by using chemicals. According to a British owner, foreigners do respect tradition
because they want houses that "emit authenticity." Moroccan inhabitants mentioned works related to
comfort, security and waterproofing. Some also reached comfort by moving from one house to
another. A couple living formerly in a flat moved in 2002 to a house because the flat was too small
for a family with a newborn child. The same family has installed a "Western" bathroom – with
separate toilet, shower and sink – in order to "live comfortably" in their new house.
A closer look at the Moroccan Arabic words allows refining this opposition between the
traditional and the modern. In Moroccan Arabic, beldi (i.e. traditional, from the country) is often
opposed to rumi (i.e. industrial, modern, foreign). The way of doing and the geographic origin
support the distinction. Another couple of terms blurs the distinction. Qdim (i.e. old) relates to jdid
(i.e. new). According to Jawad, "when you enter into a house, you don't know if it [i.e. mosaic] is
old or new. But it is traditional. We can use techniques to make the zelij [i.e. mosaic] look older.
The most important is the Moroccan way of doing this."
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More than in its relation to "new", "old" is problematic in its relation to "traditional". In this
case, old refers to the age, the oldness, while traditional is a way of doing typical of the country. The
difference lies in the quality of the final product: the "new traditional" is said to be of Chinese
quality. If the "old traditional" interests foreigners, Moroccans can rather afford the "industrial
traditional". For instance, and for evident economic reasons, Moroccans try to give a modern aspect
to their house by adding colourful lights in the fountain, by buying modern tiles, or by hiding what
is squalid behind plywood. Finally, Moroccans usually associate the old with a negative meaning of
being too old, old-fashioned. Jawad said that foreigners "prefer seeing the thing as it is. By contrast
here, people like when it is old, but looking new. It is our culture. If you enter a house and you find
shutters with old paintings, you think the tenant does not take care of the shutters."
Authenticity and tradition then have a double meaning, that of roots linked with the past and
oldness (qdim) and that of roots linked with a local origin (beldi).
4.2.3. Institutions responsible for the construction works
Before undertaking construction works, inhabitants have to ask for a permit (cf. infra p. 113)
and to conform to rules. Several institutions are responsible for these legal and written rules whose
respect they monitor on the building site.
The baladiya, or the Fez Medina urban municipality,75 is the place where inhabitants submit
a request for permits related to construction works. The baladiya issues permits after architects
from the municipality Plan Department checked the demand with regards to the urban regulation.
The 1946 vizier decree, transformed into the 1969 regulation of roadways and construction,
regulates the height of buildings (maximum 11 meters), forbids any balcony that doesn't respect the
road alignment and the use of materials such as reed and thatch, declares the patio must be
minimum 40% of the plot's surface (minimum 36 square meters), and constrains to redo the facade
painting every 3 years. The baladiya also looks at the Master Plan or SDAU (Schéma Directeur
d'Aménagement Urbain). This Master Plan is a general framework providing guidelines to design
development options and new urban areas, to localise various zones and areas to renovate, and to
define cleaning up principles. On its basis, architects and urban planners implement the Planning
Plan (PA), the Zoning Plan (PZ) and the Development Plan (PD). In Fez, an international architect
and urban planner office managed by Michel Pinseau designed the last Master Plan that was
approved in 1991 and is available until 2015. This Master Plan updates the one designed in the
1970s, the SDUF (Schéma Directeur d'Urbanisme de Fès), before the listing of the medina as a
75
Region of Fez-Boulemane, Prefecture of Fez, Urban municipality of Fez, Arrondissement of Fez-Medina.
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World Heritage site.
The Safeguard and Urban Agency of Fez (AUSF) provides the city with the Planning Plan
and parts of the Master Plan. This public institution created by dahir76 in 1991 is a local antenna of
the Ministry of Housing, Urbanism and City Policy. Its main official document is the Code of
Urbanism. In Fez, AUSF has a fourfold mission. It is responsible for urban planning, for controlling
the conformity between urban projects and urban documents, for implementing urban and
rehabilitation projects, and for helping private and public companies in the urbanism field. The
adjective "Safeguard" is specific to the Fez Urban Agency, underlining its concern with heritage. In
that aim, a cell, the conservation and safeguard of the medina, was created in 2001, but it had been
discontinued by the time of my fieldwork time.
Heritage is under the responsibility of the former Agency for the De-densification and
Rehabilitation of the medina, and what is known today as the Agency for the Development and the
Rehabilitation of the Fez medina (henceforth ADER). Replacing the Fez City Safeguard Delegation
(DSVF) created in 1978, ADER was born in 1989 as a public institution but it became a public
limited company in the early 2000s because of financial problems – bribery within ADER and
problems of public funding. This technical authority of the medina is invested with the mission to
"carry out programmes related to the safeguarding of Fez according to governmental prerogative."
It means fulfilling general aims – to adapt the medina to its demographic and economic evolution –
as well as undertaking specific works – to prevent houses from collapsing, to rehouse inhabitants
and activities moving out from the medina – and data collecting. ADER employees created a
Geographic Information System (GIS) providing detailed data about the medina. This GIS includes
maps77 and detailed information about the two third of medina houses – up to 30 different features
for each house. This database serves as a planning and management tool and provides the
cartographic support for the rehabilitation plan launched by ADER in 1995 but now under the
supervision of the Urban Agency.
In the medina, ADER propped up buildings, set up tourism circuits assorted with a
guidebook (Aouni and El Faïz, 2005) with the help of others institutions, and established three
kinds of programmes to financially and technically help Moroccan inhabitants undertaking works in
their house. The first is the emergency intervention when a house collapses or is about to do so.
ADER takes in charge the propping up, the possible evacuation of inhabitants and demolition of the
building. In the second programme, ADER funds 50% of the works. Owners of a house in decay
must provide documents proving they own the house. They then get involved with ADER as they
agree to restore their house in a traditional way, with the research department providing it with
76
77
Dahir n° 1.93.51 of Rabia I 1414 (10 Septembre 1993) about Urban Agencies.
Cf. appendix p. 367 for an example.
110
architectural documents, and with the restoration firm they choose. ADER pays the research
department – maximum 7,000 Dh (about 625 €) – and half of the works' costs, estimated at
maximum 120,000 Dh (about 10,700 €). ADER gives maximum 60,000 Dh (about 5,360 €) with a
possible extension of 20,000 Dh (about 1,785 €) if the house is important or big. ADER undertakes
any kind of work – except furnishing – with traditional materials – cedar wood for the ceilings,
solid bricks for the walls, traditional mortars with sand and lime, mosaic. ADER funds 100% of the
works in the last programme that concerns shored houses in serious decay. After a lawyer working
for ADER has contacted the owner of the threatening house, and if the latter doesn’t answer or
cannot afford them, ADER starts the works. In no case tourist accommodations are accepted.
ADER employees generally face problems in the implementation of these programmes.
First, they lack recognition among inhabitants. "Most people call us UNESCO. When they see
people propping up houses, they say it is the State or UNESCO. They do not really know ADER,
especially the illiterates" (Lamya, ADER technician). Also, "ADER is an administration, and its
image is a bit... It is not usual for an administration to give money. Moroccan inhabitants think there
is something behind" (Saad, former ADER employee). Moreover, inhabitants must evacuate during
the works and find another place to stay while they have no money to rent another room. Jawad’s
brother and his family, for instance, came to Jawad’s house during the 4-month restoration works in
his house. To these problems, Saad added problems of overlapping competences with other
institutions, such as the Urban Agency, and "communicational problems" mainly with the
Inspection of Historical Monuments. Each institution sees the other as a rival while they are not in
charge of the same missions. Finally, some employees pointed to the scarcity of human, material
and economic resources. Strikes often occurred in 2011, but they didn't reach the 1999 result, that is
to say the dismissal of the first director, Abdelatif Hajjami, accused of embezzlement and
subsequently replaced by Fouad Serghini.
Journalists for their part point out a lack of efficiency in the management of ADER.78 For
instance, a 30% financial help programme replaced the 50% one in 2007. Saad recalled that after
the end of the World Bank project in 2006, the Moroccan Government couldn’t give the same
amount of money in order to continue the 50% programme. The "failure" is also due to wider
political purposes, "because ADER had its own strategy, but politicians decide everything. And after
‘aïn Khaïl [a mosque] collapsed [in 2003],79 the most important was the ruin threatening
programme. […] Politicians don't want ‘aïn Khaïl to happen again, they don't want dead people
78 For instance, http://www.leconomiste.com/article/fes-crise-de-financement-lader;
http://www.leconomiste.com/article/ader-ca-glande-fes
‘aïn Khaïl is a mosque that collapsed in 2003 killing 11 persons. For more information, here is the file related to the
mosque: http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/articlespdf/ain.pdf
79
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anymore. And then, it is not up to the technician to decide. It is the public image of the medina that
is at stake." ADER focused on ruins and houses threatening with collapse "because we are afraid of
people dying," as Lamya said.
Informants also criticised ADER for taking too much time and money and for employing
unskilled "lambda civil servants." "In the house of my father, they [i.e. ADER] placed props inside
6 years ago. But they never came back! 6 years! People have time to die in 6 years! And the house
is ugly! 6 years, it is too long," Omar declared. He also complained that the remaining funding be
still too expensive in the context of the 30 or 50% financial help programme. "Why? Because they
[i.e. ADER members] want the house back to its initial state. I agree, but did the price of materials
remained the same as before? Of course not! Prices are not the same as before." Finally, according
to Fettah, ADER is a "association de façade" ("fictive association") wasting its time with small
houses without any interested instead of restoring historically and architecturally valued houses. On
the one hand, ADER doesn't satisfy the goals it was created for, namely to restore the medina and to
train craftsmen. On the other hand, and most importantly, ADER employees do not work with the
master craftsmen. "I'm sure ADER cannot replace the master craftsman’s opinion. It claims to do so,
but it is unable to represent him, because it is an administrative organisation. But the master
craftsman is a hand-on man (field expert), who makes pragmatic and practical decisions. […] We
should listen to the master craftsman. His opinion comes from experience, field practice, and not
from a theory."
Finally, heritage is the main responsibility of the Inspection of Historical Monuments. This
administration belongs to the Ministry of Culture and, within the latter, to the Division of Cultural
Heritage. As the medina has been a national heritage since 1954, the Inspection members control
the respect of regulations about national heritage (laws related to the protection of monuments and
sites). It means that no works can be undertaken in a listed building without the prior authorisation
and the control of the Inspector. However, only 25 buildings are listed in Fez. The Inspection also
represents UNESCO in Fez, as there is no UNESCO office in the city. The Inspector writes both the
periodical report – every 6 years – and the state of conservation report – every 3 years – and
informs UNESCO about huge projects and restoration works threatening the integrity and
authenticity of the medina. The last time a UNESCO consultant came there was in 2009, for the
Ouislane project (construction of a residential, commercial and tourist resort in the buffer zone).80
Beyond the medina, the Inspection is in charge of heritage, that is to say monuments and
sites, in the Fez-Boulemane region. Its action covers two main areas, namely listing heritage and
undertaking works. The Inspector and its 8 employees carry out researches and inventories, and
80
http://whc.unesco.org/archive/2006/mis170-2005.pdf for the report.
112
propose and control files of cultural heritage elements to list. The Inspection members also
undertake works in listed buildings. In 2006, the Inspection was in charge of excavations during the
restoration works of the Qaraouiyine mosque and in 2011, it transformed the ablution room at the
Bouanania medersa (i.e. a Koranic school) into an exhibition room. Finally, the Inspection members
control restoration and rehabilitation works undertaken by other institutions and private owners in
order to check their conformity to national heritage regulations. Hassan, a member of this
Inspection, makes sure everybody respects official rules, "the rules of protection and the principles
of restoration and rehabilitation." A restoration is a success "each time that a place is rehabilitated
following the traditional way and with the monitoring of the Inspection." It means to attend to the
commission delivering work permits, and to control on the field the work undertaken on the field.
The Inspector mainly controls the respect of the architectural structure – the disposal, the plan of the
house – and of the architectural decoration itself.
4.2.4. Work permits
Each of the aforementioned institution participates to issuing permits. Any work in a house
and in the medina implies a work permit issued by the baladiya. Applicants submit a work request
at the baladiya Plan Department that controls the conformity of the project to the Master Plan, the
Planning Plan and the urban regulations. According to an architect of this department, "this Plan is
the law, and anybody who does not respect it is refused [to carry on with works] until the plan is
modified." In case of non-conformity, the works have to be stopped until the problem is solved.
There are three kinds of work permits.81 A V1 (Voirie 1 or binaa) authorises major changes,
notably in the structure of the house – to destroy walls, or to build new rooms for instance. A letter
of request and architectural plans – the location of the house, the existing building, the
modifications, each of them according to different sections – compose a complete file. A
commission headed by the President of the communal council and composed by several institutions
controls the application and helps the baladiya according to their competence. The Urban Agency
members check the conformity to urban plans, the Inspector of Historic Monument checks the
respect of traditional architecture, the Firemen Service checks the security, the baladiya technicians
and architects check the architectural plan. The baladiya health service, ADER, the national college
of architects and technicians from RADEEF82 are also part of this commission. A V2 (Voirie 2 or
Cf. appendix p. 368 for the leaflet given by the municipality about the kinds of work inhabitants can undertake and
the relate files to submit to the municipality.
82 Régie Autonome Intercommunal de Distribution d'Eau et d'Electricité de Fès – Intercommunal Public Company of
Water and Electricity Supply.
81
113
islah) is necessary for minor changes. There is no need for a file with architectural plans, and no
commission checks: the application is simply approved or not.
There is also practice permit for tourist accommodations, to warrant the appellation guesthouses and location de meublé.83 The baladiya issues the work permit, following the same steps
than for a V1, but a second commission controls the practice permit request, which is issued by the
Bacha (i.e. city Governor). Headed by members of the Ministry of Tourism, this commission is also
composed of members of the Regional Tourism Council, of the Fire Service, of the Police and of the
baladiya. They check the conformity to the Charter of Guest-houses84 enacted by the Ministry of
Tourism in 2003. This Charter defines the guidelines to follow in order to be categorised and
authorised as a tourist accommodation. For instance, guest-houses should have at least five
bedrooms with in-suite bathrooms, traditional architectural decoration, and a room for the
employees. Once he has the practice permit, the owner has to pay taxes and duties, such as the
value-added tax, a duty to the Ministry of Tourism of 8 Dh (0.7 €) per host and night and a duty to
the municipality of 15 or 30 Dh (1.3 or 2.6 €) per host and night according to the category of tourist
accommodation. In order to be fully official, the owner has to ask a third kind of permit 30 days
after the practice permit has been approved. This permit is the listing as a guest-house of first or
second category, or as a location de meublé. A third commission issues this listing. The Ministry of
Tourism, the Regional Tourism Council, the Regional Association of Guest-houses85 (ARMH), the
local authority (qaïd of the neighbourhood) and both the Health Service and the Social and
Economic Service of the Wilaya are part of the regional commission for listing.
Owners of tourist accommodations can ask an alcohol license to the Sureté Nationale
(National Safety) if they want to serve wine in their house. Another non-compulsory but
nonetheless highly recommended legal process when buying a house useful consists in the
registration of the house at the land register. An adul (i.e. traditional notary) usually has all the
information and official documents of the houses he is in charge of. However, a public notary is
necessary to register the house, which costs money but allows avoiding bad surprises. For instance,
Michel, a French resident, bought a non-registered house. He hired a public notary who noticed that
the former owner was not a 100% owner: somebody else owned 5% of the house. The adul didn’t
know this person, but thanks to the public notary, this individual was found, his part bought, and
Michel could become the full owner of the house.
Two weeks in the municipal archives gave me an overview of the work permit issuing
83 This permit is specific to Fez
84 Cf. appendix p. 370.
85 http://www.armh-fes.com/
and concern houses with less than five bedrooms for welcoming guests.
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process. I went through the V1s issued between 1925 and 1982.86 After they had received a file, the
commission members wrote advice according to the respect of plans – architectural plans and the
Master Plan –, the respect of tradition – no shop in a residential area, not to build oversized houses
and rooms in detriment of the patio or the road, not too much openings to the street –, the historical
value of the house and its age, the stability of the house – threatening ruin, threatening the
neighbouring houses, too weak to support works, too dilapidated – and the threat of over-population
and public nuisance. In case of an approval, members of the commission underlined the necessity of
the works to reinforce and restore buildings. In case of a deferral, they asked the applicant to
conform to the original architectural plans, to suppress openings or a floor, to complete the file, to
ask an official engineer to come, to take inspiration from the traditional architecture. Members of
the commission refused a request when the works had been undertaken without any permit, or in a
non-building land. They then asked whether to stop the works, or to demolish what had been done.
In any of the three cases, the municipal architect asked members of the urban department to check
the conformity with the Master Plan. In no case did any member refer to heritage or the listing to
justify an advice or a decision. Respect, tradition and official rules – but not heritage – were the
main referents.
The procedure has barely changed since the early 1980s. An architect working at the
baladiya Plan Department however pointed out a shift in the kind and the number of permits issued.
In the early 1980s and until 1997/98, most applicants were private owners asking to add a wall or a
floor in their house, or to redo the rooftop waterproofing. The architect added that the number of
issued permits raised in the early 1990. The baladiya issued 60 V1 in 1990, 10 in 1991, 24 in 1993
and 6 in 1994. It also issued 424 V2 in 1990, 484 in 1991, 600 in 1993 and 613 (out of 702 files) in
1994. These figures of work permit issued before the arrival of foreigners – who undertook
numerous construction works – show that Moroccan inhabitants at least care about maintenance
works.
However, since the late 1990s, the Moroccan State and other institutions also ask work
permits, with for instance the current project in R'Cif and Bin Lamdoun which consists in the
improvement of the riverbanks. Private owners or tenants for their part apply less and less for
permits because the cost of stamps needed to formalise a permit have been increasing steadily. For
instance, in order to ask for a V2, the applicant needs to buy a 500 Dh (45 €) stamp, which used to
cost 20 Dh (1.8 €) 30 years ago. Once the baladiya has issued the permit, the applicant has to pay
500 Dh (45 €) to the tax office for a stamp validating the permits for three months. This stamp can
With all the methodological precautions it supposes for each year, and a fortiori each file, is far from being complete.
A civil servant working at the archives told me they lost many documents they moved to their new building six years
earlier. Also, stories about civil servants burning archives are quite common.
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be extended three times, after paying the same amount of money each time.
4.2.5. Bypassing the rules
This description of rules and legal procedures is essential in order to depict how applicants
and members of institutions play with and behave in regards these rules and procedures. I remember
of a particular sentence I didn't weight the importance of when the man, a foreigner who had shown
his credentials to me, told me "Oh, but rules you know…." Precisely: I didn't know, and I shared
this position of neophyte with many Moroccan and foreign informants. They had to deal with
multiple institutions and to conform to numerous rules and it took them some time – as it took me –
to have a clear overview of this multiplicity and its entanglements when it was not already too late
and that inhabitants had become illegal.
As a prelude, I want to emphasise that talking about the rules and regulations with
informants was not always easy. Some – mainly foreigners – vividly talked about rules to criticise
them after they had faced problems. But as a Moroccan guest-house owner declared: "I cannot tell
you. The President of the Guest-house Association could give you more information. But I cannot
tell you anything because I don't know anything." Generally, Moroccan inhabitants didn’t talk much
about rules. Either they saw no problem with the rules or they pretended they didn't know anything.
In the following, I didn't forget Moroccans, but as I didn't find a strong claim in Fez, I do not raise
their voice in this written report.
Some informants directly bypassed the rules. They did not ask or respect permits. They did
not ask because they did not know about the rules, or they considered asking for a permit to be a
waste of time and money compared to the tiny works they aimed to undertake – to raise the height
of a wall, to widen a window. According to a French resident, work permits and more particularly
the V2, are ridiculous and "take the piss out of us!" Other informants considered that it was the role
of the State to intervene and, in the absence of any intervention, they could do what they can, that is
to say nothing or bypass the rules.
Others did not ask – consciously or not – for the right work permit. One restored and
improved several houses with V2, based on the fact that commissions were generally turning a blind
eye on private houses. Sometimes, informants changed the nature of the works after they had asked
for a permit and they had started the works. Foreigners who decided to turn their house into a tourist
accommodation once they became aware the works cost too much money are a good case in point.
As a consequence, since 2011, any applicant has to sign a written notification at the baladiya stating
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that, not having asked for a guest-house or location de meublé work permit, he is not going to
undertake such works, or at least not without asking the baladiya for a new permit. According to an
architect of the baladiya, this notification doesn't limit the owner's freedom to do what he wants
with his house, but prevents problems as the rules for a house and for a tourist accommodation are
different.
Finally, informants did not call architects or follow their advices. On the one hand, a
Moroccan shopkeeper restored several houses "and I never asked for an architect, not on my life!"
On the other hand, Fettah underlined the fact that architects were unskilled to work in the medina as
they were trained and had their office in the New City. They then couldn't know how houses work
in the medina and how to restore them.
Pic. 24. Savage construction works.
Credit: M. Istasse
Both Moroccans and foreigners bypassed the rules, but foreigners made a difference
between themselves and Moroccans. The idea, shared by many foreigners, is that foreigners respect
rules because they are used to them, while Moroccans know the system. A French resident asserted
that "Moroccans pay bakshish [i.e. bribery] to have a swimming pool in their patio or to raise the
high of the rooftop above the 13 legal centimetres, and they obtain permits because they know how
it works." Some Moroccans added that foreigners might have difficulties with permits because they
do not speak the language.
Aside from direct bypassing, many informants mentioned problems related to permits.
Foreigners depicted a complex process and accused a lack of clear guidelines. A former ADER
employee admitted that "there is a problem. Nothing is said about what is a good intervention on
historic building, particularly to private owners. When they arrive and are eager to restore houses,
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they should find laws, frameworks, or rules, something to undertake a proper intervention."
Foreigners also mentioned the feeling of running in circles, as a foreign guest-house owner, did. "It
became clear within the first week that everything I had been told about why it is a good idea to
invest in Morocco wasn't true. So much trouble. I needed a loan from the bank to do the restoration.
To get the loan, I had to have a carte de séjour [i.e. residence permit]. To get the carte de séjour, I
had to have a practice permit to operate the guest-house. To get this permit, you have to finish the
restoration, which I couldn't finish without the loan. I was running in a circle." Foreigners finally
complained about the gap between a Moroccan policy to attract foreign investors in the country and
the difficulty to invest money once in Morocco.
Although foreigners complained, they did not enter into an association to claim for more
open procedures. Firstly, they were not aware of any institution or association able to help them.
Secondly, they thought that powerful people managed institutions and looked for money instead of
defending their members or citizens. Finally, after having faced their own problems, gone through
their own processes and overcome their own hurdles, they were tired and didn’t feel like fighting
anymore. As a consequence, they avoided problems by adopting and keeping a low profile. As a
French guest-house owner put it, "I want peace and tranquillity. Since the beginning, I follow the
chameleon motto. That is to say I get lost in the crowd. Nobody can see me, I do not make waves."
Nonetheless, a kind of common action occurred in 2006. A French guest-house owner
described it as such: "So, the Bacha [i.e. city Governor] had heard about major problems in
obtaining the practice permit. He organised a huge meeting at the Préfecture. It was in… let's say,
we already had the suites [in our guest-house], so let's say [it was in] 2006/2007. We were called in,
as we didn't have the permit. […] And then it was very interesting. For once, all the authorities were
present, and a lot of guest-house owners had come. And everybody talked, and criticised openly
how it had been difficult for them to have the permit. And [my husband] said 'Listen, honestly, it
has been five years we have been waiting for the permit. We fit the rules. The commission came
several times, and each time they added a new problem that is not justified.’ So the Bacha answered
'Now, I'm fed up with low status employees issuing permits while they aren’t skilled themselves, do
not know what a guest-house is, and have never travelled.' He said that in front of everybody. And,
surprise, we were issued the permit the following day."
This narrative is interesting for several reasons. First of all, this event occurred after many
foreigners had complained to their Embassy or to the Regional or Prefecture authorities. Many
foreigners told me they were at the base of this movement because their complaint was the decisive
one. Secondly, it indeed resulted in a wave of permit issuing and in the punctual creation of a
category – this category is now closed and is not delivered anymore – specific to Fez for houses
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with less than five bedrooms, the location de meublé.
Aside from this punctual event, there are two options to face the administrative
complexities. With the first, applicants received the help of a high status employee. A French guesthouse owner went to the Mayor and received his help. "So, I went to the baladiya. And when I
arrived, the same guy said 'But you cannot [have the permit].' So, I called the number [the Mayor
had given to me] and I said 'I'm in front of him and he doesn't want.' And he answered 'Wait, do not
move, stay where you are. Sparks will fly!' So I stayed in the office. And you know, in the office,
there is nothing. A table, three pieces of paper. They are administrators, but you wonder where they
store documents. And suddenly, I hear a phone ringing. I even didn't know where the phone was. I
thought it was in a sugar box in a cupboard. So I heard, the guy opened a cupboard, took a phone,
and I heard him repeating 'Wakha sidi, wakha. Wakha sidi, Wakha [i.e. Yes sir, of course sir].' He
said at least 25 wakha. He hang up and said 'Welcome in Morocco. You know important people in
Fez. You will have the V2 in the following minute'." The second option is bribery.
3.2.5.1. Bribery87
For some, bribery – more than corruption – rests at the core of the administrative system.
"The matter is not to do it [i.e. undertaking construction works] correctly but whose palm you
grease," said a foreign guest-house owner. Everything becomes possible if you pay. A French guesthouse owner was not shy about telling people how he gave canned foie gras de canard to the qaïd
(i.e. chief of a neighbourhood) in order to avoid problems. But in general, many informants held an
anti-bribery discourse and they claimed they had never partaken in it. They presented themselves as
examples of no-bribery paying. "Rules exist, one had to conform to them, and there is no problem."
A foreign guest-house owner decided not to pay anybody because employees in the administration
rotate and he would have had to pay often. He obtained the work permit in 15 days and the practice
permit in 20 days without paying any bakshish. Others, in spite of their anti-bribery discourse,
admitted they had to pay at some point. A French resident said, "you are trapped into a fishing
basket, and you have no more choice. Even if people are kind, they always manage to lead you to
the point where your only option is to pay."
Anti-bribery informants accused specific actors of fuelling the bribery system. Rich and
In their overview of the fight against corruption, scholars (Aboudrar, 2005) underline it has won in visibility and
formality since the early 2000s, and more particularly since the recognition of Transparency Morocco in 1997. Other
scholars try to understand its spread, perceptions and mechanisms (Rosen, 2002; Akesbi, 2008). As Rosen (id.: 3) put it,
the "world of corruption" spread between the 1960s and 1970s, when it concerned mainly, and in a limited extent,
public officials, and the 1980s and 1990s, when "rampant corruption" invaded even "the smallest matters of daily life"
(Rosen, id.: 7).
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powerful inhabitants constituted a first target. A French resident complained that "maybe rules exist,
but their names are Benjelloun [i.e. a famous family name in Morocco] or so, they were part of a
Ministry. So, they do what they want, and they do it badly. […] These people add windows where
they want, whereas Westerners willing to add some air slits have to refill them up." A French tourist
accommodation owner added jealousy and conspiracy as factors. "Some owners do not want too
many tourist accommodations. So, they tell you it is to preserve the medina. But you realise it is not
the reason. In fact, they want the whole cake for themselves." Foreigners were also accused.
According to a foreign member of the Association of Guest-houses, foreigners start works they
cannot undertake, such as digging a swimming pool in the patio. They then face no other solution
than bribery to continue their work, and they dare accuse Moroccans of being corrupt.
A Moroccan nonetheless explained that Moroccans also do pay. "They know how it works.
They do not negotiate. They give the money and it goes faster. The others, Westerners, they try to
make it legally. So they wait, they wait. And as long as you do not give money, what do they do?
They ask you to come back again, until you understand you have to give money." In this discourse
we find the three main features of the bribery system, namely time pressure, knowing how the
system works, and the behaviour of employees.
A French tourist accommodation owner mentioned he paid a bakshish because of time
pressure: he had only 15 days left to finish the file and needed to hurry it up. On the other hand,
informants who claimed not having paid any bribe underlined, sometimes with pride, the loss of
time and energy they endured. Also, learning how the system works favours bribery practices. As a
foreign resident said, "you can try to conform to the rules, but it is not how it is working here." She
concluded that in Morocco, there is the good way, which means to have the permits but not to do
what you want with the house; and the wrong way, which means to pay a bakshish and to do what
you want. Foreigners finally linked bribery to the behaviour of employees. According to a foreign
resident, Morocco has inherited the administrative system from the Protectorate, but nowadays,
"nobody faces his responsibilities [in this system]; it is part of the local culture."
The bribery system is even more complex because the different public authorities do not
always communicate with each other. The foreign manager of a construction company had a
building site closed by the moqadem (i.e. representative of the Government in a neighbourhood)
because of a missing paper in the file for the work permit. This manager had however given the
complete file to the baladiya and wondered why he had to go to the baladiya to ask the
administrator to call the moqadem while this latter didn't intend to look for the paper at the
baladiya.
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This list of problems related to the rules88 shouldn’t make one think that everybody criticised
and bypassed the rules. A Moroccan guest-house owner declared that "difficulty to obtain permits is
not so bad, if things are serious. For instance, the State and the authorities say 'If we deliver permits
to everybody, the city will turn into a big mess.' And it is good for business competition." Also,
according to a Moroccan member of the Association of Guest-houses, it is better to have hard rules
with the possibility to let go by, instead of having easy rules that lead to anarchy. As such, rules
prevent Fez from becoming like Marrakech, "where things go haywire."
3.2.5.2. Legality and ruses
The issue of the legal or illegal, the normal or abnormal is at the core of works undertaking
in the Fez medina. The definition of these words may vary according to the person, the situation and
the period of time. Rosen (2002) reports how Moroccans perceived corruption through the words
they used. He comes to the conclusion that corruption is "the failure to share with those with whom
one has forged ties of dependence any largesse that comes one's way. Corruption is, in the Arabic
idiom, to 'eat the good things that should be shared with others" (Rosen, id.: 13). Corruption is then
a matter of perceiving and dealing with others as socially constructed and situated persons whose
attributes vary according to the situation. Nobody is corrupt by nature, and the same act belongs to
corruption or not according to the relations in the situation.89
The definition of the legal and the normal differs between members of institutions and
inhabitants. Designers, urban planners and members of institutions implement standardised rules
instead of taking account of the living heritage and daily practices of inhabitants. In Fez, the
Inspector of Historical Monuments is concerned with the preservation of architectural layout and
features even if it prevents from an efficient use of the house while dwellers rather aim to change a
steep staircase or to bring light in a dark house costing money in terms of electricity. Inhabitants on
88 Problems with rules in historic centres are not specific to Fez. Hsu (2005) underlines the powerless effect of rules for
safeguarding houses in the historical centre of Troyes. This could go as far as letting the housing collapse to obtain its
demolition. Herzfeld (1991) for his part investigates the conflicts between owners in the Old Town of Rethemnos and
official regulations over the colours, forms and ornaments owners can use in their restoration works. Owners then
challenge the legitimacy of this "regime of surfaces" (Dorst, cited in Herzfeld, 1991: 13) by going behind the surfaces.
By negotiating and bargaining with the tax system, by undertaking works without waiting the help of the historic
conservation office, by exerting pressure on the Ministry of Culture to get reimbursed for the works undertook in
accordance with the rules, by accusing the bureaucrats of being thieves, by criticising a very erratic money supply from
the State and the arbitrariness of financing, by opposing creative reinterpretations of the permits to the necessary
documentation asked by bureaucrats to support any conservation action, inhabitants of Rethemnos contest the
monumental time which, under the form of conservation practices, brought rupture, radical changes, and destructions of
the familiar.
89 Scholars (Miller, 1988; Navez-Bouchanine, 1991, 1994; Gravari-Barbas, 2005) put to the fore appropriation beyond
legality and normality.
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their side do not feel they bypass the rules when they had comfort in their house or when they
remove architectural decoration, such as mosaic or carved plaster, they dislike.
Being a foreign or a Moroccan inhabitant constitutes a second distinction in the definition of
the normal and the legal. Both bypass the rules for different reasons. Similarly to what Guedez
(2004) shows in the French Landes, newcomers give priority to "the site," its harmony, its
environment and its beauty. They intend to undertake the works themselves, as far as possible. In
their view, typicality, oldness, authenticity and harmony constitute the norms to reach even if they
have to bypass the rules. For instance, in Fez, they dig a swimming pool in the courtyard or they
add features at odds with the Fassi style. For newcomers know almost nothing about houses and
their architecture in Morocco, their norms of authenticity and typicality differ from those of experts
who follow the rules of urbanism, architecture and heritage. Moroccan inhabitants for their part give
importance to the clean and the tidy, whatever the rules. The house is first and foremost utilitarian
and is most of the time well-kept, but rarely entirely renovated. Moroccan inhabitants see permits as
useless for the maintenance works, and favour their comfort to what is legal.
Rather than to speak in terms of deviance, De Certeau (1984) defines the notion of tricks in
his study of everyday practices. Investigating the "clandestine forms taken by the dispersed, tactical,
and make-shift creativity of groups or individuals already caught in the nets of 'discipline' " (De
Certeau, id.: xiv-xv), he asserts that consumers "make innumerable and infinitesimal
transformations of and within the dominant cultural economy in order to adapt it to their own
interests and their own rules" (De Certeau, id.: xiii-xiv). In his view, a strategy is "the calculation
(or manipulation) of power relationships that becomes possible as soon as a subject with will and
power (a business, an army, a city, a scientific institution) can be isolated" (De Certeau, id.: 35-36).
A strategy is then related to space, creating its own place of power, distinguished from the
environment, and lasting in time. While a tactic is "a calculated action determined by the absence of
a proper locus. […] The space of a tactic is the space of the other" (De Certeau, id.:37). A tactic is
then a ruse, a trick taking advantage of opportunities, creating surprises, and characterised by an
absence of power. As such, "a tactic is an art of the weak" (De Certeau, id.: 37) which make the best
use of time as possible. In different words but a similar vein, Morin (1990: 132, my translation)
writes that "in the animal reign, tricks induce the other into error, while strategy consists in avoiding
and correcting these errors as soon as possible."
It would be easy to assert that members of institution apply strategies and try to correct
errors, while inhabitants implement tactics and try to cheat public authorities. On the one hand, both
inhabitants and members of institutions use the rules in a strategic purpose. They call for
institutions, rules and expertise, that is to say external and powerful places, in order to support their
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arguments and actions. For instance, some informants print all the rules available and create a file to
guide their work and to prove they are following the rules. The Inspector of Historical Monuments
referred to the UNESCO listing or laws related to heritage in order to support his view. Herzfeld
(1991) underlines that conservation bureaucrats push to a strict reading of the law and implement
standardised rules while they are neither heartless nor choice-less victims of the State teleology.
"They, too, are situated actors struggling to bend partly recalcitrant boundaries. While their assigned
task is to reinforce the monumentalization of official time, through acts of commemoration on the
one hand and through their insistence on the eternal validity on the law on the other, in practice,
they must confront an enormous array of decisions to be made and risks to be taken" (Herzfeld, id.:
13-14).
On the other hand, both inhabitants and members of institutions play with the official rules
and create a specific and punctual relation with each other. Official rules related to work permits
give enough opportunities for these places and relations to develop. Rules are unclear. There is no
list of document to provide (or at least this list changes from one institution to the other) and
constrains are expressed in very general terms (no definition of the authentic architectural layout or
decoration the Inspector of Historical Monument aims to preserve). It then gives room for both
inhabitants and members of institution to interpret the rules and to play with them. Also, institutions
lack resources to implement and fulfil their mission. They exert a limited control. As a consequence,
inhabitants may initiate works without permit while members of institution may try to "make the
most" of any control. Neighbours and local authorities sometimes denounce illegal works but
inhabitants or members of institution who remunerate their cooperation sooner or later integrate
them into the game.
More than determining what is legal, illegal, normal or abnormal and drawing a complex
typology of their numerous variations, the approach in terms of strategies and tactics sheds light on
the way people engage into a situation that is shared – peaceful – or not – contentious. In this
context, the definition of bribery and rule bypassing is less important than the definition of this
common situation, the ways to trick and ruse. Recognising and defining this situation involves
learning these everyday practices.
4.2.6. Construction works as a learning process
A French couple willing to buy a house in order to open a guest-house invited me to visit a
house with them. We met the estate agent at R'Cif square and then went to the house. The couple
came with two Moroccan friends: Hassan, their business partner and also a tourist guide, and Driss,
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a builder and also the owner of a bazaar. This latter was expected to assess the amount of work in
time and money. During the visit, Hassan and Driss knocked on the walls while applying an ear on
them, jumped on the ground on the first floor and carefully looked at ceilings to spot rotten or
removed gaïza (i.e. beams). On the rooftop terrace, Driss counted the length and the width of the
house, before announcing the price of the construction works: 62,000 € and six months to complete
everything.
This description introduces the problems encountered when undertaking construction works
in a house. Inhabitants can decide to be the leader of the construction site, to manage and direct the
works and workers. Moroccans often choose this option, as well as some foreigners, such as Sarah,
a French resident who decided to do so "to keep contact with the house during the works."
Undertaking construction works is then a full time job. Or inhabitants can hire a company
specialised in construction works and managed by Moroccans or foreigners who have a certain
experience. According to Antoine, the French manager of a construction company, hiring a
professional is important because "when you strip down the house and lay it bare, you already have
to know what you want to run through the walls."
Unfamiliar with the Moroccan administration, foreigners, even if they had hired a
construction company, described the whole process as a nightmare, or at least a difficult moment.
They spent more money than expected. Benoit at the beginning intended to spend 600,000 Dh
(about 53,500 €) for the works, but the final budget ended up being the double of this figure. Money
is generally problematic, because traditional materials are expensive and workers have to be paid
for any additional work. Time is also problematic, because the more the work period lasts, the more
people suffer from this endless experience and get depressed. Moreover, the works most of the time
lasted longer than expected – the whole process lasts between 1.5 to 5 years or more – and the
permits were more difficult to obtain than expected. Michel, a French resident, adapted the title of
this movie "Works, we know when they start, not when they are going to finish" to the Fassi case.
Finally, Moroccans sometimes felt sorry for foreigners who "do not know" and hire, for instance,
workers asking for more money and providing a work of lesser quality.
Nonetheless, two kinds of discourse act like safety valves. The first concerns the shared
experience. "We all experience it [problems with the works] you know," or "everybody faces the
same problems with those old and complex houses." The second, for those who survived the
nightmare, is a discourse of pride and victory. "We had a hard time, really, and most of the time,
people do not understand it. You must experience it [in order to understand it]," said a French guesthouse owner.
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Aside from these widely shared problems, foreigners face many punctual surprises. A first
kind of surprise concerns the state of the house before and after the works. One may rely on the
good exterior aspect of the house but discovers a crack in a load-bearing wall, or rotten warqa (i.e.
layer of wood supporting earth and sand separating two floors) or gaïza (i.e. wooden beam). Some
building company managers refuse to make precise quotes or to give deadlines because they never
know what they will find in the walls and ceilings after stripping them. After the works were
finished, Gigi had to content herself with a "non-functional" kitchen full of dead angles and lost
space because the workers didn’t follow the plan.
Workers are also a kind of surprise. According to foreigners, they "never do what you want,"
and "you always have to control them" and motivate them with money for them not to go to other
building sites while working for you. In Benoit’s house, workers set the taps at the wrong place in a
bathroom, and Benoit had to remove the mirror, and then to redo the tadelakt (i.e. shiny and
waterproof coating made of lime and water) damaged by the mirror removal, to make a new mirror
with the holes for the taps at the right place. Also, workers never finish works perfectly and they
"lack good taste." They do not respect the work of others: when stripping the wood with acid, they
do not protect the plaster that is partly destroyed by the acid running down. Finally, they are not
professionals, and sometimes are untrained. As Abdelhaq, a Moroccan belt-maker, put it, most of
the time, workers were "selling vegetables yesterday and improvised themselves workers when the
boom in the building business created jobs." Also, most workers do not travel and have never
experienced any other technique, while those who have been to Marrakech or to Europe show more
creativity and flexibility. Above all, the lack of a shared language between foreigners and workers
sometimes brings problems in terms of mutual understanding.
Facing these surprises, some foreigners spoke of a learning experience. Many of them
arrived in Fez as neophytes or handymen. "When I arrived, I didn't know anything. So, at first, I
hired an architect and his team. And it was very difficult because as I didn't know anything, he
could do what he wanted with me, I have to admit. […] Then, after 6 months, I fired him. And I
fired his team too because the workers didn't do a good job. So, I hired other workers. At that time, I
knew a bit more, I had learnt a bit by visiting other building sites and talking with several persons.
Thus, I became the chef chantier." The story of Guy, a French tourist accommodation owner, is by
no means an exception, as a lot of foreigners recognised they had been cheated because they didn't
know where to ask for permits or which workers to hire.
Ruth learnt "to think building site," to know that the works start from the rooftop and end in
the patio. Inhabitants also visit each other to have a look at the house and to exchange advice about
how to do, who to employ, which materials to use. Gigi didn't know Morocco before settling in the
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country that she discovered with living in the house. "I didn't know the Moroccan architecture at all.
In my country, in Provence or in Ivory Coast, walls are white and you hang things on them. You
decorate with things and paintings. But here, it is the opposite. You cannot decorate the main rooms.
You have zelij [i.e. mosaic], wood, painted wood, plaster, everything at the same time. The first time
I entered the house, I wondered 'Where should I look? What should I understand?' It was even tiring
at the beginning, to see all of this." Learning was at the core of her experience, as it is for numerous
foreigners: "the more I am [in the house], the more I learn, the more I discover it, the more I dissect
it, the more I know it."
Learning relates to the mutual relation one ties with other people. Antoine had to teach his
workers to build Japanese stairs. Abdelaziz was amazed with the technique intended to protect the
mosaic on the ground. "They [i.e. the workers] lay gummed paper on the ground, and then they
chuck plaster on it. It is an awesome protection for the ground." Learning may also correlate the
country and the culture. Gigi described the restoration works as particularly exhausting, both
physically and morally. As a newcomer, she did not know anybody and had no experience in
restoration works. She had to learn everything at the same time – the language, the country, the
administrative process – and declared she learnt the Moroccan society through the restoration
works. Finally, beyond developing knowledge, informants sometimes inscribed this experience of
restoring a house in Fez in a long-term learning process, like Benoit. "There are steps in a life,
aren’t they? I have flats in Paris, small flats of 15 or 20 square meters. I furnished them in my way.
It is my cup of tea. Then, I bought a house in Marrakech. I embellished it. I improved an already
existing house. I wanted to continue with building a house, creating everything. But it was
impossible in Fez, because I didn't find a ruin big enough. So, it will be the next step."
Undertaking works is also described as a social and human experience. Abdelaziz, the
Morocco-French guest-house owner, claimed his project was first and foremost "undoubtedly
social. When the project started, I insisted for the builders to declare their workers. And it was by no
means easy because the builders are fuckers. You can write this too. They are donkeys. They do not
invest in human beings; they use workers as very cheap labour. They do not declare them, they do
not take care of them, they do not invest in their training."
The managers of a construction company made of work ethics their leitmotiv.90 "The
founders of Andalus Renovation, with their initial purchase (Dar Ourbia), wanted to bring as a
personal initiative their contribution in the improvement of the workers' work conditions. Also, they
made their best to integrate their project in the social frame of the medina, in order to make their
investment beneficial to inhabitants." They then favour the employment and training of young
90
http://darzarafa.design.officelive.com/default.aspx
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people, and insist on security, be it physical on the building site (they provide tools such as helmets
and building site shoes) or social (they insure good salaries, days off and holidays, an Axa
complementary insurance for accidents, and a registration at the CNSS91 as well as French lessons
for the workers who want them). This social concern is presented as a guarantee for a work of
quality, less expensive and faster. But reality doesn't fit these praiseworthy goals, as Valentin
explained, not without humour: "with our desire to make the best, we made the worst." For instance,
they provided the workers with tools, helmets, gloves, and overalls. The neighbours considered they
had too much money to spend, and asked them money for everything and nothing. More modestly,
Antoine said he assured his workers that they would have a salary the whole year. Thanks to this,
some got married, or bought a flat in the New City.
The social aspect also lies in the relation with workers and neighbours. According to Michel,
restoration remains a social process, due to the centrality of human beings: they, and not houses,
initiate the process. Also, relations are central, because unlike Europe, conventions – work
contracts, requirements – are not respected. In Morocco, the human and the relational overtake the
technical and the conventional. But having good relations with the workers does not prevent you
from defects and irregularities in the procedure and results. Michel, a French resident, always
remained careful not to be too familiar, because "all the Moroccan I know tried to screw me over,
whatever our degree of friendship." Talking about their relations with neighbours, Marc and
François, two French tourist accommodation owners, argued that foreigners have to find a balance
between two stances: "The Orient is wonderful," and "I bring money to this country," between the
dreamer who will be cheated after a short time and the "new colonizer." Respecting people is the
main matter. For instance, they always asked the neighbours before undertaking major and noisy
works, and did not consider houses of the neighbours as "shit."
Evelyne, a French guest-house owner, represents a good example of a social experience
close to networking. After she had a problem with her Moroccan business partner, a former friend
and colleague who opened his own guest-house with the money of Evelyne – the affair ended in a
common settlement after a 3-year lawsuit – Evelyne faced a critical situation. She received an
injunction to demolish everything in the house because she had received no legal work permit. She
was forbidden to open a guest-house and she had no more money as her bank account was empty.
"So I went to meet Chabat, the mayor of Fez," whom she knew because "I came in Fez a few years
earlier for humanitarian work in the medical field. And when you work in such a field, you come to
know a lot of people. It opens you a lot of doors. We were invited to all the meetings with the Fassi,
with the high society of Fez. I got along well with a lot of people. I had a lot of contacts, in
91 Caisse
Nationale de Sécurité Sociale – National Social Security Fund.
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particular with Omar. I really felt comfortable with him. So when I had this problem with [this
friend], I called Omar for him to come and see the works. […] They helped me, they told me to
meet Chabat."
McGuinness and Mouhli (2013) also report on the relation between the architectural
material forms, the social practice of restoration and the meaning foreigners, who generally bought
without any experience of construction works, give to this practice. They argue these works are a
major stage in the appropriation of the house because foreigners come to know the city at the same
time as they develop knowledge and human relations. For instance, foreigners have to learn the
rules of construction works, that is to say the techniques of work and the material to use. They do so
by chatting with other foreigners who experienced these works. In this context, McGuinness and
Mouhli (id.) make of the house a place of transformation (to become "Fassi") and of
communication.
This approach of the construction works as a learning and social experience sheds light on
the inclusion of these works in a wider process than mere administrative and technical procedures.
The success of such works depends on the networks of those undertaking the works and of those
hired to work. The specific focus on foreigners in no ways means that Moroccans do not learn,
create or fuel social networks when going for construction works. Building sites and street cafés are
glaring places for builder workers to exchange about their experience, knowledge and know-how.
However, the investigation of Moroccan social and learning experiences has to be deepened.
4.2.7. Conclusion
In this chapter, I described houses at the core of construction works. Both Moroccans and
foreigners living in the medina go for such works. Rather than heritage, values such as oldness,
respect, tradition and authenticity in their opposition with fake, modernity and comfort influence
their work experience. As regards members of institutions, official rules frame their experience
when they issue permits and oversee additions and repairs to private houses. But Moroccans,
foreigners and even these members bypass the rules.
Houses under construction are a starting point to investigate distinctions between categories
of actors. Foreigners and Moroccans generally take opposite stances when it comes to the values
guiding the works. Foreigners favour the beldi qdim (i.e. old traditional) while Moroccans prefer the
beldi rumi (i.e. new traditional) and sometimes even the rumi jdid (i.e. new modern). Also,
inhabitants, be they Moroccans or foreigners, do not agree with members of institutions about the
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efficiency of public programmes and most of the time criticise them. Last but not least, rules
separate Moroccans supposed to know them and how to bypass them; and foreigners, who try to
respect the rules and have to learn how to bypass them.
The house in construction then shows a first kind of network, a first way to engage with the
materiality of houses through the works, the materials, the rules, the members of institutions, the
builder workers, the inhabitants. These latter, after they finished "building" their house, still have to
furnish and decorate it.
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4.3. Furnishing and decorating a house
De Certeau (1984) invites us to investigate the remembering of one’s past, one’s history or
even one’s identity through the description of home furniture and decoration – not the architectural
decoration of the house. Dassié (2010) shows in her ethnology of intimacy that pieces of furniture
and decoration may be "objects d’affection" ("affective objects"). In addition to being souvenirs for
people to talk about and to remember the past, affective objects concentrate deep and/or a wide
array of emotions. More than their functional, aesthetic or economic features, this affective
thickness makes their value in their owner's eye. Affective objects are also a showcase for identity
and a place of transmission. Affective objects constitute "pieces for confession" (Dassié, id.: 6),
inducing their owners to reveal intimate biographies. As a consequence, Dassié (id.) calls for
starting from material objects integrated in the intimate daily life in order to grasp emotions and
identities gravitating around them.
In Fez, foreigners brought furniture from their home country or from their trips, healthy
Moroccans bought or received Western furniture from the early 20th century, Moroccan inhabitants
keep furniture from their parents in the house. This furniture is therefore affective to some extent.
But informants also talk about the various styles of furnishing and decoration and about the
principles they followed, and they judge each others' interiors. Styles relate to categorisations,
principles to prescriptions or ideas about how to do, and judgements consist in evaluations in terms
of taste, that is to say somebody’s ability to furnish and decorate that results in a proper aesthetic. In
that view, taste is not only a personal and subjective matter as Bourdieu (1984) and Miller and
Clarke (1999) assert. "Good taste" is also an award conceded following a judgement based on
several criteria.
4.3.1. Styles
I sketched out 7 main styles of furnishing and decorating a house. Informants referred to
these categories of style not to inscribe themselves or their house in one category, but to comment
on other houses and to compare them with their own house.
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1. 2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Pic. 25. Styles of furnishing and decoration. Credits: M. Istasse
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The Arab-Andalus style (1), the typical style of Fez, relates to architectural decoration more
than inhabitants’ furniture and decoration. Informants referred to it when they described their house
in a general way, when they inscribed it in the history of Fez. This style and its features find their
roots in "Al Andalus," the empire extending from Ghana in the south to Alger in the east and Spain
in the north between the 11th and the 15th centuries. It anchored in Morocco thanks to the arrival of
Andalus migrants, be they Muslim or Jews, after the conquest of Spain by Christian Kings in 1492.
According to Abdu, a Moroccan guest-house owner, "we cannot find it [i.e. the Arab-Andalus style]
elsewhere. And of course, all this spirit is inspired by Moorish art. After nearly 8 centuries of Arab
presence in Andalusia, when Arabs came back, 80% of them came to Fez, and they brought this
wonderful architecture. And today, on television, I see the Granada Palace, the red palace, the
Alhambra. I see all this plaster, all this wood that is the same you find here in the mosques and
houses."
The Fassi typicality of the Arab-Andalus style also lies in its opposition to the Berber or
Sahara style of Marrakech. On the basis of the pictures I showed them, many informants declared
that zelij (i.e. mosaic) is specific to Fez is while thuja characterises furniture in the South.
Swimming pools in the patio or on the rooftop and tadelakt (i.e. coating of lime and water) on the
ground and the walls are among marrakchi (i.e. from Marrakech) features. Some informants
declared Marrakech is not a Moroccan city anymore. According to the Moroccan President of the
Guest-houses Association, in Marrakech, "everything is made for the bazaar. It is not Morocco
anymore. It is India. This city corresponds to an imported image."
Informants finally linked this style to the Merinid period (13th to 15th century). When I
visited his house, Antoine associated decorative features to dynastic styles. The paintings reflect a
Merinid style, the "heads of capitals are more rough. This kind of acanthus leave, it is the Alaouite
style. […] It depends on the period. The Alaouite period is very sober. Any kind of decoration, even
floral was banished. When you look in some houses, you don't see any painting on the wood. It was
natural wood, sometimes framed by sticks to underline the shape. There was religious
fundamentalism at that time, and decoration followed the trend." Michel, a French resident, also
insisted on his respect for the Merinid style when he restored his house. Nonetheless, he sacrificed
the Merinid tradition by adding comfort elements such as electricity, water, heating, and some
windows with Iraqi glass. "But it doesn’t shock the eye. It is aesthetically well done." Both Antoine
and Michel mentioned books and the Internet as the main sources of inspiration and knowledge to
come back to or to learn about an architectural feature or a period of time.
Books about architecture in Fez (Golvin, Revault and Amahan, 1985) or decoration in
Morocco (Paccard, 1981) clearly categorise houses and decorative features in periods and dynasties.
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Carved wooden doors replaced painted doors through time, inside balconies appeared in the 17th
century while the half-circle window with Iraqi glass above rectangular windows in the patio are
typical of the 19th century, simple and humble patterns characterise the Almoravid period (11th and
12th centuries) because the sultans of this dynasty promoted puritanism in religion and art, houses
built in the early or mid-20th century present Art Deco features. In scrutinising a house, its layout
and its architectural decoration, one can tell approximately when the house was built and which
period of the Arab-Andalus style it belongs to. For instance, the Almoravid acanthus leave is not
similar to the Merinid one. As the Arab-Andalus style is in a way common to most of the medina
houses, inhabitants customise their house with furniture and decoration.
Numerous Moroccan inhabitants described the rural or Berber style (2) as a foreign way of
furnishing mainly found in guest-houses owned by Moroccans or foreigners. Informants mentioned
the Riad Lune et Soleil, owned by a German-French couple, as a glaring example of this style. And
the owners agreed. "I would say nearly rural you know. We didn't do a very urban choice. […] The
house really reflects Moroccan crafts. There are also some urban tracks, but really [my husband]
and I... We liked so much craft in general and the rural world in Morocco that it stands out in the
decoration." On the basis of the pictures I showed, informants defined features of the rural style
such as a low ceiling, wickerwork and bejmat (i.e. ceramic rectangular tiles) on the ground. Rural,
peasant, rustic, countryside are among the words informants used to describe it.
In private houses, the Berber or rural style may become an African style with decorative
elements such as masks, doors, shutters, and statues from Sub-Saharan Africa. Sarah, a French
resident, said she would bring "some things from home, from France. Mostly things to hang up on
the wall. I have plenty of paintings, and African batiks, and statues. So, I think I will put my small
African touch in decoration." Many foreigners decorated with objects they brought back from their
trips in Sub-Saharan Africa. They justified that decoration by the location of Fez at the crossroad of
African pilgrimage and trade roads and by the presence of numerous objects from Sub-Saharan
Africa in antique shops and bazaars.
Antique pieces of Italian, French, British or even Lebanese furniture characterise the
Western style (3). Both wealthy Moroccans and foreigners referred to and adopted this style. The
former bought the furniture left by the French deserting Fez after Independence in 1957 – one can
still find numerous old Western objects in flea markets. As Abdu, a Moroccan guest-house owner,
said "we find them [i.e. Western pieces of furniture] because we don't have to forget the history of
France in Morocco. The French spent a lot of time in this country and they lived door to door with
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Moroccans. The French felt at home in Morocco. A lot of them left and a lot of them stayed. And
those who left they sold what they had and that's why we can still find French things here."
Moroccans also mentioned the long tradition of Fassi merchants bringing furniture from their trips
to Europe.
Foreigners for their part brought furniture from Europe. Simon and Caroline, a French
couple owning a guest-house, took with them many paintings belonging to their family. Rather than
obeying a "foreigner whim," they wanted a house that would be as familial as possible. François
and Marc, two French tourist accommodation owners, had a more expatriate-like justification: "Our
approach was to bring some things from the other side of the Mediterranean Sea, knowing that we
are expatriates, we need... because it is quite poor in terms of furniture here." Others kept some
objects, such as a gramophone and a sewing machine, which belonged to the former Moroccan
owners. Foreigners also buy antiquities in flea markets. Loïc, a French guest-house owner, bought a
wall wooden clock in a flea market and hung it up in the salon. According to him, this clock is not
at odds in the house because Moroccans have such clocks in mosques. Amélie, a French guesthouse owner, went further to explain and justify the presence of clocks. "It [i.e. wall wooden clock]
was an important fashion! It goes back, unless I'm wrong, to Louis XIV right? When Moulay Ismaïl
was in Meknes and he had clocks exchanges with France."
Informants described the minimalist or modern style (4) by its pure and simple lines, its
minimal furnishing and few decorative objects, and the use of iron and glass. The nebula of words
used to describe it turns around simplicity. Looking at the pictures I showed her, Christina, an
American resident, declared about an interior she identified as minimalist (picture 2 in the appendix
p.319), "there is no zelij [i.e. mosaic], but tadelakt [i.e. coating of lime and water] on the ground. It
is lighter and there is not so much furniture. The bed is white, well, beige. It is elegant. […] It
doesn't lack cachet, but it is less handcrafted. Lines are lighter, more uncluttered."
In addition to Riad Laroussa, Dar Seffarine and Dar Bensouda, Benoit's guest-house belongs
to this minimalist style. He wanted as little wood as possible. He set doors with a metal framework
filled with glass and shutters in iron. He tiled the ground with marble and not mosaic, removed the
fountain in the patio and painted the walls in white and grey colours. He didn't want a Moroccan
salon with banquettes and limited Moroccan decoration to a minimum in favour of, among others,
signed pictures of opera stars.
Some foreigners spoke in terms of fusion style, like Olivier, a Belgian resident, and his
"mixed furnishing." He wanted the patio and the ground floor to emit "a strong atmosphere" and "a
character, a strong cachet of authenticity" with a furnishing following "the pure Fassi tradition." On
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the contrary, the floors host a more uncluttered style with "Scandinavian furniture, simple lines, and
Zen stuff." The minimalist style also links to homemade furniture from retrieved objects. For
instance, Emma, an Australian tourist accommodation owner, made a desk with a former wood
door, covered with glass and fit on a wrought iron framework. "It is simple, but so beautiful."
Two minor styles constitute the Moroccan style, namely the familial style (5) and the
traditional Fassi style (6). The first is mostly found in guest-houses while the second characterises
most of the Moroccan inhabited houses. Many foreigners disliked both styles for being overdecorated. Looking at the pictures – mainly the pictures 9 and 13 (cf. appendix p. 320) – I showed
them, they exclaimed, "it is disgusting," "please, is this for real? It is a cinema set, right?" or "is it a
real house or a post card?" They massively commented on the familial Moroccan style whose
current features they spotted – cables hanging from the rooftop to the ground, satellite dish,
television(s), clothes drying on the internal windows, glass shelves full of items, pictures,
silverware or messy rooftop terraces. According to Gigi, "there was no style in Morocco. There are
carpets, kānūn [i.e. coal burner in clay], banquettes and round low table. Baraka [i.e. that's it]."
Foreigners also considered the Moroccan style as being "too much," with too many different
colours, too many different materials, too much furniture and decoration in shelves and display
cabinets that do not always match. They usually used the terms "bling-bling," "lack of harmony"
and "kitsch" in their description. Gigi exclaimed, "Moroccan colours, the Virgin Mary Blue and the
hot pink, are not for me! Fabrics are heavy and brocades richly coloured. Moroccans have this habit
of doing too much. They need to show that they have a lot, that it shines. There is already a lot to
see around, so if you add richly coloured fabrics, it is too much for the eye's comfort." According to
her, the fact that Moroccans "make errors of taste is completely Moroccan. […] There is no
harmony, no decoration in their houses. They buy beds full of volutes, because the Moroccan likes
when there are things and that it is heavy, overly ornate. Typical Usually, Moroccan rooms are not
pretty."
For their part, Moroccans generally disliked a lack of furniture and decoration. Aziz, a
Moroccan guest-house manager, declared about the same picture that Evelyn categorised as
minimalist that "the walls are empty. It is not so good. It is empty. There is no carpet, there is
nothing." They also distinguished the traditional Fassi style and the familial style. Decoration and
harmony constitute a first touchstone in this distinction. Looking at a picture, which he guessed had
been taken in a familial house (picture 14 in the appendix p. 321), Omar, a Moroccan guest-house
employee, declared that "Moroccans inhabit this house. It is not a guest-house. Have you seen the
decoration? It is nonsense." About the same picture, Diya, a Moroccan resident asserted that "[i]t is
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the decoration of the people." Order and cleanliness are a second basis for a distinction between the
styles. Aziz, a Moroccan guest-house manager, said that in "the real Moroccan life, the house is not
well kept up."
Pic. 26. "Kitsch" display cabinet in a Moroccan house. Credit: M. Istasse
Last but not least, many informants made the distinction between the private or familial style
and the tourist or hotel style. Jean-Pierre, a French guest-house owner, wouldn't have dug a
swimming pool in the patio if the house had been his private house. Aziz, a Moroccan manager of a
guest-house, said that kaftan (i.e. traditional clothe) hung up on the walls, coffee mills or old
suitcases for decoration are not found in Moroccan private houses. Air conditioning is another
example, as Abdu, a Moroccan guest-house owner, explained. "In the summer, it is very hot here.
Houses are naturally air conditioned because Fez is located in a valley and is surrounded by the
Middle Atlas Mountains. Fez is in a hole, so that the sun doesn't come to the bottom, and that's why
traditional houses with zelij [i.e. mosaic] are fresh. We don't need any air-conditioner. I don't need
any air-conditioner. But it is a plus for tourists."
Within the tourist style, informants distinguished the home-stay, the guest-house and the
hotel. Mohammed, a Ziyarates member, said that "in guest-houses, furniture is more luxurious but
less handcrafted. In Ziyarates houses, it is more familial." According to him, a guest-house is
luxurious by definition. If he wanted to open a guest-house in his house "we [would] need a lot of
sheets. Tables also, traditional ones, very expensive. We need to put zelij beldi [i.e. traditional
mosaic] on the walls. We have to change everything inside, to give it another style that is traditional
and sophisticated. Now, it is traditional familial." About the picture they automatically categorised
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as a hotel (picture 6 in the appendix p. 319), informants declared that "I feel more in a five stars
hotel. Yes, I feel more in this spirit than in a traditional guest-house" (Amélie, French guest-house
owner), or "There, it is the style of hotels, hotels Novotel hotels. It is normal. It is modern, it is a
hotel" (Hamza, Moroccan guest-house owner).
This overview of styles through informant’s comments shows that furniture and decoration
matter to them. Before coming to judgements concerning the fittings, I present the various
guidelines informants told me they followed in furnishing and decorating their house.
4.3.2. Principles of furnishing and decoration
To furnish their house, informants follow several principles – not to say norms. I present
them according to their importance for informants and their frequency in discourses. Economic
incentives undoubtedly guide the manner to furnish the house. Although few informants mentioned
it as such, money often appears to be a constraint. Some foreigners ran out of money at the end of
the construction works and they started with cheap and second-hand furnishing. Evelyne, a French
guest-house owner, recalled that she "didn't have a penny. I couldn't allow making the Madame
Pompadour bedroom. So I went for the simplest. There was a sūq [i.e. market] called Doukarat,
very famous in Fez, a huge sūq behind the Majestic restaurant. It was wonderful because all the
Moroccan families were selling their goods on the street. And I went there every Sunday morning,
by wind, by snow. I started to make my house there. I should pay tribute to this sūq somewhere in
the house because I bought a lot of things there." Kate, an American guest-house owner, favoured
the "couple of things that I though were very important: sheets and towels. If somebody stays here,
what is really important? A clean bathroom, nice sheets and towels. Those things need to be high
quality. So I spent my money on that. And then, very simple furniture. And then, as I started earning
money, I went back to all the suites 'Ok, that's crap' and I replaced them with something good."
Jawad often told me about what he would have bought (an aquarium, a fountain with colourful
lights), had he had the money.
Owners of tourist accommodations mentioned two important guidelines, namely the
expectations of guests and the rules and charters. Owners generally translated the wishes and
expectations of guests in a game between tradition and comfort. They aimed to propose a unique
moment in a charming place far from daily Western routines. In Ziyarates houses, comfort is
minimal, with for instance no private television and no air-conditioning. Guest-house owners have
different ideas of what guests expect. "We are trying to present a typical Moroccan home to the
guests. What I think becomes increasingly the desire of the guests, is to not stay in a hotel like any
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other in the world. They want to come and live in the medina. They want to live in a house like the
other people would, typical to this city" claimed Emma, an Australian tourist accommodation
owner.
Foreign guest-house owners put to the fore their respect of the traditional and authentic
aspects of the house. For example, they hid air-conditioners behind a mucharabieh (i.e. lattice
wood), they avoided having a television in each bedroom and they used obsolete objects – stamp for
the bread – or non-decorative objects – clothes, jars – to decorate the house. Comfort is materially
concealed to satisfy the exotic wishes of the guests. As for Moroccan owners, they installed
televisions and whirlpools in bedrooms and they first aimed to answer the guests’ expectation of
comfort. This difference led some foreign owners to declare that, following Ruth, "maybe
Moroccans know a bit more about old rituals, old food, how to present the tea in a Moroccan way.
But these are things we also do in gaouriya [i.e. foreign] houses. We serve the tea, mint tea and not
black tea. So we can learn this. But there is a difference in the furniture. Also, maybe in a European
house, we are closer … we better know Western people expectations, let's say because we are
Europeans or let's say Westerners. We are closer to what they wish."
Charters constitute a second principle in tourist accommodations even if owners don’t want
to respect them. The Ziyarates label involves having "a typically Moroccan decoration and
furnishing" and furniture that "has to be Moroccan craft and art objects that make perpetual the
traditional aspect of those houses." The charters also list the basic furnishing needed, such as the
kind of beds, tables and sheets. As Khadija, a Ziyarates landlady, put it, "Ziyarates told us what to
do. We needed bed and mattresses. We knew we had to furnish the house to welcome guests. […] It
is not the same [furniture in our bedrooms]. In our bedrooms, it is only bed like this [i.e. Moroccan
banquette], traditional bed. But tourists prefer a modern bed." Abdelhay often underlined that
Ziyarates follows the international tourism norms to welcome tourists in proper conditions.
The Guest-house Charter requires having a "Moroccan salon," a "typical Moroccan
decoration," a "traditional" furnishing. When I asked Nora, a British guest-house owner, how she
decided to furnish the house, she answered it was "pretty simple. One of the rules for having a
guest-house is to have a Moroccan salon and to have certain types of furniture, like the banquet.
And when the authorities came to test out the house, they tested the mattresses and saw what quality
they were, and they wanted to see that you had a traditional table, and the type of material that we
used. [...] The beds have to be of a certain length and a certain width. But at the same time, we
wanted to keep the rooms quite simple, and basically we didn't want to go really elaborate. […] We
put some carpets on the wall and cushions. And on the terrace, we tried making it quite traditional
with red and green wall."
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The blurry terms used in the charter – "traditional" furnishing, "Moroccan" salon – allow
various interpretations of these terms and conflicts occur between owners and members of
institutions in charge of the charter. When controlling a guest-house, members of the practice permit
commission check the furniture related to a guest-house – television, a board specifying the guesthouse name and category, a dressing table and a luggage rack in every bedroom –, the staff –
number members, the traditional cloth worn by the staff, separated rooms for masculine and
feminine staff members –, security – second staircase, fire extinguishers and detectors, emergency
lights – and health – cleanliness, separated areas in the kitchen to prepare meat, fish and vegetables.
Owners agree on the fact that members of the commission strictly implement health and security
rules but they do not agree with comments related to decoration. "It is personal. But I think we may
wonder about materials used for the restoration works. It is more relevant according to me. Because
it is a listed heritage site. But a sofa, in silk or synthetic... For me, it is not important" (Steve,
American tourist accommodation owner).
Owners, generally foreigners, accused the Guest-house Charter of being too close to fivestar hotel standards, which result in an impossibility to conform to it. They also criticised members
of the commission for imposing the traditional Fassi style of furnishing instead of promoting the
eclecticism of styles. Foreign owners showed eloquence when talking about the lack of skills of
commission members in terms of architecture and heritage. Amélie said that "members of the
commission are not experts. They have never travelled. They don't know what a guest-house in
Europe is." Helen, the British manager of a renting agency, remembered when members of the
Commission came to control the house of one of her friends. They looked at the mosaic on the floor
in the courtyard and asked the friend to change it because it was too old, while oldness was
precisely what the friend wanted to preserve and made the worth of the house. Finally, foreign
owners accused members of the commission of blocking the practice permit process in order to get
money from tourist accommodation owners and from powerful owners. As Michel, a French
resident, thought, powerful guest-house owners – that is to say Moroccan owner of huge and luxury
guest-houses – saw their share of the cake diminishing, and they established norms impossible to
satisfy in order to limit competition.
After economic incentives and tourist accommodation guidelines, informants insisted on
their personality. A Moroccan couple owning a private house only brought items close to their heart
from their flat in the New City. "Because the decoration, it is you, your person, your personality. It
is a way for others to know you and discover you." Same for Michel, whose house in a Merinid
style "is very sober, very monastic. But I really feel good there. In fact, the house is just like me." In
Ziyarates home-stays, Laïla Skalli, the "mother" of the programme, insisted on personal decoration
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because "the tourist does not go in a Ziyarates house. He goes to the Ouazzani family or the
Mezzour family."
Informants also followed their personal pleasure and style. Antoine, an art aficionado,
wanted the patio doors to look like tapestry. "I tried to create a harmony and to gather patterns two
by two and four by four. Those patterns in fact, you find them in every original painting of the
house." As far as she was concerned, Ruth said that she furnished the house according to her style,
which, by chance, matched with the Moroccan style. "When I lived elsewhere [i.e. in Switzerland],
I already had cushions on the ground, lanterns... So it is not a foreign style for me." The delight
informants presented as an influence in their way of furnishing can favour or disfavour
preservation. Benoit, a French guest-house owner, "did what I wanted: little wood, no zelij [i.e.
mosaic], doors in metal and glass, grey and white walls. I do not give a damn about bringing it back
to its initial state."
Other informants associated personal incentives and functional guidelines. Luminosity
constitutes a striking example of this link. Amélie and her husband, a couple owning a guest-house
and a private house, removed all the wooden shutters around the patio of their private house. "In
fact, before we arrived, plain wood shutters darkened the first floor. And when we arrived, we found
it a bit sad, wonderful but sad. So, we decided to remove all the wooden shutters and to replace
them by bay-windows." When I visited his house, Antoine insisted on the luminosity of his house in
comparison to others. "I live in this house because it is luminous while it is a dār. A dār is a
traditional house and it is usually dark. But there is luminosity in this house. The architecture is
such that columns bring light." He also advised me to come back in the evening when artificial
lighting changes the look and appreciation one can have on the house during daytime. In this spirit,
he particularly thought the lighting, both the place of the bulbs and the wall lights in order "to see in
the house and for the house to be seen."
Functionality is another principle. Benoit made the choice of iron instead of wood for the
shutters and doors because "wood is never really dry, it moves and swells, so that you need to plane
it off. And at other times of the year, what you planed is missing. I didn't want windows that move,
so I made windows in iron. And also, people here are unable to make wood framework under 7 cm
wide. And when you have 7 cm window frameworks, you do not have windows anymore, you have
light slits." Rabia, a Moroccan inhabitant, bought a table with four seats for her children to study in
a proper position and not curled up above a low round table.
Functionality often relates to very pragmatic concerns, such as security. Moroccans replaced
their wood entrance door for a stronger metal one. Michel, a French resident, also set metal shutters
and door on the rooftop after a robbery. Christina, an American resident, adopted a "very movable,
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nomadic" furnishing. "I have a lot of these [i.e. wood frames] for the bed and the sofa in the salon. I
use them a lot and I move them around all the time. So everything I have can be moved. And it is
very minimal. I keep it nomadic in that way. Everything is movable." Frederica, a Spanish resident
rented a room for one year in the medina. "I follow pragmatic and utilitarian criteria. I work at
home, so I have to put a desk in the room. I need a lamp too. And then, there are some souvenirs,
such as a piece of wood I brought from Spain. And a mirror my boyfriend offered me."
Moroccan inhabitants also told they furnished and decorated the house according to their
memories. Many inherited furniture from the family or received it as wedding gifts. Abdu, a
Moroccan guest-house owner and former antique dealer, declared that he "put only traditional
touches, traditional crochet curtains, and old Fassi brocade in silk, traditional carpets, furniture we
always had in the familial house. I wanted to see what I had during my childhood in this traditional
house." Omar moved from the medina to a flat in the New City in 2011. He declared that "for sure,
a part of culture always follows you. For instance, the fraj, the traditional mattress, belongs to the
innate culture of an individual. He grew up with it. Then, there is what has been acquired. The same
individual has seen a loft on television; he saw the way people loll in a sofa in front of the TV with
something to drink. So, he learnt one can do that. And in most flats, inhabitants mix both: they have
a traditional part, with the fraj, and a more modern part with sofa, table and LCD television. It is
rare to enter into a flat and to see it is 100% loft or 100% traditional."
Foreigners also furnished and decorated the house with items remembering where they come
from and their past. Benoit decided to continue what he knew as a child in France. Three months
before the opening of his guest-house, he already had a stock of pieces of furniture – sofa and seats
brought from France –, dishes – set of floral plates of different colours bought on e-bay – and sheets
– thick linen sheet as "our grandmothers had" because they are "soft" to touch also bought on e-bay.
On the other hand, foreigners were eager to reflect Morocco, to "moroccanise" the house through
furnishing. Evelyne, a French guest-house owner, wanted "a ryad that looks like nowadays
Morocco. I would say Morocco trying to move, but with a heavy tradition. So, I wanted this modern
side. I bought some Layali sofas, those in front of the chimney. But I have the Moroccan salon in
front of the Layali sofas." Jean-Pierre and his wife, a French couple owning a guest-house, said that
they "wanted to combine the Moroccan style with what we like, because it is our house, we live
here every day of the year. And the Moroccan style is in general very, very, very ornate. We don't
like it. When you have gilt everywhere, velour everywhere, we don't like. So, we made according to
our taste, even the colours of zelij [i.e. mosaic]. We kept the blue one, but otherwise, we have
chosen modern colours, pastel and so on."
Chinage (i.e. bargain-hunt) in second-hand markets constitutes a pastime for foreigners and
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rich Moroccans. According to François, a French tourist accommodation owner, "there is a fashion
aspect. In France, people retrieve things for about 15 years. It is the trend. You entered into more
houses owned by foreigners than us. And in these houses, you find grosso modo [i.e. more or less]
the same decoration because people like going to bargain-hunt old things. Well, people buy different
things but there is this same trend to bargain-hunt, to retrieve things. It is good form, what is
expected of the good French class. […] It was the same when in the 1970s in France, the Swiss and
the Dutch came in the South to retrieve breadboxes and furrier machines to hang them on the wall.
Our grandmothers wanted to get rid of these things and the Dutch made wonderful decoration out of
them. And we just imitate this. […] I think that taking those things from the past is a fashion.
However, you know that it is not definitely saved, because you will die. But look at this Jewish
cupboard there. It was dedicated to destruction. But I had some pleasure to make it alive again, that
is to say 'So, it is not lost, it is here.'"
Informants also said they took inspiration from magazines, television, websites or houses
they visited. Omar mentioned the modern salons he saw in TV series. When I went to her house in
the New City, Diya, a Moroccan inhabitant, welcomed me with a pile of picture printed from the
Internet and she took inspiration from when she furnished her house. On the other hand, visiting
each other or looking at how others furnish raise a willingness of distinction. Informants asserted
that they "tried to be original," and particularly criticised kaftan (i.e. traditional clothes) and carpets
hung up on the walls. "A kaftan, there is a lot of kaftan, this is why I don't have any here" or " that's
probably why I don't have any carpet, they are very common."
Finally, the house may also influence the furnishing and decoration. On the one hand, some
informants started from the name of their house or a room or a special architectural feature to
furnish it, following the idea of a thematic furnishing. On the other hand, the architectural layout
and decoration prevent from decorating. Loïc didn’t want the furnishing to take precedence over the
architectural decoration, "the magnificence of the natural decoration of the house." Some foreigners
didn’t know how to match pieces of furniture with the architectural decoration. Christina, an
American resident, given the "clash" resulting from "many patterns" with "the mosaic on the walls,
then they print on cushions, and on carpets, and on pillows," decided to have very simple furniture.
Abdelaziz, a Morocco-French guest-house owner, whose house was built in the 1930s, didn’t
hesitate too much. "We are not talking about a 400-year-old house. The style is really marked Art
Deco. So for us, it was obvious. It was uncluttered lines, and geometry." Furniture is uncluttered,
but "with a Moroccan touch that reminds the Moroccan craft." For instance, the sofa are in
alkantara, of a square shape and very simple, but with a Fassi embroidery on the back.
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4.3.3. Judgement and taste
Instead of looking at what is beneath and beyond furniture, I’m looking at the judgements
informants expressed when talking about furniture, at the distinction drawn between groups and at
criteria supporting these judgements. Informants indeed judged each other’s furnishing and
decoration. This evaluative judgement was mainly conceded in terms of taste. However, informants
met difficulties to put their judgement into words. When I asked Diya, a Moroccan inhabitant, to
develop the term "correct" she used to describe a picture, she answered she didn’t "know. It is as
when you see somebody pretty and somebody ugly. You know it but cannot always explain it."
Moreover, informants barely judged an entire house as they hardly gave only one verdict. One may
like the floor but not the furniture, or the furniture but not the walls.
4.3.3.1. Criteria of taste
A first criterion is originality. Gigi described the house of Emma as "not conventional. You
can see she made something different." The conventional is found in every house and consists in
blue mosaic, table in mosaic, carpets and kaftan (i.e. traditional clothe) on the wall, "like
everywhere else." Helen, the British manager of a renting agency, declared to be "really choosy [in
the guest-houses of her tourism agency]. After a while, all the houses tend to look the same, to me
[...] Same thing, same zelij [i.e. mosaic], same Moroccan lamp, same this, same that. It is like
Moroccan food, you know. It is always a tajine. It is always a couscous. Often, there is no
imagination."
Informants used idioms such as the soul and the personality of the house, the personal touch
of the inhabitant, and the overly humanistic style, to talk about originality. A German guest-house
owner was the first to implement thematically decorated rooms, and more particularly to hang up
clothes on the wall. Frederica, a Spanish resident, linked decoration with the ability of inhabitants
not to reproduce cliché images. "It [i.e. decoration] should be personal, but not personal as you find
it in every shop. […] I think there are clichés linked with what you can find in Hanout [i.e. shop].
And it is always the same lamps in skin, the same zelij [i.e. mosaic], the same old objects. And
people often reproduce this style. I don't want to say it is unpleasant. I like some of these objects.
For instance, I also bought a lamp in camel skin." Informants did not particularly dislike the
conventional but they did not favour it. Amélie said about conventional rooms that they have "no
interest. It is flat, there is no relief. It is well composed, but there is no soul," that is to say "when
something has a personal touch."
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Secondly, a house has to be typical. Anybody should guess that the house is located in
Morocco. As Loïc said about one picture I showed him (picture 6 in the appendix p.319), "we are
not sure it is Morocco, because the decoration is not typical. There is nothing... We can guess
because the style in a way, this kind of bedspread, those kinds of low tables in wood. When we
know Morocco a bit, we can guess." Continuity with ancestral practices, values and objects provide
the house with typicality. The "good old days," or the idealised past, constitute a second factor in
the construction, and recognition, of a house as typical. The house is representative of a past way of
life different from the present day one.
Harmony, the absence of any "wrong note" in Amélie’s terms, is a third criterion of taste. "It
is uncluttered but harmonious. It is uncluttered but it fits together. Furniture matches with the
ground and with the lanterns" (Ruth). Harmony appears in the congruence between the house and
the place. Lotfi, a Moroccan living in the New City, likes "Art Deco, but it doesn't match with
medina houses. It breaks the typical Moroccan aspect." Within the house, harmony relies on
patterns. Ruth showed me a mosaic pattern with four different colours on each side of the salon
entrance. "I really don't like it. When you have beautiful carpets, it never matches."
More than patterns, colours are discriminating in terms of harmony. According to Omar,
"taste in the choice of fabrics lies in the colours. Everybody likes what he likes. So, strictly
speaking of colours, I cannot say it is good or bad taste. For instance, I like dark colours but some
prefer light colours. I think bad taste emerges with regards to harmony. If colours are not
harmonious, it is bad taste. But the fact I have only black is not a bad taste. It is my taste. But if I do
not harmonise, if I mix yellow with blue and purple curtains, this is bad taste." Harmony between
colours results in something "soft." On the contrary, a room or a house without colours is "cold."
Also, "you can easily play with furniture while following an idea of Moroccan traditions and
keeping the harmony between colours," declared Gigi.
Finally, beauty relates to harmony. If beauty means simplicity to many foreigners, some
Moroccans prefer opulence. Amal, a Ziyarates landlady, declared that her taste "is a bit refined, a bit
luxurious. In a beautiful house, there are 12, 10, 8, or 4 columns in the patio. And balconies with
mucharabieh [i.e. lattice wood]. And naqsh [i.e. painting] on the wood or on the plaster. And zelij
[i.e. mosaic]." In Gigi’s view, "you can just put one beautiful piece of furniture. And this piece
would be beautiful everywhere. If you have a Syrian piece of furniture, it is not Moroccan. You
know, those beautiful inlay tables, I find them wonderful." If informants talked in terms of beauty,
they also judged ugliness. Diya, a Moroccan inhabitant, exclaimed in front of a picture (picture 20
in the appendix p. 321) that the owners "have bashed the pillars up. I don't know them but if you
want my opinion frankly, without hypocrisy, it is ugly." Ugliness there meant a difference from the
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conventional way of furnishing.
4.3.3.2. Taste and distinction
Bourdieu (1984) has already investigated the relation between taste, distinction and the
social status of individuals. More recently, in a collective book dedicated to "the taste of beautiful
things" and the everyday aesthetic judgment, Nahoum-Grappe and Vincent (2004) investigate how
the aesthetic statement and the aesthetic look participate to the definition of relationships between
people. According to them, the aesthetic statement supports the qualification, identification and
organisation of people and objects into a hierarchy. Miller and Clarke (1999) also define taste as a
practice and as a social construction involving social relations. When one evokes a choice, he/she
evokes at the same time a relation with somebody else.
When judging in terms of taste, informants allocated "good taste" or "bad taste" awards to
other inhabitants. In doing so, they draw boundaries between those who have taste and those who
haven’t, those who know the criteria and those who do not. In the following, I review how
Moroccans and foreigners distinguish themselves on the basis of taste.
Pic. 27. Table in mosaic in a tourist accommodation.
Credit: M. Istasse
Moroccans were sceptical toward several foreigners’ ways of decorating and furnishing. For
instance, they qualified of "odd decoration" the presence of African objects. Moroccans also
discussed the invention of new pieces of furniture, such as tables in mosaic and wrought iron. Some
saw them as non-Moroccan because Moroccans don’t have the habit of using tables with seats to
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eat. Tables in mosaic are then a Western invention inspired by Moroccan tradition. Others, such as
Aziz, a Moroccan guest-house manager, claimed that these tables are Moroccan. "It comes from
Fez, from Morocco. But it is quite new. It slowly becomes traditional. It is a style we do not put in
the patio. It remains typical of rooftops and gardens."
Kaftan (i.e. traditional clothe), and more generally former functional objects used as
decoration, provokes criticisms among Moroccans. On the one hand, according to them, one has to
use objects according to their first purpose. Abdelhay said not to "use a door for what it is not: a
table." According to Omar, "it is stupid to hang up a kaftan on the wall. Why exhibit it? It is a cloth
worn during celebrations. There are other things we hang on the wall, such as carpets. But it is
rather a Berber tradition. It comes from the South. If I remember well, there were mirrors at home."
As Ziyarates landlady Amal put it, foreigners consider the kaftan as a decoration while Moroccans
use it as a cloth. Hamid, a shopkeeper, told me that members of a family may keep a very old kaftan
in a chest and look at it from time to time during family meetings. He continued, commenting on
jars: "Jars? They [i.e. foreigners] took them and made them decoration or sinks. It is a European
habit. It is not a Moroccan habit. It is not an Islamic habit. In Morocco, we have lanterns, ceiling
lights, carved wood, mosaic, mattresses, and curtains to decorate a house."
Pic. 28. Piece of cloth framed and hanging on the wall in a tourist accommodation. Credit: M. Istasse.
Display rests at the core of this decoration with former functional objects. Omar declared
that "Moroccans would never, even in 1000 years, put jars for l'khlia [i.e. dry meat] in a bedroom.
We put it in the cellar. Would you put something from the cellar into your bedroom? […] But they
[i.e. tourists] don't know what it is. They don't know it serves to preserve meat. To them, it is a piece
of art. This is not a jar as they know. So, we need to exhibit jars: I'm not going to put them in the
cellar and bring people down to the cellar to show them." He described tourist accommodations,
and guest-houses in particular, as "a kind of museum, a small museum. They [i.e. owners] try to
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exhibit a maximum of cultural items in a place for people to see it without moving a lot. They
exhibit jars and kaftan. Exhibiting is the word. But gathering Moroccan objects in a bedroom, for
people to see them, doesn’t guarantee people will understand the culture." Amélie and her husband
also aimed to display through the decoration and furnishing of their two houses. "I think we show
objects in their own environment. There is a very local mix. It is quite compact. There is perhaps a
bit too many objects but everything is displayed simply."
These criticisms about objects used as pieces of furniture and decoration raise an issue about
the value and functionality given to objects. Rachik (1997), taking the salon and clothes as
examples, shows that in Morocco, the beldi (i.e. traditional, from the country) doesn’t participate
actively to the daily life but is limited to ceremonial and ritual events. Displayed in specific
circumstances, the beldi serves as a separation from daily life. On a daily basis, Moroccans use the
rumi (i.e. modern, Western) as utilitarian objects. Within this dichotomy, the beldi evokes the ritual,
affective, symbolic due to its aesthetic side and the rumi is the functional side. Without going as far
as associating the beldi with the ritual and the rumi with the functional, both the functional and the
affective aspects of objects influence their use as decoration. Hamza, a Moroccan guest-house
owner, favoured hanging up kaftan on the wall. "I also like to hang it up in a frame. It gives it more
value. If you go in Dar Dmana, you can see kaftan in frames and even embroidered napkins. It is
wonderful." According to Mohammed, a Ziyarates host, if people hang kaftan on the wall "it means
people are interested in their Moroccan tradition." But he didn't want a kaftan in his bedroom. "I
prefer it in a museum."
A third issue concerns taste as an endogenous knowledge and skill. Abdelhay did not agree
with furnishing a house in a Western way, because afterwards "you feel like being in Europe in the
house". According to him, Fassi can recognise furniture "that is at its place." The underlining idea is
that one has to be immersed in Moroccan culture to decorate in a Moroccan way, "one has to be
from here to know." Diya, a Moroccan inhabitant, declared that she could "recognise the Western
taste when someone wants to furnish in a Moroccan way and misses it a bit. I can feel it. […] It
doesn't mean a total failure. But simply, one can feel it." For instance, "sometimes, they [i.e.
foreigners] take a Berber blanket and use it as a bedspread. They think that it is traditional. It could
be, but we do not use it in the Moroccan taste." Rather than specific criteria, taste relates to affects
according to Diya who repeated that she "can feel it."
Omar further developed the skill aspect of taste. According to him, Moroccans do not
decorate the walls because "firstly, pictures are forbidden by Islam, we don't have the right to have
pictures. It is not said as such but Islam stipulates that pictures are an imitation of Allah's work, so it
is forbidden." Secondly, he asserted that in order to develop taste, "you need a lot of things, and you
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need to choose among these things. We cannot have taste or not to have taste in our culture if we do
not have many decorative objects. Take a square, empty room. I give each of you and a friend three
objects to decorate it. Maybe the display will not be the same, but the decoration will be nearly
similar. That's why, in traditional houses, the decoration is the same but with different displays,
because there is no wide choice of objects to decorate. When you have hundreds of objects and that
you have to choose among them, then we speak of taste. If you choose the ugliest ones and those
very far from each other in terms of style, you have no taste […] So, as we didn't have objects to
decorate, we didn't learn how to do so. And now, they [i.e. Moroccans] put as many objects as
possible, and they call it decoration. From both the practical and religious sides, we had no
decoration. So we cannot decorate." Taste is not a matter of identity, but of experience and skill, as
Abdelhaq, a Moroccan belt-maker, put it. "There is no nationality to bungle one's house. It is not a
matter of taste, but of experience."
Finally, foreign ways of furnishing raise the issue of Orientalism.92 Talal, a Moroccan guest92 Beyond Orientalism, Moroccans described the presence of foreigners as an invasion, a colonisation. On their side,
Moroccan informants at first sight didn’t care about the presence of foreigners and mentioned the positive aspects of
such a presence. Foreigners bring money, boost employment, and restore houses and streets. However, after a while
though (translated in methodological and epistemological terms as "after several discussions with the same informants
and due to the fact that I was myself a foreigner living there but who didn't own a house"), they started criticising
foreigners. Foreigners were mainly accused of causing the rise in prices in the property market. For instance, Amal, a
Moroccan home-stay landlady, wanted to sell her house to foreigners only, for they would pay a better price. More
generally, Moroccans complained that houses have become too expensive. When I asked Hassan, an employee at the
Inspection of Historical Monuments, why he didn't buy a house in the medina, he replied that he "cannot afford one,
seriously. I cannot afford this privilege, given real estate prices. […] Even if I wanted to buy a small house, as a civil
servant with a modest salary, I couldn’t."
Many Moroccans saw the presence of foreigners as a kind of physical colonisation. They widely shared the idea that
"[t]he French left by the door and came back through the window." For instance, as Rachid, a Moroccan architect, put it,
foreigners behave according to their own rules. "Some [i.e. foreigners] come with the idea of changing the medina. It is
what I often unfortunately call 'Tintin in the black gold country.' They haven't understood anything. The guys who build
crenellations on the wall didn't wonder if there is any house in the medina with crenellations. It is sad, it is sad. It gets
on my nerves. When you arrive in the medina, the first thing you do is to open your eyes and try to understand."
This "foreign invasion" instigates a feeling of dispossession and economic colonisation among the Moroccans
inhabitants. Many assumed that foreigners had a lot of money. They also feared foreigners would outnumber Moroccans
in the medina, would privatise streets – as they already have supposedly done – with gates and guards at the entrance. I
have often heard sentences such as "Moroccans will soon have to have a passport to enter into the medina" or
"foreigners take what belongs to us, houses, money, medina, country." According to one famous rumour, foreigners do
not have the right to buy a house without a Moroccan business partner.
Finally, the colonisation is also political, because the arrival of foreigners relates to a supposed Western conspiracy to
take the control of Morocco. Some Moroccans thought that foreign governments sent citizens to the medina to buy
houses and inform them on Fez. Many foreign residents are assumed to be spies. David, the American Language
Institute director, is a common target, as were two Americans who opened a real estate agency, Fez Properties, which
was said to be a façade to evangelise the city. The fact that foreigners mainly stayed among themselves fuels the
conspiracy theory discourse. According to Lotfi, a Moroccan living in the New City, "[w]hen you take a look at the
integration of foreigners in Fez, you do not see a lot of integration with the Moroccan population. Except when
foreigners are looking for a maid or somebody that does everything for a few dirham and they do not have to declare
[them to the tax authorities]. So, if you want, we are far from having integration between Moroccans and foreigners. As
proof of this: you arrived about two years ago, right? When you are with the French community, do you see a lot of
Moroccans with them? No, one or two at a pinch."
Saigh-Bousta (2004) deepens the investigation of Moroccan inhabitants' discourses about foreigners. Moroccans do not
appreciate the clothing of some tourists, their influence on youth, and their link with sexual tourism. However, they
describe their daily relations with foreign neighbours as generally friendly and good. Kurzac-Souali (2006, 2007) for
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house owner working at the Regional Council of Tourism, listed some backbones of Moroccan
furniture, such as the tea tray, tea glasses. The way some foreigners had furnished their house
sometimes shocked him. "An old big wood bowl with glass above to make it a table, or tables with
zelij [i.e. mosaic] on the top, we wouldn't do that. It is done in a Moroccan way but with a European
taste, according to the idea Europeans have of Morocco." Some foreigners, like Amélie, are aware
of the particular image they offer to tourists. "When you decide to open guest-house, obviously, you
are on the edge of the local life. We only give an image. And if your team is friendly and Moroccan,
it is already makes a big difference, because the team is in direct relation with the clients."
Foreigners also criticised the Moroccan style in terms of taste. They evaluated Moroccan
interiors as "kitsch" or overly decorated. In foreigners’ eyes, the Moroccan style mainly represents
an example of bad taste. To them, a house in good taste is "cosy," "simple" and "sober." Ruth
"wanted to keep the Moroccan style but without this opulence in colours and forms characteristic of
the Moroccan style. My colours are simple. Orange and purple. I didn’t mix 5 colours and three
patterns."
In addition to disliking Moroccan interiors, foreigners accused Moroccans of having no
taste. Some informants, including Moroccan elites, thought that Moroccans need advice. Others
tried to explain this lack of taste because of the architectural decoration of houses. According to
Abderahim, a Moroccan restaurant manager, Moroccans spent a lot of money in the architectural
decoration because they spent most of their time – and even free time – in their house, and because
of the daret (i.e. practices of families and neighbours to visit each other) in the context of which
everybody has to show as wonderful a house as possible.
Aside from their differences, foreigners and Moroccans met on one point. More often than
not, informants concluded that taste is relative. Others simply have "another taste" and "everybody
has its own style." I asked Steve, an American tourist accommodation owner, to give me his opinion
about the pictures. After he had spread them out on the table to have a general overview, he
answered that what I asked him "was a bit tricky. These are very different places. Yes... Because
taste is always very specific, it is very personal the decoration […] In my opinion, there are houses
and there is the decoration. Decoration is very individual. Everybody has his taste, and everybody
finds the decoration he likes. Some prefer the 1001 nights with a lot of fabrics. And it may be
her part points out general changes due to the presence of foreigners: a different sociability in the street, an evolution in
the property market as houses and plots are growing more expensive, a change in the social composition of the area as
some Moroccans inhabitants have incentive to leave the medina due to pressure by investors and the attraction of high
selling prices. The latter leads Kurzac-Souali (2006: 343) to speak of "socio-spatial and residential segregation."
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excessive for someone else." However, according to Philippe, a French art historian, "a universal
good taste doesn't exist, but well, there are things to avoid." Steve continued after he mentioned the
relativity of tastes. "If one wants to decorate his 17th or 18th century house in a modernist way, I
don't understand the purpose of having a Fassi house."
These assertions are close to those of Hennion (1993), who defines taste as a creative action
resulting in the production of skilled and reflexive "tasters." Taste is a performance that perpetually
tests four basic elements, namely a body that tastes and feels, an object to taste, a collective to
center the taste by shared styles and criteria, and devices to stabilise the object. It doesn't mean that
everybody is equally good at tasting or that every object is tasted equally or gives equal taste. Taste
has to be exercised and learnt. Some people have more taste – are more able to furnish and decorate
properly or are more able to judge of furnishing and decoration – because they are trained to do so –
they often perform, they know which words and criteria to use. In other words, they are more
familiar with the body, object, collective and devices involved in taste. In that view, Moroccan taste
and Western taste differ because they are not framed by the same collectives and do not give rise to
the same creative actions.
In this chapter, I overviewed the ways people talk about furniture and decoration. These
discourses constitute a basis for distinction. Fez is supposed to have its own style, the Arab-Andalus
style. Foreigners and Moroccans disagree on the quantity of ornaments. Healthy and poor
Moroccans differ on the quality of the decoration. Foreign and Moroccan guest-house owners have
different views on how to satisfy their clients in terms of furniture and decoration.
I also focused on taste. Informants defined taste as a skill to furnish a house properly. As an
ability of people, taste oscillates between an innate skill – one has to be from Morocco, from the
country, to know how to furnish and decorate properly – and a learnt skill – with some practice,
experience and feeling, one can learn how to furnish and decorate properly. Foreigners denied taste
skills to Moroccans, judging their interiors as "kitsch," "too much" and "not harmonious." In this
context, "kitsch" is a mark of distinction between foreigners and Moroccans. Rather than "kitsch",
Salamandra (2004) investigates how authenticity in Old Damascus reveals this distinction between
foreigners and locals.
Taste is also an award judged through criteria, such as harmony or typicality. However, the
definition of a typical house remains blurry, as underlined by Amiotte-Suchet and Floux (2002) in
their investigation of the museification of a regional French house. To them, a typical house results
from a construction and doesn't match with any architectural reality. It doesn't prevent people to
spot the architectural invariants characterising a "typical house" – blue and white mosaic long and
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narrow rooms, or carved plaster in the case of Fez.
If Moroccans have no taste according to foreign criteria of furnishing, foreigners commit
errors in furnishing their house by displaying formerly used objects. The images of "maroccanity"
and the trend to "moroccanise" among foreigners led to some Moroccans to criticise them. In
foreign owned guest-houses, the fittings and amenities are supposed to satisfy tourists. Chebbak
(2004) discusses the guest-house as an Orientalist avatar symptomatic of the Western postmodernity, of a period fascinated by leisure, luxury and exoticism. This symptom threatens the
house as a place to live and denies the "secular housing and being" (Chebbak, id.: 29, my
translation). The West is clearly distinct from Morocco, as Said (1978) points out in his definitions
of Orientalism. In his view, the word has three meanings, namely a science studying the Orient, a
thought based on an ontological difference between the West and the East, and a Western style of
domination and authority. In the case of furnishing and decorating, Orientalism refers mainly to the
second meaning, as both Moroccan and foreigner residents argued they were different in their
tastes.
As a skill or as a judgment, taste is not specific to anybody or any group, be it Moroccans,
foreigners or members of the commission. However, each group uses it as a way of distinction. In
an article dedicated to furnishing houses in the French Landes, Guedez (2004: 49, my translation)
claimed that "there exist non-scholarly systems of representation of beauty and of all social actors
can put into words an aesthetic emotion signified as well by consensual judgments (‘This is to my
taste/this is not to my taste,’ ‘I like this/I don’t like this’) as by value judgment of taste (‘this is
beautiful’), where submission to collective norms is intertwined with collective norms and choices
claimed as singular."
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4.4. Intimacy, hospitality and tradition in tourist accommodations
As I mentioned in the introduction, tourist development took place in Fez in the late
1990s and still continues in the early 2010s. Fettah underlined that the medina should benefit from
"all the efforts and all the love from Morocco." It nonetheless remains "a neglected city, the ghetto,
the milk cow of Morocco" because "until the early 2000s, a political desire blocked the city. All the
main projects were diverted from the medina and carried into the New City or other cities."
According to Fettah, tourism is the only solution to bring effective changes in the medina and to
make it alive.
In this chapter, I focus on tourist accommodations, that is to say guest-houses, locations de
meublé and Ziyarates home-stays. I review the notions of intimacy, hospitality and tradition,
because tourist accommodations are places in which these notions are the most problematic.
According to the literature, houses in Fez are supposed to protect the intimacy of the family and
women. However, more than principles, intimacy and privacy are what tourist accommodation
owners93 fight for in very practical ways. Also, hospitality is at the core of the relation between
hosts and guests as a human relation and as a euphemism hiding the economic side of this relation.
Finally, tourist accommodations challenge the notion of tradition by presenting their own
negotiation with traditions and (re)presentations of the past. But first of all, I present why foreigners
and Moroccans decide to open a tourist accommodation.
4.4.1. Why open a tourist accommodation
In Ziyarates home-stays, owners usually decided to welcome guests because they had a huge
house that is too expensive to maintain. They also knew that more and more tourists are looking for
a cheap and unusual accommodation. In 2007, Amal started welcoming guests illegally. Her
husband usually went – and still goes – to a café. One day, Spanish tourists came to asking for an
accommodation, as hotels were complete. The waiter asked the husband to accommodate them, as
he knew there were extra-bedrooms in Amal’s house. In the following month, the waiter regularly
sent tourists to their house. After a while, Amal tried to have information to welcome tourists
legally. She heard about Ziyarates and participated to the home-stay programme. Abdelhay and his
family – his mother and two nieces – were thinking of selling their house to move in the New City
when they heard about the Ziyarates project. "It was an opportunity to receive people and to
93 I either use the words "owner" or "host" to refer to the people welcoming in their house, and "tourist" or "guest" to
refer to those welcomed – while owners mainly used the terms "tourist" or "client."
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participate directly to the tourism activity." Instead of selling their too-large house, they "found a
new use to our ryad. We would have never thought of our house to welcome tourists from Europe."
As they "liked the project," they "stayed at home. Now, even if anybody pays me a high price for
the house, I do not move," declared the mother.
Guest-house owners gave others explanations. Some foreigners opened a tourist
accommodation because the construction works cost too much and they wanted the house to be
profitable. Benoit wanted a private house. After all the money spent in the works, he decided to
open a guest-house. Other foreigners came to Fez with the aim of opening a business, as Kate did.
"Yeh, I came down here looking for houses to sit my business plan. I had a business plan, and I
looked at the market in Fez. There were only ten ryads here when I started looking. Mabrouka had
just opened, there were Louna, Ghalia, Maison Bleue, Ryad Arabesque, and a few others. But there
was nothing here [in her neighbourhood]. And all the rooms were like 200 euro a night. I wanted to
open a place where people like me could afford to spend a night. Maybe 100 or 150 euro for a really
nice place. So I knew what size I needed, and I knew roughly what to charge per room, and I
estimated all my fences, which I was totally wrong about but… I was a banker so I did my
projections, my cash blow, and I came to statically looking for the house that would work with
that."
Sometimes, foreign residents took their time before opening a tourist accommodation. They
came to Fez several times, bought a house and then made into a tourist accommodation. Jean-Marc,
a French guest-house owner, explained that "because I had chosen to live here, I decided to have an
activity. Such a house is wonderful, but if you do not meet people, if you do not have a minimal
activity, you get depressed." On the other hand, Jean-Marc underlined that "contrary to France, a
guest-house here is a real economic activity. Those who think it is a small incidental job, where you
take pleasure in receiving people from time to time, are wrong. From the morning until the evening,
we are on the go." Several foreigners insisted on – and sometimes complained about – the guesthouse's taking monopoly of their time. Guy and his wife regretted they did not have a lot of free
time for their children. Ruth complained about the routine, as she did the same things every day,
that is to say welcoming guests, going shopping or to an administration, answering emails.
Moroccan guest-house owners for their part have been involved in tourism activities for
long, working as hotelkeepers or tourism guides. They bought a house in the medina or they used
the familial house to extend their occupation. Youssef has worked in hotels all around Morocco
before coming back to Fez and opening a restaurant – Dar Tajine – in his familial house. He decided
to open a guest-house in the late 1990s and he gave the management to his son Aziz, who went to
Montreal for his hotel business training. Talal worked at the Jnan Palace – a five-star hotel in Fez –
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and he is member of the Regional Tourism Council. His son Driss started managing the familial
guest-house after he had finished his studies in hotel business. Abadi father worked at the Palais
Jamaï – another five star hotel in Fez – and decided to open the first guest-house in Fez, La Maison
Bleue in 1999. His son, after his studies in tourism management, opened a second guest-house and
takes care of the two guest-houses. He is also member of CRT. Most of the time, a tourist
accommodation is a way for these Moroccan elites to come back to the medina and to be elites of
their time.
4.4.2. Intimacy and privacy
As I've written above (cf. supra p. 86), scholars made the preservation of intimacy and
privacy by architectural closure into a characteristic of Moroccan and North African houses. Tourist
accommodations challenge this intimacy. On the one hand, the media open the house to the world.
An official website94 gathers the Ziyarates families and presents their house through descriptions
and pictures. Few families have their own website95 or a Facebook page.96 Guest-house owners also
have their own website97 or a blog98 for their promotion. The comments and pictures posted by
tourists on TripAdvisor also give public images of houses. TV documentaries, such as Maisons du
Sud/Maroc, Des Racines et des Ailes, or Uncharted territories, as well as magazines – Architecture
du Maroc, Maisons et Jardins – and books – Maisons et Ryads du Maroc, Villas and Courtyard
Houses of Morocco – dedicated several issues, articles, pages and pictures to tourist
accommodations, and more generally houses, in Morocco. As a consequence, a new game between
the closure and the opening of the house emerged. Described as traditionally closed to the external
world and open to the interior, tourist accommodations are open to the exterior, as tourists stay in
the house and as images of the house spread through media. At the same time, owners create places
of intimacy in the house.
On the other hand, welcoming guests for long stays in the house, that is to say neither
visitors staying a few hours in the room dedicated to them nor members of the family staying for
free during a few days, threatens the house’s intimacy. As Lynch and MacWhannell (2000) put it,
receiving guests brings some money but the price to pay is a loss of privacy and of personal space.
In Fez, some owners decided not to live in the house dedicated to tourists while others shared the
house with the guests.
94
http://www.ziyaratesfes.com/
http://www.maison-laghzaoui.com/
96
http://www.facebook.com/naima.azzouziidrssi
97
http://www.ryaddamiafes.com/index.php?lang=fr, http://www.ryadalbartal.com/
98
http://ryadzitounafesrenovation.unblog.fr/ ; http://ryad9.blogspot.be/
95
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When sharing the house, preserving intimacy and privacy is a matter of prime importance.
According to Bernard (1998), inhabitants appropriate their house and feel at home through privacy
and personalisation. Dwellers personalise, "mark" the house with furnishing and decoration – as I
described in the preceding chapter. But owning, customising and marking the house does not suffice
to appropriate it fully and to feel at home. Privacy is correlated to the control of space – who comes
in and out – and to the possession of a place separate from the outside world – a nest in Bachelard’s
terms. Abdu, a Moroccan guest-house owner, felt at home in his guest-house because "even if I'm
not there, my heart and my soul are there. I spend 80% of my time there. I spend more time in this
house than at home." Guy, a French tourist accommodation owner, felt at home "because it is mine,
and because I experienced hell in this house. And I know everything in the house; I know how
everything was made, the potential problems that may occur one day. I do not know it by heart, but
pretty close to it."
Moroccan owners hardly live in their guest-house. Youssef lived with his family in his house
when he used it as a restaurant, but he moved when he turned it into a tourist accommodation
because of privacy and intimacy issues. Diya, a Moroccan inhabitant, is an exception as she
intended to live in her guest-house – under construction at the time of my fieldwork. "It is
impossible to live in a guest-house with a family. I'm alone, it is different. […] I'm alone and I'm
afraid of staying alone in the villa [in the New City]." Nora, a British lady, and her Moroccan
husband lived in their guest-house for practical reasons. "Yeah, we decided to live inside the ryad to
keep control. We think that the first two or three years of business, it is important that we keep an
eye on things. Also, some people arrive at twelve at night, and it costs to have a guardian here. And
I have my office here, and I'm replying to e-mails until about eleven at night. A secondary reason is
that we haven't found anywhere to rent close by."
Few foreign owners live in their guest-house. Loïc, a French guest-house owner, explained
that "you cannot feel at home [in a guest-house]. I'm at home, as I'm the owner. But at the same
time, I'm not at home. For instance, it is not my kitchen. I'm always looking for the kitchenware and
I have to ask where things are. You don't have to do so when you are at home. There is a perpetual
gap, except in the private spaces. It is a bit as if I were always at the office." Loïc arrived in Fez in
2009. He slowly appropriated the house. He noticed he passed from a general view on the house to
a much more detailed one. After a few months, he was able to notice details and small changes in
the decoration. Also, he changed the name of some bedrooms because "it is not my story." Finally,
he told me one morning he felt at home in his bedroom for the first time because he smelled his own
smell. He had been living in the house for about 7 months.
Similarly to Loïc, few owners really felt "at home" in their tourist accommodation because
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they did not have their own space except their bedroom. Ruth didn't "consider the masriya [i.e.
integrated flat] where I live, where I have all my personal stuff, as my home. My stuff is in a guesthouse in which I'm currently living. But the house is really a house for the guests. […] There are
always people [in the house]. There is always staff. I cannot be noisy. You know, when I come back
late in the evening, it is as if I was coming to my parents' house when I was young. I cannot make
noise. […] I cannot receive any phone call or friends late in the evening because you can hear
everything." In her view, feeling at home means "leaving very personal things around and not
having to put them away all the time."
As a consequence, foreigners living in their guest-house and Moroccan families of the
Ziyarates programme developed practices and devices to control their space. They established rules
to control the access to their rooms. In a Ziyarates home-stay, Amal told me about – and eventually
showed me – the "hidden parts of the house." Guests don’t need to see the staircase leading to a
junk room where the family stored food and stuff and kept the sheep for the ‘aïd el Kebir (i.e. Feast
of the Sacrifice). Hidden doesn't mean forbidden – guests can have a look if they ask – but it is not
showed during the first tour of the house. However, in the Ouazani family, there are forbidden
rooms, as guests cannot access the first floor. "Upstairs, it is our home. Downstairs, it is Ziyarates."
Limits and rules are important because "some tourists think they are above the law." For
instance, they open every door, are noisy, help themselves in the fridge or move the furniture
around. Also, owners carefully choose their guests. They refuse children and select guests after their
mail – how they present themselves, what they are waiting for. Jean-Marc, a French guest-house
owner, preferred to "build up my clientele than to have a house full of tourists." Ruth decided to
limit her relations with the guests. She didn’t eat with them and didn’t talk about personal stuff. She
complained that guests sometimes asked too personal and private questions even before she started
presenting the house. Also, they always asked the same questions – where do you come from, why
are you alone here, why did you decide to live in Fez? She said she would record a tape with all the
needed information and give it to the guests.
Moving constitutes another solution to feel at home. Some foreigners first lived in their
guest-house and bought or rented a private place afterwards. Emma, an Australian tourist
accommodation owner, noticed that "all of my friends, 3 and a half years later, all of them were
crazy, saying 'We need somewhere else to live.' It is a question of intimacy and separation from
work." Owners moved for several reasons. Many dedicated the entire house to the guests to have
the five required bedrooms to be official. Other mentioned the preservation of their private and
familial life. Amélie and her husband wanted to protect both their familial life and their business,
for their two young boys needed their own place to play without disturbing the guests. They bought
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a private house, not too far from the guest-house. If they still had to work hard and barely saw their
children, they had a more private familial life. Finally, as Kate explained, there is a matter of
separation between work and home. "If you try to have a day off, you come downstairs to check
your e-mails, a guest will see you 'Oh, Kate, just a quick question!' And you can't say 'I'm not here,
you don't see me'. So you answer their question. And then another guest will see you: 'Oh, while
you're here, could you...' And then your all day goes, and you've no day off. […] One thing I learned
running a guest-house for 4 years, it stops feeling like your home, and it starts feeling like the place
where you work. And it's a huge psychological difference." Since then, Kate has moved to a flat in
the New City.
Conversely, some owners mentioned they wanted the guests to appropriate their house.
Marie, a French tourist accommodation owner, at first only received friends, but with time, her
house has become "a small business." "At first, I thought it would make a strange feeling that
people live in our house. But now, I see people taking over the house, and in fact, I like when they
appropriate it." Rules and interior regulations one the one hand limit the freedom of guests, but they
also create common references. For instance, during the shared meals, Fez becomes the starting
topic of conversations and hosts and guests discover common interests. Also, guests develop a
certain familiarity. They declare they come "back home" after a day in the medina.
Some owners also wanted to provide guests with intimacy and privacy. In Benoit's house,
"people won't eat together. That's why I need numerous and varied places, for people to move away
from each other. […] People do not come in a guest-house to meet other people and gather with
them. This American story is over. People do not do this anymore. They come in a guest-house
because they come in a historic place, in a special place, in a wonderful place, where they are not
surrounded by middle-class French people." In Loïc's guest-house, plants separate tables in the
courtyard and on the rooftop, forming intimate corners.
4.4.3. Hospitality
According to Gravari-Barbas (2005), inhabiting a house also means cohabiting, sharing
values and activities with others inhabitants, or receiving free or paying guests. Several scholars
(Saigh-Bousta, 2004; Morice, 2006; Kurzac-Souali, 2007) study this cohabitation in terms of
conflicts between the commercial and residential functions of the house or between the permanent
residents, the tourists and the neighbours living in and around the house. Chebbak (2004) defines
hospitality in Moroccan tourist accommodations as an exchange between credit cards and fulfilled
satisfaction. In Fez, McGuinness (2006: 205) argues that "the guest-house, the dār edh-dhiyâfa, the
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'house of hospitality,' breaks with former ways of being in the medina: the principle of hospitality
itself is betrayed. Generosity is turned into a commodity. Restored, decorated, and filled with
historical bric-a-bracs, persons having interests very different from Moroccan inhabitants now live
in houses." Foreign residents criticised Moroccan guest-houses for their lack of hospitality because
the owner is hardly present. However, rather than in the conflicts or in the criticisms, I'm interested
in the relation of hospitality in tourist accommodations.
Hospitality is a main concern for tourism accommodation owners in Fez. Aziz, a Moroccan
guest-house manager, said: "in Morocco, hospitality is very important. It is part of the culture."
Abdu, a Moroccan guest-house owner, declared he was a hospitable person "in my blood. I like
speaking to people who wish to speak with me, and I can always send a message trough my face,
trough my smile, and my heart to those who do not wish to talk." In his view, he "had to share this
house with invitees in this country, to offer them the hospitality and love of this city. In others
words, to be like the ambassador of my city."99
Aside from these cultural and biological explanations, owners generally spoke of hospitality
in two ways. Hospitality first relates to human encounters. According to Simon, a French guesthouse owner, "we cannot deny that a guest-house is a business. But there is also a quest for human
relations." Amal, a Ziyarates landlady, asserted that talking with the guests was part of hospitality,
and that hospitality made Ziyarates home-stays different from guest-houses. Many foreign owners
mentioned the talks they had with guests in front of the fire and with a glass of tea after a long day
in the medina. If tradition mainly relies on the house (cf. infra p. 159), hospitality mainly depends
on the owner's skills to manage his staff, to organise things, to give tips and advices to tourists and
to make their stay as enjoyable as possible. These skills don't imply any specific and scholarly
training but come from on the job training and personal experiences, such as having travelled a lot
in guest-houses or coming from a hotelkeeper family.
Sharing constitutes the second way to speak of hospitality. Members of the Ziyarates
programme insisted on hospitality as being at the heart of their project. The Ziyarates label proposes
an "accommodation with Fassi families" to share their daily life in "a familial and warm
atmosphere, […] to learn baking the bread, to bring it to the public oven, to go to the souk and
negotiate, to learnt to know the best places of the medina behind closed doors, to participate to
sacred song performances that only old wise man attend, to discover unsuspected places where
99 As Alserhan
(2011: 171) defines it, "an Islamic hospitality experience must embrace the Islamic notions of hospitality
in relation to congeniality and respect to visitors and relates to principles embedded in the Quran emphasizing the
absolute importance of being a good host." In Muslim countries, this hospitality branded as an "Islamic hospitality" is a
trend developing rapidly and becoming more diverse – its lastest manifestation is the development of full-fledged
Shariah-compliant hotels whose customers come from various cultural and religious backgrounds. However, Arabs are
for long known for their hospitality and generosity (In Islam, being generous with a guest link with believing in Allah
and in the Last Day).
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famous thinkers lived and wrote their spiritual experiences, to understand the essence of the city."
As Khadija explained, "we do not have a guest-house. We live here, and at the same time we receive
people. It is a family living in a house and people coming."
According to several Moroccan informants, anybody staying for free in a house is a guest
during three days. It means the guest has nothing to do in the house, nothing to buy for eating, and
nothing to pay for staying. Abdelhay declared that he considered tourists like members of the
family. When he hosted tourists, he was more often at home, had breakfast with them, and changed
his behaviour in order to not disturb them. At the same time, he considered them as clients paying at
the end of the stay. Guest-houses and home-stays offer this paradoxical situation of an unpaid
hospitality and a paid accommodation. According to Ruth, a guest-house "is a private house where
the owner welcomes guests coming to their house. And then, it is friendlier [than in a hotel], it is
more like at home. Well, let's say it is closer to a private house. The idea is to welcome people we
don't know, but to welcome them as if they were members of the family or friends."
To explain this paradox between a friendly relation and a commercial one, Giraud (2007)
splits up the tourist relation in three kinds of relations. The relation has to be commercial – to
provide a paying accommodation –, friendly – to provide a relational and personal service – and
ancillary – to provide services to the guests. The difficulty lies in the presentation, in the
performance, of the commercial relation as a friendly one while at the same time providing paying
services. Hosts and guests then play the game of an "enchanted relation" (Giraud, id.: 26) and
owners use several means to turn the commercial relation into an euphemism. Owners anticipate
guests’ requests by providing gargantuan breakfasts, by dressing the room every day, and by having
a look on TripAdvisor comments to improve their services. They also offer small services such as
tea and sweets or laundry. According to Fatima, a Moroccan guest-house owner, hospitality consists
in "very small things, such as offering a drink. We won't ask guests to pay for that." Finally, owners
invert the roles. As they live in the medina, they present themselves as connoisseurs of the medina
and its houses and as sources of information for the guests.
4.4.4. Tradition
Tourist accommodations offer a glaring example of composition with tradition, as owners
generally want to present "the real Moroccan tradition" to their guests.100 Similarly to castles used
Scholars particularly investigate the opposition between the authentic and the traditional versus the fake and the
modern in tourist settings (Graburn, 1976; Waitt, 2000; Cauvin-Verner, 2006). MacCannell (1973) speaks of "staged
authenticity" as the construction of tourist attractions in response of the tourists’ quest for authenticity and the desire of
hosts to make profit. Peleggi (2002) investigates the invention of traditions and the aesthetic and imaginative recreation
of places in hotels in Thailand to satisfy the tourists’ quest for authenticity. Writing about guest-houses in Morocco,
100
159
as bed-and-breakfasts in France (Morice, 2006), the tradition of hospitality in Fassi houses roots in
a long-term practice of welcoming guests. Tourist accommodations extend this practice and at the
same time preserve the "traditional" materiality of buildings. However, this preservation depends on
the imaginary of the owner about the past and the desires and needs of tourists in terms of comfort
and images. Owners remove "ugly" elements and add more functional ones such as air-conditioners
and swimming pools.
In Fez, no official document defines what tradition is. Members of the regional commission
for listing refer to the Charter of Guest-houses. This document mentions the words "tradition" or
"traditional" several times but gives no definition or example of what it could be. More generally,
there is no formal or institutional definition of what tradition is in Fez. Also, informants generally
mixed tradition with authenticity, typicality and oldness. Emma declared her house was "typical, an
ordinary house. I think it is very authentic in that way of being a true Moroccan house. I think it is
very authentic. Traditional, yes, I think it is a traditional house. I think they're all the same in a
way." Ruth at once mixed and distinguished the terms "tradition" and "authenticity." Her house is
traditional "because it was built such a long time ago. So it is original, it is authentic. That's why I
would say my house is traditional. It follows the Arab-Andalus architectural laws. But traditional
may have negative connotations. Traditional may be conservative and then prevent developments.
In that sense, authentic is different."
Also, when I asked him to describe a traditional house, Youssef, a Moroccan guest-house
owner, raised his eyebrows, and showed around with his hands [we were sitting in the patio of his
house]. "This is it." Others were cautious and mentioned the relativity of tradition with regards to
the time period. According to Omar, "when you speak of traditional, you always have to specify if it
is tradition from 1200 or from 500 years ago." As tradition changes through time, Marie, a French
tourist accommodation owner, undertook major changes in her house. The latter has fulfilled
various functions – hotel, student accommodation, house for several families – and has undergone
transformations through time. Marie then felt no remorse in adapting the house to her way of life.
For instance, she built a kitchen on the rooftop terrace, not to go downstairs every time she needed
something.
However, informants listed various criteria to distinguish a mere traditional house from a
Msefer (2001: 45) speaks of "the fantasy of a cheap junk Orient," while Zerhouni (2004: 9) uses the word "kitsch" to
refer to "the adapted tradition specific to weekend mister fix-it". Evans and Humphrey (2002: 191) argue tourism
creates a "fate of vernacular architecture." Taking the example of Mongolian yurts, they state a variety of yurts' afterlives, such as a dwelling for Mongolian families in cities or an accommodation build by Chinese in tourist camps. If the
former is an evolution of vernacular architecture, the tourist yurt is a replacement, a skeuomorph, that is to say an
artefact "intended to evoke the appearance of objects regularly made of other materials. They often involve the
transformation of previously practical features into decorative ones" (Evans and Humphrey, id.: 192).
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tourist accommodation. Loïc ordered the qualities of a tourist accommodation in four categories that
"normal houses" do not have. The first relates to the building. The house should be as big as
possible and well decorated. The house should be well located – not too far from a sūq (i.e. market),
a taxi station and a gate – and should provide guests with comfort thanks to air conditioners, a
covered rooftop, a heated patio, and a practicable staircase. The second category consists of a
warmth in welcoming guests and in helping them making their stay as good as possible. Thirdly, the
bedrooms have to be clean, not smelling, and well ornate. Finally, owners should provide varied and
generous food at breakfast and dinner, and mix Moroccan and Western dishes. In general, owners
presented these qualities as more important than luxury.
Talking of "residential houses," informants often mentioned the architectural structure as a
traditional feature. According to Diya, a Moroccan inhabitant, "a traditional house reflects the
Moroccan architecture, the Arab-Andalus architecture. This purely Moroccan and Andalus
architecture is unique in the Arab world. Elsewhere, it is not similar, except a bit in Tlemçen."
Architecturally speaking, "you need a patio in the middle and all the windows open on this patio."
Diya made a distinction between the ryad and the dār. "A ryad relates to a fountain and a garden.
But here [we are in Café Clock], it is not a ryad. It is a dār. A dār can be a palace, but there is no
garden. It is a difference to notice."
In order to shed light on the traditional architectural features of houses, Moroccans often
compared them to flats in the New City. In a traditional house, one can find a patio, traditional
mosaic on the ground and on the walls, wrought iron, wood work, carved and/or painted plaster,
Iraqi glass, marble, a fountain. While flats look like boxes, are very small and "European-like."
Mohammed, a Ziyarates member, told his house was "obviously a traditional house. The big doors,
the high ceilings, the high walls, the craft in the wood and the ceilings, the rooms are made in a
handcrafted way. There is the introduction of a m’allem [i.e. master craftsman]. One can see it is
traditional. It is not a flat."
Materials are also part of a traditional house. According to Aziz, a Moroccan guest-house
manager, traditional houses were built with "rocks and beldi [i.e. traditional] bricks. This is how we
built houses in the medina. And there was no cement, only jief [i.e. lime]. […] Lime soaked in water
more than a year and the m’allem [i.e. master craftsman] added water from time to time for the lime
not to dry. It was stronger than cement." In Jawad’s view, this traditional stuff is stronger and more
resistant to time than industrial and modern stuff.
Informants also linked tradition to furnishing. Omar took the example of the salon we sat in
at Riad al Bartal to describe a traditional salon. "It is exactly this, flashy, with low tables, a mirror,
vases, carpets. But the bookshelves, books and the stove look at odds with a traditional salon. We
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had no bookshelves at home. Do not forget that most people were illiterate." He continued: "I, a
traditional salon, there are mattresses, very high and very tough. For my mother, it was very
expensive stuff, the mattresses, the covers and the cushions. We weren't allowed to sit there when
there were no guests. We got some slaps when we were children! […] The patio, it was for everyday
life. But in the salon, there was the fraj [i.e. low banquette], there was a wonderful carpet, there
was... It was forbidden to enter."
Informants also often compared traditional and modern furnishing. In Marie’s view, "the
lounge spirit is not different [from the low banquette style]. You may interpret this way of life in a
more or less contemporary way. You can make traditional Moroccan banquettes in the café and
restaurants of the New City. In Maison Blanche [i.e. a gastronomic restaurant in the New City] for
instance, they used relatively traditional materials. It is modern volumes and architecture, but they
have more traditional colours and furniture. […] I think that inside, you can interpret things, but
outside, I'm shocked when I see traditional houses with super bright colours not related to the
environment."
A fourth criterion consists in the way of life in the house. Helen, the British manager of a
renting agency, underlined the internal life. "That it's hidden, no window to the outside, that the
door, that from the front door there is always a corner, you always have to turn so that no-one can
see inside your house." She added that in traditional houses, "there is no designated room, apart
from the kitchen. All the other rooms could be a bedroom, could be a dining room, could be
somewhere to sit... And people move around. When Westerners buy the houses, they immediately
designate a room: that's my bedroom, that's my office."
Critics of tourist accommodations often accuse owners of altering these four traditional
features. Firstly, the permanent stay of various guests replaced the permanent stay of Moroccan
inhabitants. However, Gigi pointed a continuum between the traditional house and the tourist
accommodation: there is always somebody at home to open the door or to prepare tea and food.
Abdu, a Moroccan guest-house owner, found tradition in the way to welcome guests. "I want to be
there, because I want to give to my visitors what should be given in the right traditional way."
Secondly, in the literature dedicated to traditional houses (cf. supra p. 81), families
"traditionally" used the Moroccan salons to live – eat, sleep, watch TV – and they received guests in
the dedicated salon. In Ziyarates home-stays, one salon remained the living, or lively, room of the
house where members of the family spend their time, watch television, eat and sleep. The other
salons became bedrooms for tourists. Amal had to "pick up" her Moroccan salon furniture in one
corner to install a double bed for the guests. She also installed a bed in the bartal (i.e. alcove opened
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on the patio) instead of a banquette. According to her, these changes bring economic inputs. In both
tourist accommodations and houses rented by several Moroccan families, dwellers were used the
salons around the patio as bedrooms.
In guest-houses, the salon is the meeting place par excellence, the place to have a glass of
tea, to read books from the library, to listen to music, to have a talk in front of the fireplace during
winter evenings, to wait for the guide or the taxi driver. As Australian tourist accommodation owner
Emma put it, "especially in winter we have wonderful conversations there. It is a great conversation
room. It is cosy. And it is comfortable. And it is part of a Moroccan home. It is a central core." In a
way, the salon replaced the patio as the central room in the house. Guest-house owners often use the
central courtyard as a dining room. While in houses inhabited by several families, the patio
sometimes becomes an empty space submitted to sharing rules – to clean it, to share the tap or
fountain, to respect intimacy when a man enters into the house, or to throw the rubbish.
Many foreigners declared that the rooftop terrace was the place of women in traditional
houses, where they washed – and still wash – clothes, dried food and talked to each other. However,
Omar explained, "[the rooftop terrace] was not the most important room for us," because in Fez, the
pride given to white skin made of the sun the enemy of women. Maids in rich families worked on
the rooftop. Also, both Mernisi and Sefroui described in their books the rooftop terrace as the place
where, "traditionally" children were playing, and women talked to each other. Among leisure
activities there was – and there still is – the letting go of homing pigeons kept in an aviary on the
rooftop. According to foreigners, the aviary marks the Moroccan house and although some posses a
birdcage with singing birds, no one mentioned the possibility of having pigeons. They got rid of the
aviary when moving into the house. Amal added, "when I was a child, my mother had medicinal
herbs. When we had a fever, we went up on the roof." In guest-houses, owners increased the
number of plants on the rooftop, which has become a place to have breakfast, to sunbathe, to look at
the medina. Terraces of guest-houses
are furnished, and owners, or the staff,
invite tourists to spend time there.
Pic. 29. Furniture on the rooftop terrace in a
guest-house.
Credit: M. Istasse
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Tourists also care for tradition. In their view, tradition relates rather to a specific charm and
atmosphere than to the conformity to a past way of life. Perceiving the place as old is more
important than living in the past. On the basis of the questionnaire I distributed in several guesthouses, tourists most often thought the house they had stayed in was more or less similar to the
majority of houses in the medina – although some admitted they didn't visit any other house in the
medina. Others based their answers on what they had seen and read. Few established a perfect
similarity between guest-houses and residential houses. On the one hand, they saw similarities in
food – shopping at the local market, bread baked at the oven or at home –, in the historical and
authentic atmosphere – "I guess that the house is a very good sample of the medina houses or at
least it recreates the mood of the city and the imperial style" (Italian guest) –, in the materials – "I
think the house is typically Fassi with the zelij [i.e. mosaic], the stucco, the patio, the fountain and
the rooftop" (French guest) – and in the way of life – employees look like inhabitants met in the
street. On the other hand, the main differences relate to the luxury and European standards in guesthouses and to the fact that guest-houses belong to "a privileged population." Also, the majority of
tourists didn't want to live in such houses. As an Italian guest put it, "it is too much for me. As my
first residence, I would prefer a simpler house. But this is perfect for a special weekend." As some
wrote, holidays are an opportunity to discover other places than those "at home."
In their comments on TripAdvisor, tourists mentioned the magic of Fassi houses rather than
their tradition. They described the wonderful patio or the rooftop terrace where to rest, to have the
breakfast, to sunbathe and to get nice views on the medina – the best moments being the prayer call
and sunset. They reminded the architectural features of the house, the big and well decorated
bedrooms – which were romantic, wonderful, Moroccan-looking – with all the comfort needed –
quietness, cleanliness, comfortable bed, air conditioning, ample supplies of hot water. They
underlined the atmosphere created by the light – games of light and shadow, softened lighting of
Moroccan lamps –, the remote muezzin’s call to prayer and the good location of the house. Some
spoke of "old and real Fassi house," of "huge traditional and authentic house," "restored
authentically," "respecting the traditions in the decoration and furnishing" and "looking like a
museum." All of this participates to a magical stay in a wonderful and gorgeous place, a "total
rapture in the discovery of this sublime ryad," a perfect stay out of the usual scenery, but providing
all the comfort that relaxing holidays require. By investing in medina houses, owners made use of
the walls but also of their emotional content to provide tourists with an experience.
Owners knew about the importance of the atmosphere, of the "staged tradition" or of
"folklorisation" in their tourist accommodation. Although Moroccan guest-house manager Aziz
stated that going in a guest-house was like "going home" and "living like Moroccans were living
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before," other owners geared traditional works towards guests only. Members of a Ziyarates family
added carved plaster and wooden doors in the courtyard during the updating works. However, they
kept their private first floor empty of traditional decoration. As Jean-Pierre, a French guest-house
owner, put it, "the world of tourism is not that of reality. People on holidays are happier than usual.
They come on holidays, and they are in a bubble for a few days," and this bubble prevents from a
cultural or emotional shock. As a consequence, he wanted to provide "an atmosphere in an
exceptional place, a pleasant environment and quality services." For instance, people couldn't come
to dinner in shorts and t-shirt and employees would wear a kaftan (i.e. traditional clothe). "I don't
want a carnival, but everybody has to play the game."
I focused on tourist accommodations for special relations with the house and its materiality
occur within them. I firstly showed that Moroccan guest-house owners planned their tourism
activity. Foreigners did sometimes open a tourist accommodation to have money or to have an
activity in Fez and to not get bored. Moroccan inhabitants joined the Ziyarates home-stay
programme to have some money, to stay in their house, and to welcome guests legally.
Also, by turning houses into tourist accommodations, owners give their house a new life as a
place and a decor in the international market of tourism (McGuinness and Mouhli, 2013).
However, opening a tourist accommodation also means losing privacy and intimacy if one does not
live in a separate house. Owners then develop practices and devices to preserve their intimacy and
to feel at home. They allow a limited appropriation to their guests through rules – forbidden or
hidden rooms – and practices – to choose the guests, not to eat with them. Owners also put
emphasis on hospitality, and more generally on human relations in the context of an enchanted
relation between hosts and guests turning the commercial relation into a euphemism. Finally,
owners encroach upon tradition to present an atmosphere far from the daily practices of Moroccan
inhabitants.
This focus on tourist accommodations shouldn’t suggest that changes in the "tradition" occur
only in tourist accommodations. Moroccan informants also undertook changes in their house with
the aim of modernisation. Television and display cabinets have locations of pride place in the
courtyard or the salon, like the satellite dish on the roof and the fridge in the kitchen. Households
improved their kitchen by making it bigger, and their bathroom by building a shower. Modern tiles
replaced mosaic. Moroccan inhabitants also practice what scholars often investigate as
"folklorisation" (Kurzac-Souali, 2007) or "staged authenticity" (MacCannell, 1973). All these
changes, rather than inventions, are based on an "epistemology of presupposition" (Bizzochi, in
Fabre, 2009). It means that both inhabitants and tourist accommodation owners change their house
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according to their images, tastes, expectations, souvenirs, and needs rather than according to any
conformity with the past as officially described by scholars.101 Arkoun (1995) underline this same
epistemology, or at least this same trend, in the construction of mosques based on stereotypical
images of Islamic architecture, while Laarsi (2009) shed light on the "maroccanisation" of
architecture by Moroccan architects since the 1980s.
101 Vellinga (2006/2007) names this process of appropriation of and negotiation with the past the "inventiveness of
tradition" – rather than the invention which suppose a real object.
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4.5. Living with the house
In this short chapter, I focus on the agency of houses.102 Latour (2007) and Venkatesan
(2009) make a plea for a symmetry between human beings and things – what is called "thingism"
(Jansen, 2013) –, Appadurai (1986) for a social life of things and Ingold (2007b) for a material one.
Keane (2005) supports the idea of a power of things and Miller (2001) investigates their material
consequences. Rather than a commitment to an approach in terms of human agency or the agency of
things, I describe how the materiality of houses, their presence and the engagement of human
beings with them, influence its inhabitants, and what kind of agency inhabitants allocate to their
house.
Following Miller (2001) and Ingold (2007b), materiality and materials have consequences. A
steep staircase invites inhabitants to gather their activities in the ground-floor and prevent elderly
persons to go on the rooftop terrace. Luminosity also influences dwellers. Abderahim, a Moroccan
inhabitant, told me that some years ago, a foreigner bought a house in the medina. After two years,
the house was still under construction and both the house and the owner looked sad. The former
owner had condemned most of the windows because of the nearby school. This lack of luminosity
influenced the mood of the foreign owner who decided to open the windows again. The house got
brighter, the works finished quickly and the owner got happier. Several Moroccan elites, members
of institutions as well as inhabitants of the New City associated the close-minded medina
inhabitants to their houses: how could someone be happy and open-minded when he lives in a rabbit
hole?
Informants allocated houses with agency by placing them at the basis of actions they
undertook or by underlining what the house provided them with. When used as a tourist
accommodation or a cultural place, the house provides money. Amal, a Ziyarates landlady, aimed to
"make the house work." To earn more money, she intended to sell her current house where she
102 A focus on the agency of things raises the danger to exaggerate the material side of the dichotomy between things
and human beings or to overestimate representations and what things stand for. If objects have the power to make
human beings act (Keane, 2005), looks at the house as an actor in the situation makes appear other components – such
as imagination and creativity, books and websites – on the one hand, and gives information about the way human beings
provide a house with intentionality on the other. The power of objects doesn't automatically lead to alienation (Miller,
2001) and shouldn’t be understood literally. As Jansen (2013) underlines, things always need human beings to act. If the
action and the materials consequences of things participate to the occurrence of an event and the emergence of a
situation, human practices are determinant in the final analysis. A bullet cannot kill if a human being hadn’t moved
his/her finger on the trigger of a gun.
In that view, accountability (Jansen, 2013) rather than intentionality (Gell, 1994) appears to be a more heuristic notion.
If the life or the spirits of things are subjected to debates, their presence, their affordance, their reliability and their
availability characterise any situation or occurrence. Instead of an analytical distinction between human and non-human
actants, the matter of agency is a methodological dilemma (Jansen, id.). A distinction between the human and the nonhuman is a gain for any description and raises the question of accountability. This notion doesn’t preclude things or
human-beings from the analysis but sheds light on the necessary conditions of their action, be it located in the
materiality of things or the intentionality of human beings.
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could welcome a maximum of three guests. More generally, many Ziyarates families decided not to
sell their house after they had the opportunity to welcome paying guests. In their view, although
selling the house would have brought a lot of money, particularly since prices increased in the
property market, welcoming guests has turned the house into a monthly and steadier money
provider.
Amal also declared she travelled "by welcoming people from all over the world in my
house. I visit the world through the clients and I learn a lot of things," such as foreign languages. As
Hamza, a Moroccan guest-house owner, put it, "in a guest-house, you meet people everyday, you
know stories." Tourist accommodation owners often underlined they met people they wouldn't have
met otherwise. Evelyne, a French guest-house owner, remembered a Colombian coffee producer
and a famous surgeon. She wouldn't have talked to them in other circumstances. According to
British resident Mike, Moroccans and foreigners meet in his Café Clock, a place of dialogue and
encounter, a free and open space, a "cultural crossroad" where "people feel comfortable."
A tourist accommodation is also at the basis of a website for the promotion and presentation
of the house, ranging from a Facebook page to an elaborated website. Aside from tourist
accommodation owners, some informants – mainly foreigners – have a blog describing the
restoration work103 or their life.104 Also, http://www.houseinfez.com/ is a famous website for giving
advice to buying a house in Fez and tips about what to do and where to eat in Fez. Another blog,
http://ryadzany.blogspot.be/, gives general information about what happens in Fez and Morocco.
The webmaster of this blog started with the restoration works in his house, Riad Zany, and ended in
one of the most famous blogs about Fez and Morocco. His wife, Suzanna Clarke, wrote a best-seller
about the restoration experience, A House in Fez. This book is more famous among foreigners than
the "bible" edited by the CNRS about the architecture and famous houses in Fez. Houses in Fez also
inspired the painter Jonathan Lane and the photographers Thierry Poullet and Gérard Chemit.
Many foreigners asserted that the house "gave me the possibility to express my creativity.
I’m not an architect, but I drew the plans, I did the interior architecture, I made the furniture, I did
mostly everything. The house allowed me to do that," explained Emma, an Australian tourist
accommodation owner. Antoine, the French manager of a construction company, insisted on
imagination in his work, which consisted of "bringing comfort and letting my imagination run
wild," "creating spaces that fit our way of life, our habits in terms of comfort." In his house, "I
brought modern comfort but I respected the architecture. I diverted the function of some rooms to
retrieve them and I attributed them new functions. For instance, a junk room, a room without light
formerly used to store things, I made into a kitchen. A passageway, I made into a bathroom. A
103
104
http://ryadzitounafesrenovation.unblog.fr/
http://evelyninmorocco.blogspot.be/; http://ryad9.blogspot.be/;http://souafine.blogspot.be/
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cubbyhole, I made into a dressing. […] And this is what I really enjoy, creating new spaces with
new functions. This creation is the most interesting thing to me." Valentin also put to the fore this
creative and handwork. Working as an airline pilot, he has few opportunities to innovate.
Construction works constitute a counter balance to his daily life.
To others, creativity was not totally new. Christina, an American resident, has "always been
good at creating environments. So this [i.e. her house in Fez] is just another example. I can do that
anywhere. […] It just gives me another opportunity of expression. […] I'm not very good at
creating something new. I'm not good at making new things. But I'm very good if you give me
something, and I will make something out of it. I've always been good at using what I have and
making it looking nice." Steve, an American tourist accommodation owner, was also used to being
creative. "It’s been about 20 years I develop products. I lived in Asia where I developed craft
products for years. After that, I worked in the luxury area. I worked with craft masters, so craft is
not something at odds to me." According to him, the real issue about creativity is knowledge. "If
you know how to do things, you can replicate or use the elements to create novelties. You have to
understand in order to create. […] The real question is ‘can people can create while they don't know
what it represents?’ Lack of knowledge limits creation. And there is a difference between imitation
and creation." In his view, it explains the lack of creativity among Moroccan craftsmen and
workers, who content themselves with imitating their forefathers.
Once you have the house and the imagination, "whatever you can dream, you can get!"
exclaimed Kate, an American guest-house owner. In view of many foreign informants, one has just
to take his inspiration from the surroundings and then to customise it. They mentioned and
presented a table or a cupboard they made from old doors. Olivier, a Belgian resident, wanted to
make bags from Hessian and to sell them under the brand "Made in A." Hannah, an Irish resident,
underlined the link between creativity and free time. Foreigners living in Fez have more free time
than in Europe and some use it to create. She spent a lot of time at home "creating," that is to say
making things she was not used to in Ireland such as jam, dry tomatoes or soap. She evoked the
rising of a creative class in Fez. Jess's initiative was typical of this foreign "creative class" rising in
Fez. Two or three times a year, for two weeks, she rented a shop where she sold artistic creations
such as paintings, jewels and works of art. These creations were mainly foreign-made and cost more
than the same items one may find in a bazaar. Necklaces cost 300 Dh (27 €) instead of 200 Dh (18
€), brooches 200 Dh (18 €) and earrings 70 Dh (6.5 €) instead of 30 Dh (2.5 €). Jess justified the
higher price saying she doesn't sell souvenirs but an idea of art.
A house also allows dreaming and escaping from daily life. Firstly, to many foreign
residents, the house constitutes a project, a new start in life. Secondly, once the house is finished, it
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provides its inhabitants with dreams. Nora, a British guest-house owner, told her house was "a
gateway to the outside world for me. If I didn't have a project, being married to a Moroccan, being a
Western woman married to a Moroccan. I don't really know which society I live in, I don't want to
conform to Moroccan standards, I would be like a slave in the kitchen, and cleaning, and have no
contact with men who aren't my husband in a friendly way. I have brains and I use them. So having
a guest-house means I can have contacts with Westerners. I'm not completely isolated, and it doesn't
matter that much if I'm not leaving the house. So I'm fulfilling my expectations as a wife. I'm not
hanging around in the street. And I'm fulfilling my need to have contacts with Westerners. So
basically, the idea of having a guest-house is a selfish one but I'm not bored."
In addition to inspiration, creativity and imagination, French resident Sarah claimed her
house "brings me a hell of energy! I was thinking yesterday, 'It is crazy, I manage to carry out
several things simultaneously. The training and stages [at the Institut Français], the house, the
relation with craftsmen and friends, the trips between France and Morocco'. And a lot of people
asked me 'But how do you manage to do all of that?' Well, I feel like… I don't know. I'm like carried
by something. I don't feel tired, I don't feel I have to make a superhuman effort up to say 'Damn, I
will never manage, it is too difficult'. No, I know I do a lot of things, but I do them as if energy
carries me." Foreigners likely spoke about the positive or negative energy of their house.
Informants made of the house an actor when they provided it with a soul and made it alive
cf. infra. p. 229). This life is longer than human life. The house was there before them and will
survive them. According to Abderahim, a Moroccan employee in a tourist restaurant, each house
has a different personality, and the soul of the house is the second necessary term to make the house
alive. If one of them leaves the house, "raHmat. Dār f lkhatar (i.e. It dies. The house is in danger)".
The house and its inhabitants then have to match. Within the same vein, some foreigners asserted
that houses choose their inhabitants. After having accepted Jawad to work in her house, Ruth told
me she wasn't wrong to employ him because the house accepted him. According to her, some
persons are not welcomed in her house. She said that the house made her suffer during the
construction works due to all the problems she encountered (delays, work badly done and had to be
redone, robberies). A Rabat UNESCO office member explained the spirit of architecture – which is
the integration of a building into its environment and the spirit of Fez – which is a medina smelling
happiness and having a soul – occur "when space is lively, human, breathing. Is it a charm? I don't
know. Anyway, it influences people and gives the house a cachet."
In the case of foreigners particularly, the house instigated a learning process. Many
foreigners didn't know anything about construction works or managing a tourist accommodation
before coming to Fez. Being civil servants, soldiers, salesman, youth workers, chief or restaurant
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managers in their country of origin, they had to become builders and managers. Benoit presented
this experience as "a huge creation in all aspects. I didn't really choose, I didn't want to be a guesthouse manager, we already talked about that. But I like doing things for people, that people feel
comfortable and that they leave the house in better condition than when they arrived." Also, the
supervision of the works bored him until he could start decorating and furnishing the house. "I think
if I had to find a new professional orientation, I could have thought of interior decorator."
Rather than on their power, a focus on the agency of houses shows their location at a
crossroad between networks. I sketched out an economic network – the house brings money to their
owners when it is used as a tourist accommodation –, a media network – owners create websites and
write books –, a network of fiction – creativity and imagination –, a network of attachment –
owners mention the mix of human beings and objects when they speak of the house as a place of
encounter –, and a network of psyche – inhabitants provide the house with a soul.
This focus also sheds light on the interweaving pattern between things and human actors in
an environment. Rather than independent actors provided with an additional feature magically
attributed to them and named "agency" (Ingold, 2011), houses are available (Jansen, 2013) for
imagination and creativity to take place, are accountable for owners to travel while staying in their
house. Houses are not agents able to act back but hives of activities and creations. Houses are
available because they are made of materials that last longer than their materiality. Inhabitants
change the furnishing and the architectural decoration of their house but they maintain the basic
materials when undertaking construction works. As such, materials give life to the house by making
it last through time at the same time as they show the passage of life – evident for instance in the
patina of wood that David cherished. Houses, and things in general, have no agency per se but have
to be immersed in a web, in a meshwork of materials and lines of force such as creativity. Agency
then depends on the environment rather than on actors. It calls for skilled actors to give attention to
their environment, to couple perception and action, and to develop their skills through time.
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4.6. Living in heritage
"And he [the guide] imitated the operation, imitated by some tourists whose
awkwardness provoked laughs.
- But do not think the Oasian lack any civility for all that. They knew basic
rules of politeness in the Sahara. Before any meal, one needs to wash his
hands in a water source or with the trickle of water leaking from a pitcher
held by somebody else. One also has to invoke the benediction of Allah. One
is not allowed to drink water during the meal but only after the main dish.
Water moves to the right and one has to take the pitcher or the pot with his
two hands. It is not allowed to drink while standing. If one is standing, he
has to kneel in order to drink. And eggs are not shared.
Idriss was listening with astonishment. These daily life rules, he knew them
for having long practised them, but spontaneously without having ever heard
their wording. To hear them from the mouth of a Frenchman mixed in a
group of tourists made him somewhat dizzy. He felt as if he had been
snatched away from himself, as if his soul had suddenly left his body, and
observed him with astonishment from outside."
Tournier (1986: 78, my translation)
When houses become tourist accommodations or ruins, their owners sometimes reject them
as places to live – they consider their house as a burden they want to get rid off or they move to the
New City. On the other hand, inhabitants may give importance to the architectural decoration and
its symbols. These features are heritage characteristics as many scholars defined (Amiotte-Suchet
and Floux, 2002; Bromberger and al. 2004). An element has to lose its usual functional value in
order to become heritage. However, inhabitants barely consider their house as heritage. Moreover,
Moroccan elites, members of institutions and foreigners often assert that Moroccan inhabitants don't
have any heritage skills and do not take care of their house. In other words, Moroccan inhabitants
leave their houses falling down, replace traditional mosaic by modern tiles, hide a rotten ceiling
behind a fake plaster ceiling to "hide their misery," have no taste, and wash the floor with too much
water – which results in water seepage and rotten wooden beams supporting the ceiling.
According to Hassan, since the rural migration in the 1980s, there is no more respect for the
architectural aspect of houses. In order to preserve them, it is first and foremost important to
"respect the peculiarities of a house and to ensure it a life." Also, "the respect of old shapes, of the
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traditional aspect of the place is of prime importance. There are two essential things to preserve: the
plan display and the architectural decoration." Amélie, a French guest-house owner, declared that
when she arrived, "people [i.e. Moroccan inhabitants] had no idea of their heritage and couldn't
estimate its worth. They were rather happy to get rid of it, you see. So, a lot of families blithely sold
their house and pocketed the money to get a flat in the New City. And they didn't care about what
was done with wood and architectural decoration. It didn't really matter to them." Meriem, a
Moroccan architect, mentioned that "[p]eople [i.e. Moroccan inhabitants] do not maintain their
house maybe because they do not feel interested in this space. The medina is 12 centuries old, and
during 12 centuries, inhabitants maintained it because they thought their lives were there. So, I
wonder if people living in the medina really perceive the value of this space. I mean I inhabit a
normal house built less than 20 years ago. When there is a leak, I fix it. When a tile falls, I replace
it. I look after cleanliness. When there is dampness, I look for its origins. Because it is my house, I
feel at home. So I wonder why those people do not feel the need to repair."
Foreigners compared this lack of awareness in Fez with France’s. François, a French tourist
accommodation owner, stated that in Morocco "I don't know if they are unaware of this [i.e.
heritage preservation] but it is not a priority. I mean, in France, a house threatening to fall down is
preserved. Everybody shows interested in heritage. Here, I feel heritage conservation interests only
a few elites and relates to famous monuments... […] But you know, they [i.e. Moroccans] don't have
this notion of heritage, of the heritage richness. It is not in their culture. It doesn't interest them."
Antoine, the French manager of a construction company, recalled "we had the same chronic
fuckwittery [i.e. irksome foolishness] in France in the early 1960s when people painted everything
with this thick brown gel: shutters, wood. Everything was covered with brown."
Some Moroccan elites even pointed the lack of interest Moroccans have for their history. In
July 2012, one could read in a newspaper after the Spanish Minister of Interior came in Melilla to
commemorate the Anoual battle.105 "Spaniards commemorate this battle they lost, while us, who
took on an aura of this victory, we have forgotten it. Nations willing to be reconciled with their own
history, willing to situate their present in the continuity of their past, remember even their crisis...
While people willing to create a gap between their history and their present, they forget or neglect
even their victories and acts of glory. […] If we had to blame anybody, it would be ourselves, for
being a nation without memory or history, without politicians and managers knowing the value of
victories and glory" (Damoune, 2012).
Some foreigners extended this statement of blindness to members of institutions. Valentin, a
French resident, told one of his house was labelled "of heritage interest" by the Inspector of
105 Battle
between Spain and Morocco in 1921, lost by the Spaniards.
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Historical Monuments. As a consequence, for the Inspector standard, it could not be changed, and
restoration works should be undertaken under his supervision. Valentin and his partners have
undertaken works for six years in the house, "a wonderful work of restoration as everybody tells us.
But this guy, he even doesn't see his heritage is safeguarded." The Inspector indeed tried to block
the building site for any reason. According to Valentin, "they [i.e. members of the Inspection of
Historical Monuments] were brain-washed by UNESCO." As a consequence, they apply texts
without understanding them, without thinking, without any flexibility. Also, during one walk in the
medina, David stopped in front of a house – the former meeting room of the medina authorities and
nowadays a youth club – and showed me the mosaic on the facade. Some years ago, public
authorities decided to restore the facade, and instead of redoing the mosaic, they removed part of it
and replaced it by plaster. David condemned this act for "they mucked up the zelij [i.e. mosaic].
This pattern was unique. It is now impossible to redo it. No craftsman is able to do it again."
Moroccan elites and foreign residents sometimes admitted that they were also blind to
heritage. "We are inside, we are integrated with it [i.e. heritage]!" (Gigi). In contrast to tourists who
visit it and see it, inhabitants don't see it anymore. Also, they generally lack interest in actions
undertaken by institutions to preserve and restore houses and heritage in Fez. They thought public
authorities should undertake more works but they criticised what had already been done. Many saw
tourists as the main targets of these works. Mehdi, a Moroccan guest-house employee, found the
new city door in Batha "pretty, but not necessary. It is an improper investment." Benoit compared
that door to a triumphal arch placed in the middle of nowhere, without any city wall around it.
According to him, public authorities would better spend the money in public infrastructures such as
roads or trees. But, according to many informants, public authorities don’t seem to have an interest
in the medina. Ahmed, a Moroccan guest-house owner, suggested, "[w]e have to talk about what we
want to do with this heritage. Do we want to destroy it, do we want to keep it, do we want to restore
it, do we want to make benefits from it? It is an important issue. Because when we wanted to build
the Tangier Med port, we dedicated money to make it concrete. Because it was a collective will. But
do we want to do the same with our architecture in the medina? I don't know if there is the same
will."
On the other hand, Gigi happily welcomed the R'Cif works, stating that families and more
particularly women could use the new square to meet while children are playing. Jean-Pierre, a
French guest-house owner, appreciated the streets are painted in the same colour. "I think that the
medina should be painted in one colour. Because the medina is an entity, and it provides the medina
with an identity." Amélie mentioned a lot of changes between 2009 and 2010. Streets have been laid
with cobblestones everywhere, wood crosspieces have been installed as rooftop at Boujloud, metal
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doors have been replaced by wood ones in the same area.
Some informants even defended public authorities, or at least explained their lack of
efficiency. They distinguished the institutions in charge of the works and the origin of money.
According to Jawad, "there is a difference. ADER is not the mejliss baladi [i.e. communal council].
Hada bouHadou, Hada BouHadou [i.e. they are on one side, the others are on another side]. It is
not the same money. Fountains and gates, it is mesjliss baladi. Houses, it is ADER. It is different."
Others pointed out the complexity of work undertaking in Fez. Meriem thought that "it would be an
opportunity for me [to carry projects in the medina]. But with all the limitations coming from the
Ministry of Culture, ADER, the architectural prescriptions... You have to use such material, such
technique lalalala. […] It is specific to the medina, because all the cities don't have ADER. I think it
is specific to Fez because there is an institution in charge of the medina. When one institution is
specifically in charge of the medina, the works are a little bit more hectic in this area."
The wider spread explanation Moroccans gave for this little interest in and this blindness to
houses and heritage is the lack of money. They underlined the expensive cost of works. The regime
of tenure is another wide spread explanation, as Frederica, a Spanish resident put it. "I rent a house.
If I notice it starts collapsing, I'm not going to fix it, because it is not my house, and I know that
some time later, I'll leave." Omar added closeness to the medina to explain the Moroccans’
blindness to cultural heritage. "Remove inhabitants from the medina, place them in a new place to
live, and they will consider the medina as a heritage. People living now in the medina see it as a
danger. But they don't have the money to move out. Here, we say that the one whose hand is in the
water is the same as the one whose hand is in the fire. People living in the medina don't have the
time to think of the beauty of things. When they go back home, they see the zelij [i.e. mosaic] but
they also see the 5 or 6 meter high crack on the wall. When you go home, you see this crack on the
wall, and you have children, to preserve heritage is not as valuable as to same human lives. So,
people sleeping in such conditions do not talk about heritage. When a house collapses, people see
the house, and the deaths. They won't say it is heritage."
Foreigners also gave reasons for this lack of skills and interest. Moroccan inhabitants don’t
know what architecture and heritage are – educational problem –, they don’t have the money to take
care of their house – economic problem –, they don’t know where to ask for some help – political
problem –, they don’t like what is old – taste problem –, they are not used to – cultural problem.
Christina, an American resident, tried to understand why Moroccans did not take care of what
foreigner tried to preserve. "You know, people don't look very far ahead. If there is a problem, they
fix it. And they don't look to the next. Second, I think that we, as foreigners, look for perfection.
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And in Orient, perfection is never archived. So we are trying to archive perfection, so we never
finish." In her view, culture and the change in the population explain why current inhabitants do not
care about houses and heritage. It is not their culture, their habit to do so.
Value is another reason for the alleged lack of skill and interest. In general, Moroccans do
not value what is old. According to Taoufiq, an Arabic teacher, Moroccans see ruins in heritage. As
a consequence, they sell old houses and they buy new ones in the New City, a place they associate
with comfort. On the contrary, foreigners, and mostly Americans, like the medina and heritage
because of their young country. In the medina, they experience another world, an old one. Valentin
and his wife remembered when they visited houses to buy, they saw many without any interest in
their view but immediately habitable in Moroccans’ view. While what Moroccans presented them
like ruins, "there was something interesting there. There was heritage there."
In addition to value, heritage is a matter of education. David showed me the removal of
friezes at the Sidi Ahmed Chaoui mausoleum. These friezes were Koranic writings. According to
him, a lack of respect, interest and knowledge pushed people from the young generation to commit
such an act. An educated man would never have committed it because it is shameful to destroy a
religious place. Philippe, a French art historian, added that "Moroccans obviously don't have any
artistic knowledge. They don't have any idea about what is beautiful and what is not. At school, they
do not learn to draw. They do not learn the basis of art history. And they face things they do not
understand. So, in front of painted wood, when you say to a Moroccan 'This door dates back to that
time', he answers 'How do you know that?', and I say 'I know it because it is painted wood, with this
specific pattern, so it dates from this period'. He would know it if he had learned it at school."
According to Hassan, houses and heritage preservation "is a matter of means and awareness.
We need to raise awareness on the nature of interventions, because some inhabitants think
protection may be reached by the use of modern materials. If they knew the impact of those
techniques, they would change their mind. So, it is a matter of awareness that we have to improve."
In a Moroccan photographer’s view, one has to know and understand history in order to appreciate
heritage. Without this education, inhabitants cannot be proud of their city. They cannot appreciate
their house or upkeep it properly.
Aside from explanations of this cultural blindness, several informants mentioned that
Moroccan inhabitants have their own way to take care of houses. I described the works Jawad
undertook in his house during my stay. Abdelhaq, a Moroccan belt-maker, remembered his sister
had to remove her shoe heel before entering into the patio, in order not to damage the floor mosaic.
He also taught me how to recognise houses of Fassi families. The wood on the stairs is not damaged
because people used to place their foot in the middle of the step, and not on the wood board.
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According to Ruth, "they [i.e. former Fassi that showed her their house] really touched me with
their love for their house. Not all of them. Of course, some want to preserve, but others do not mind,
and do not take care of the house. But there are those who are touched by heritage because they
spent their childhood in these houses. Sometimes, they are eager to open a museum. More and more
Fassi are coming back in Fez, and are touched by the city. They want to feel the link. A friend of
mine, whose family is from Fez but living in Casa, wants to settle in Fez for some time." Abdelaziz,
a Morocco-French guest-house owner, carefully reminded that "there are many reasons to desire
industrial tiles at home. Somebody put industrial tiles because he finds them trendier, more elegant,
more beautiful, and easier to clean. It is one thing. But when one removes mosaic to put industrial
tiles, it is something different. And this is where education matters."
Foreigners on their side are said, after Kurzac-Souali (2006), to constitute a touchstone in
raising heritage awareness. Ahmed, a Moroccan guest-house owner, pointed to the role of Fez Riads
– a renting agency – in the preservation of the medina. According to him, the British manager
succeeded in what Moroccans failed to do for their city. Fez Riads is an example for Moroccans,
teaches them a lesson, as a foreigner "restore our history and our geography." Laïla Skalli, a
Moroccan architect, particularly put to the fore the presence of foreigners and the development of
tourism to explain the rise in heritage awareness in Morocco. "Thanks to the guest-house
phenomena, people are interested in their heritage, but only under the tourism aspect. That is to say
that before, they considered heritage as something old, to throw away, and to get rid of. And now,
they are kind of proud because heritage represents a positive identity outside Morocco. So, heritage
has nearly become a marketing brand. It is a recent trend, a second step. It is better than nothing, but
it is not enough. People still do not consider heritage for itself, having simply and only a value of
heritage. I think it has limits, because as a consequence, during the rehabilitation, one favours what
is useful for tourism purposes instead of favouring what is useful for the population. So, as long as
we don't have a consideration for heritage in itself, as long as the approach of heritage is a tourism
one, I think it is not enough."
As Violier (2005) writes, foreigners are often the initiators of a heritagization process by
taking over a neglected place. Tourism and migration appropriate places that inhabitants consider as
secondary. These inhabitants need a revelation of their heritage through its appropriation by others.
They then re-conquer their heritage because they feel dispossessed or because they do not recognise
themselves in the discourses produced by foreigners. However, in Fez, newcomers tend to forget
that those places were not empty at the beginning even if they were marginalised or neglected.
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Scholars also propose explanations for the blindness to heritage and the lack of care. NavezBouchanine (1991) underlines that Moroccans generally wait and expect from the State to clean up
houses, to provide water and electricity supply, public lighting or a road network. The end of the
Providence State and its replacement by a policy of decentralisation since the mid-1970s did not
prove to be successful. The lack of civil organisation to improve the urban environment in the
medina echoes the oft-heard complaints about the inefficiency of the Moroccan State. Taking the
example of ADER, informants know they could have money from this institution but they don’t ask
because they want to avoid problems with the State or they wait their house nearly collapse in order
to benefit from the 100% reimbursed intervention of ADER. Arkoun (1990) for his part points out
an ideological change. According to him, the current inadequate cultural conservation in the Arab
World results from the replacement of elitist and popular cultures by a populist culture. With the
demographic growth, the rural exodus to urban centres, the disappearance of guilds and the
industrial system of production, history has become an ideological tool in a nationalist enterprise.
History of art and history of religion are not well taught. Islam has become a political and
demagogic tool, an ideological resource in the populist culture promoting political legitimacy. In
everyday life, the shift explains the ubiquity of plastic objects and the imitation of Western
standards by elites. This shift is even obvious in architecture with the rise of modern buildings,
Californian villas, and cheap housing.
Fabre (2009: 18) tries to explain why "habits erode perception" in heritage recognition. In
his view, heritagisation doesn’t lead to the awareness of living in a heritage because it only adds one
repertoire of spatial actions and one regime of time without erasing the former ones. Moroccan
inhabitant may simply not take these new repertoires and regimes into account. In that context of
multiplicity, he lists several ways to live in heritage. The first is "assimilation" (familiarisation), that
is to say living next to heritage, assimilating it in a mostly ritual use. In this mode, human beings
travel across – which is different from visit – the heritage space, climb, represent, and write on it.
For instance, numerous tags and children chalk drawings ornate the walls in the streets. The second
manner is "occupation" (occupation), linked to the claims of property and of the first occupant. The
third is "residence" (staying, residence), which implies most of the time a functional conversion of
the heritage.
Residence is by far the most common way of living in heritage in the Fez medina. This way
didn’t imply any functional conversion because houses have always been places to dwell in.
Inhabitants already lived in "heritage" in a residential and ritual way before its institutional
nomination. There was then no need to find a new use to preserve a dying heritage, to think about a
way to inhabit heritage. Frederica said that "people do not speak in terms of heritage, because you
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cannot live in a museum! When I'm in my house, I do not say every day 'Oh, look at this zelij [i.e.
mosaic]!' No, I live there. I dirty the zelij, sometimes I spill coffee on it. But it is my life, I cannot...
I have to defecate in heritage [laugh]."
In Fabre’s (id.) view, Moroccans inhabitants are too "close" to the site. Fez is for them banal
and familiar. This is an intimate space, a space of everyday experience. Objects are tested through
their sustainability and accountability and are considered like individuals (they are allocated a soul
for instance). Their use gives them a effective and practical value rather than a heritage value. Also,
there are few opportunities for Moroccan inhabitants to compare Fez to other places. Their
attachment to houses doesn't consist in sharing emotions about a loss but in taking position
according to local policies about their environment. Barthelemy and Weber (1989) also show that
when individuals are living in an environment, they first worry about their use of this environment
and they would be opposed to whatever change to their uses. In the Fez medina, the heritage
relation with houses is secondary because inhabitants do not automatically and permanently
consider their house as a piece of cultural heritage but rather as a place to live. This statement is not
tantamount to saying that inhabitants do not take care of their house. Herzfeld (1991: 4) describes
that before being monuments, houses in Rethmenos were "the familial context of a social life that is
full of affection, distrust, loyalty, hatred, amused tolerance, fierce exclusion." Although owners
complain about the fact that houses are small, uncomfortable, unhealthy and cramped, they
developed an affective stance toward their house.
Each of these theoretical approaches explains why inhabitants do not care about houses and
heritage, but asserts a total dichotomy between blindness and awareness. Either inhabitants are
blind and familiar to their heritage, or they are aware of it and undertake preservation actions. Also,
denying a heritage skill to Moroccans is denying the fact that a same object can be involved in two
relations at the same time (the house-as-a-home and the house-as-a-heritage), or is reducing one
object to only one of its attributes (to be a home or to be a heritage). The theory of affordances is a
first stage to overcome the dichotomy. According to Gibson (1977), human beings perceive valuerich ecological objects, that is to say that they do not perceive qualities but affordances according to
their needs. "What the object affords us is what we normally pay attention to" (Gibson, id.: 134).
Objects, but in fact any component of a situation, offer holds, that is to say affordances, unrealised
potentials, tangible or intangible grips that instigate certain actions. Holds constitute a meeting point
between the characteristics of the object and the resources of the other components in relation with
it. Keane (1997) shares the same ideas when speaking of a bundle to describe the plurality of
features of objects whose only few are effectively used in situ. Affordances invite individuals to pay
different kinds of attention to objects. For instance, a house is a dwelling, a person, a heritage, a
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money provider but it is not all those qualities at once and for all individuals.
In the next section, I focus on how human actors are successively blind and aware according
to the attention they give to an objet. I also describe and explain how human actors come to qualify
a house as heritage. Before, I describe two Moroccan initiatives against the blindness to heritage.
Two students of the High Studies in Management in Fez organised a free event in the
context of their studies. They chose the topic "Safeguarding and promoting the cultural and
architectural heritage of the Fez medina. The Millenary Fez, a return to the future"106 and they
organised a "heritage day" on the 22nd of April 2012 at the Batha Museum. More than 500 people
attended the conference, fashion show and music concert. The conference was entitled "Protecting
and enhancing the architectural heritage of the city of Fez." ADER director Fouad Serghini was
among the speakers. Also, a photography competition and exhibition was organised in collaboration
with the ALIF-ALC photography club with the theme "Moroccan Architecture." More than 80
people participated in the contest.
The two students decided to create this event because, according to one of them, "over the
last few years, this richness has been deteriorating because of our lack of citizenship and awareness.
That's why we have to react before it disappears, and that's why we decided to realise this project to
promote this jewel and raise the lost awareness among our citizens." Also, "as nobody cares about
the medina deterioration, an awareness campaign is necessary for the revitalisation of this vanishing
pearl. This awareness campaign could provoke a guilty feeling and a consequent responsibility of
all those affected by the future of the medina." In their idea, everybody – architects, doctors, urban
planners, property developers and lawyer – is concerned with "saving our dear medina."
In the same vein, Tayyibi, the former director of the National School of Architecture in Fez,
decided to hold a heritage day on Facebook on the 18th April 2011 between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m.. I
was in charge of managing and fuelling the discussion with Meriem and himself. He created a
specific Facebook page with topics for participants – mainly people involved in architecture such as
students and architects – to meet and discuss heritage in Morocco. On that page, he explained the
reason of this event. "There is a rich and wide-built heritage in Morocco. This heritage shows the
ethnic and cultural mix that participated to the birth of local traditions and specific building cultures
in terms of materials used and building techniques well suited to the life conditions. Heritage in
Morocco is a wealth in all the meanings of the term. It is often unique, mainly when related to
historical centres and fortified villages of the South that show the genius of builders. This heritage
of building culture is exceptional. It is also important to remember that Moroccans experience a
crisis, mainly a crisis within the institutions in charge of public action and inequalities reduction.
106 Cf.
appendix p. 386 for the leaftlet.
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The management of heritage and of building projects with local materials faces a deep problem
hindering any opportunity of economic or social development for the built fabric in particular and
for the territory in a general way. This problem is even more tragic if we consider the narrow
meaning given to the concepts of management and heritage. It is not sufficient to advise and to
observe to give sufficient results. […] Conservation, promotion and restoration issues are important
and they involve professionals and skills. It is necessary today to promote these resources.
Education and awareness rising are unavoidable tools to this end." In doing so, Tayyibi aimed to
make of the ENA a place to think and raise awareness about and around heritage.
The discussion addressed several topics. Among them were the definition of built heritage
and the criteria of its nomination and the comparison with France and Algeria in terms of
institutions of preservation and State allocation for heritage preservation. Participants referred to
official writings – Cahiers techniques SIA Zurich about the conservation value or the lists of
historical monuments and the list of actions undertaken by the Ministry of Culture – or scholars and
professionals – the link of a teacher blog describing heritage, Monique Eleb and Cohen, André
Adam, Mohammed Sijelmassi – to support their argument. Participants criticised the lack of a
strong and sustainable policy and strategy followed by concrete actions in a multidisciplinary
atmosphere. Some actions, like the Aga Khan Award for architecture in a Moroccan village (Aït
Iktel) were mentioned for being successful because professionals and publics authorities worked
together. They also criticised the too few actions undertaken by public institutions, too few
categories of heritage, too many listed monuments in decay. They attributed this state of decay to
the major social and economic changes that followed the end of colonisation and the development
of modern economy. Morocco has chosen a path neglecting its past. Finally, participants shared
links about Fez, heritage, the association CasaMémoire, the use of earth in architecture, the
collective mills. They posted videos and texts of Andre Ravereau and Hassan Fathy, the article of
Babadzan about social uses of heritage, the book edited by Caroline Gautier-Kurhan about
Moroccan cultural heritage. A student raised the idea of creating an association aiming at organising
events to raise the awareness of Civil society about heritage, at involving students in restoration
projects during their school training.
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4.7. Conclusion
In this section, I took houses of the medina and their materiality as a departure point to
follow several networks meeting in these houses, to describe various ways to engage with houses
and their material components. These houses are more complex in their materiality and in their
daily life than scholars and novelists (re)present in their books. The Islamic City paradigm and the
unique model of patio houses are inscribed in the "building perspective," according to which
production and construction only transcribe pre-existent and ideal forms into a material substrate
(Ingold, 2011). I added a "dwelling perspective," an alternative account on building that rather
focuses on the process of working with materials and engaging with the environment. This
engagement with materials is evident when inhabitants undertake construction works.
Construction works are a first way to engage with houses. Inhabitants undertake works
according to their economic means – many informants underlined the expensive price of traditional
materials – and their project with the house. Some simply maintain the house by repainting the
walls and improving the waterproofing. Others improve it with modern comfort by adding a fridge,
modern tiles, or air-conditioners. Others undertake major works when they intend to open a tourist
accommodation or to upgrade the house to the latest comfort standards. Informants favour the
respect of the house, oldness and tradition. But in any case heritage is their concern.
Another network of engagement brings members of institutions and their rules in houses. To
undertake works, inhabitants have to ask for one or several permits, depending on their project.
Members of various institutions compose the three commissions in charge of issuing permits and
controlling the works with regards to their rules – the Master Plan, the national heritage laws, the
Charter of Guest-Houses. Heritage then rests at the heart of specific institutions, such as the
Inspection of Historical Monuments, while others, the National Security among them, do not
especially care about it. Also, inhabitants have to face these various institutions, to pay money to
obtain what they want, and to play with their rules. In this game, both inhabitants and members of
institutions implement ruses and tricks in order to be "normally illegal." For instance, Moroccan
inhabitants, whatever the rules are, give importance to cleanliness and tidiness and favour their
comfort to what is legal, while foreigners favour the harmony of the site they have chose to live in,
sometimes in detriment of the rules. Inhabitants firstly care about the problems they face during the
construction works, and learning "how to do" is at the core of their experience. Undertaking works
in a house is both a learning and a human experience in which heritage is a secondary concern.
Informants faced another kind of relation with houses when furnishing and decorating it.
They defined styles of furnishing and decorating, guidelines they followed to furnish their house,
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and judgements about other kinds of furnishing in the medina according to specific criteria. In these
categorisations, prescriptions and evaluations. The accusation of "kitsch" or Orientalism are better
understood in terms of an "epistemology of presupposition" (Bizzochi, in Fabre, 2009) than in terms
of a "staged authenticity" (MacCannell, 1973), a folklorisation (Kurzac-Souali, 2007), or a
Disneylandisation (Chebbak, 2004), for the first give place to the inhabitants' tastes. Taste appears
to be an affective and aesthetic relation with the house and its furnishing, a skill inhabitants can
learn, a judgment made according to specific criteria such as originality, continuity, harmony or
beauty. But one more time, heritage was hardly evoked.
A focus on houses used as tourist accommodations allowed me to investigate the relation
between inhabitants and three qualities of North African houses taken-for-granted – intimacy,
hospitality and tradition – as this use exacerbates the concerns with these three notions. Owners care
about their intimacy and privacy when they have to share the house with other inhabitants, and they
implement strategies and practices to appropriate their house and to feel at home. For instance, they
define rules, they select their guests or they move to a private house. In tourist accommodations,
owners also have to balance a friendly relation with an economic one in order to be hospitable, as
this hospitality has become a commercial behaviour. The most obvious changes occurred in the way
informants define traditional houses and tourist accommodations. They link tradition with several
criteria – the structure of the house, its materials, the way of living or a specific period – the place –
Fassi tradition – and fake – to criticise modernity – but hardly with heritage.
Heritage was not more obvious when informants spoke about what the house allows them to
do. Informants allocate agency to their house. This latter allows them to travel, improving their
skills, practising artistic or intellectual works, expressing their imagination and creativity. They also
sometimes consider their house as a living entity having its own soul and energy. This focus on a
more material aspect of the house doesn't bring more light, or more opportunity for heritage to
appear.
Heritage really appears when Moroccan elites, members of institutions and foreigners deny
Moroccan inhabitants to take care of their house and to have heritage skills. They, as well as
Moroccan inhabitants themselves, give several explanations to this blindness to heritage, to this lack
of interest in history and in preservation works undertook by public authorities. Among these
explanations are the poverty of inhabitants and the fact they are mainly tenants and not owners,
their main concern with security and daily life, the lack of "heritage preservation culture," the lack
of education and knowledge, the absence of civil society. In that context, they saw the presence of
foreigners and tourism a key terms in the current rise of heritage awareness in Morocco. However,
in their statements and explanations, inhabitants and members of institutions generally mixed
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houses and heritage and called houses to speak of heritage or the way reverse.
These 5 kinds of engagement with the materiality of houses show distinctions between
categories of human actors. Moroccans, foreigners, members of institutions, tourist accommodation
owners, differ in the location of their house, their taste, their respect of the rules and the
qualification of houses as heritage. It however doesn’t mean that heritage comes from a bourgeois
appraisal of houses. I do not deny that the qualification of houses as heritage is more than often met
among Moroccan elites and foreigners who do not use houses as dwellings anymore. I nonetheless
argue in the next section that this difference in the heritagisation of houses is less a matter of social
class107 than a matter of distance: not a social or professional distance but a distance in practice and
attention-getting – Moroccan inhabitants barely define their house as heritage but generally agree
on the heritage quality of buildings they do not often use such as the Moulay Idriss shrine in fez or
the Tower Hassan II in Rabat.
Secondly, heritage is relatively absent from these descriptions. It means that houses allow
another story than heritage. They have multiple stories and heritage is one of them. Houses are also
a mix of materials – bricks, wood, plaster – rather than as materials agents. As such, they offer (or
make available) their properties (or affordances) to human beings experiencing them. During this
experience, human being may come to qualify these properties, making them qualities.108 I address
this process of qualification with the following questions: where does heritage start? When and how
do inhabitants come to qualify a house as heritage? Leaving aside the question "are houses
heritage?" I raise the issue of how houses become "heritage." In other words, the next section is
dedicated to the heritage border.
In a similar vein, Berque (2010) follows a bourdieusian path to explain the birth of landscape. In his view, only
urban dwellers can "see" landscapes because, beyond necessity and use, they aesthetically contemplate their
environment. This contemplation – both admiration and meditation – comes from a distance from this environement
that is not anymore a place to work but a place to enjoy. It also requires the ability to taste the sensitive happenings and
things in order to give them value.
108 The difference between properties and qualities is a heuristic one. Rather than a border separating them, there is a
continuum between them. None is more objective or more subjective, more essential or secondary. In a rought,
properties are all the affordances offered by a thing, while qualities are those human beings give attention to during a
specific action. As such, properties and qualities both depends on the experience of this thing. Qualification is not a
matter of affixing some meaning to something but of discovering it in the very process of use.
107
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5. How to be attached to houses?
5.1. Introduction
In the previous section, I focused on the relation between existing things. I investigated the
encounter of networks in medina houses. In this part, I put an emphasis on the various ways to
develop a relation with medina houses beyond their materiality. I investigate how heritage elements
come to exist, how houses may become cultural heritage. Gravari-Barbas (2005) and Fabre (2009)
explore heritage places even if inhabitants don't consider them as such. However, I'm interested in
the way human actors may come to qualify a house as heritage, since the official heritagisation
doesn't mean that everyone recognises the listed element as heritage.
I review five ways of investigating the relation with medina houses, namely physical senses,
affects, qualification, conflicts and justifications, and the expert and non-expert approach. In each
chapter, I question a specific theoretical issue. I address the matter of sensual perception as a skill,
as Ingold (2001) and Hennion (2007) argue. In the third chapter, I draw a typology of affects and I
challenge Etienne's (2006) dichotomy between socio-biographical and aesthetic-historical affects. In
the following chapter, I consider the classical divide between experts and non-experts in their
appraisal of houses by adding the category of autodidact experts – or amateurs – and by stressing
the similarities shared by these three categories. The identification of conflicts surrounding the
house emphasises the values given to houses and gives a glimpse into what people care for. I
however argue that conflicts do not constitute the main types of relation with houses. They rather
constitute a tool for the researcher and are not a fundamental characteristic of his/her object of
investigation. Finally, by investigating the qualities allocated to houses, I ask how and when the
quality of heritage is allocated to houses and I question the notion of heritage border.
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5.2. Sensual109 relations with houses
Based on the description of various senses that informants mentioned in their physical
relation with houses in the medina, I question the idea of senses as skills. Many scholars stress the
importance of sensing things and present senses as skills. Ingold (2001) argues that both art and
technology got rid of the senses and bodily skills. They then missed the coordinated engagement of
bodies and tools in the perception through the senses and the actions on materials in a specific
environment. Ingold (2000) then studies the engagement of human actors in the space through the
foot and the practice of walking while Hennion (2007) argues that tasting is not an attribute or a
property but an activity that needs the skills and reflexivity of tasters who give attention and the
presence of objects.
5.2.1. Physical senses in Fez
I became interested in the physical senses during my fieldwork for my Master dissertation. I
investigated, and participated to, a summer work camp in Fez where young people "from all over
the world" – understand mainly from France and Morocco – helped ADER workers to restore
The anthropology of senses developed in the 1990s as one of the last "turn" in anthropology. This turn first
instigated the hegemony of sight and erased the others senses. Studying architecture, Crunelle (2004) underlines
volumes, materials, and colours – visual features – take the ascendance over odours in the description of houses. This
bias comes from the idea that architecture is about buildings and drawing maps and plans of the visible. However, since
the late 1990s, scholars of the sensorial turn (Howes, 1991; Classen, 1997; Stoller, 1997) stand against this hegemony of
sight in the Western world in general and in social sciences in particular. They plead that the researcher takes account of
his/her senses during the research, both when inquiring and writing (Herzfeld, 2001; Van Ede, 2009). They finally aim
to go beyond a purely phenomenological approach of senses to study the mix of materiality, phenomenology and senses
in situation (Goody, 2002). Ingold (2004) attempts to reintroduce a phenomenological stance by erasing the visual gap
that separate objects and human beings as distinct and remote. As such, he mixes Gibson's (1979) ecological approach
to visual perception (how is it possible to perceive things in the environment) with Merleau Ponty’s (1962)
phenomenological approach of perception (what is the kind of involvement necessary for perceiving things in the
environment?).
In their many cultural readers (Bull and Back, 2003; Edwards and Bhaumik, 2005; Korsmeyer, 2005; Drobnick, 2006),
scholars investigate the multiple ways to sense in and among cultures (Howes, 1991), the meaning that human beings
give to the various senses, the social construction of senses (Vannini and al., 2012), different cultural sensory models or
sensory ratio. They also avoid making of language the unique condition to sense something but they consider it as a tool
that participates to the share and spread of senses. Candau (2000) for instance stresses the difficulty to put smells into
words in a study dedicated to the expertise of odours in occupations such as chefs or forensic scientists. On the one
hand, the limited vocabulary of smells facilitates their transmission and allows a mutual understanding between human
beings. On the other hand, language is not enough to share odours. Latour (1985) on his hand studies the scientific way
of seeing and the role of visual and scriptural techniques in the making and circulation of science. By anchoring their
results in words, researchers make them visible and share them.
However, few scholars focus on senses and heritage. Cultural workers and pedagogues on their hand really take account
of experience and senses in the approach of heritage. They insist on the necessary physical contact with heritage as a
tool for discovery. Heritage is a thematic for city-guided tours, allowing people to visit elements of heritage usually
forbidden. Also, French schools organise "heritage classes" included in their pedagogical plan. During one week, pupils
and teacher spend time with heritage professionals and participate to their activity. For instance, they train to ceramic or
stained glass making, or they wander in a natural park with a professional guide.
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houses in the medina. These young people, and myself, experienced the first day of work with
frustration. Building workers didn’t let us work with shovels to prepare mortars or axes to dig
trenches, carry bags, or clash mortar on the walls. In a nutshell, they were concerned about our
inability to work properly and fast. Moreover, they weren’t used to working with women – who
composed half of the volunteers. After a few days of negotiations, discussions, and mutual
observation, we started working and we immediately – in the evening and the day after – felt it in
our body: blisters, scrapes, back and muscles pains, dust in the nose and the mouth. I later observed
the workers had calluses on their hands. Some of the oldest ones even had their fingers blocked in a
hook-like position. I also noticed the smells of mortars and stripping chemicals, the taste of dusty
water and the sound of shovels on the ground. All these senses intensified and marked work
colleagues’ and my own experience of working in houses.
During my second fieldwork, for my Ph. D. dissertation, few informants mentioned the
mobilisation of their senses during the construction and maintenance works – due partly to the fact
that many foreigners didn’t participate to the works. However, senses are part of the daily relation
with houses. Hassan touched the mortars to check their dampness when we entered the ablution
room of the Bouanania medersa (i.e. Koranic school), Abdelhay mentioned he could spend hours in
the patio to look at the decoration, Gigi said she tried to read and understand the symbols in the
patio of her guest-house, Fettah underlined the importance of observing master craftsmen at work,
David spotted the details of any house he entered and stripped it bare with his eyes. Also, Moroccan
women told me about the physical pain and the difficulty they had to clean the house, which was
too big and too old for them and their family. In Jawad's house, Amina often helped her mother
Ftouma clean the house.
Among all the senses, informants most often cited sight. As Philippe, a French art historian,
said, "[s]ight takes precedence when you enter a house. You are dazzled. There are a lot of things to
see. I would say that you need to stay some time in a house. Don't go through it too quickly. That's
why I really like drinking tea with the owners, to have the time to see the house." When entering a
house, foreigners, be they residents or tourists, declared they were stuck by the architectural
decorations in the central courtyard. They sometimes associated this "unveiling" of the interior of a
house with a physical feeling of being breath-taken and speechless in front of what is beautiful or
what was beautiful before its current state of decay. Abdelhay spent hours in the patio looking at the
architectural decoration that is "very simple but has an extraordinary effect" because of their Arab
meanings. The patterns of this decoration "inspire me Arab-Andalus depth. Because you know, you
can find the same patterns in this house in mosques and in the Alhambra in Andalusia."
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Many informants – mainly foreigners – mentioned "love at first sight" for the house when
they were looking to buy a property. Abdu, a Moroccan guest-house owner, remembered that he
"saw a house that hit my eye and I loved it." When I asked her to explain how she came to buy her
house, Evelyne, a French guest-house owner, recalled: "[w]hen I entered into the house, it was love
at first sight. Really, I found the house beautiful. I found it wonderful. […] It was unbelievable. I
found it grandiose. I entered the patio, I saw those sculptures, those gabs [i.e. carved and/or painted
plaster] on the wall... I don't know. I had the feeling of entering.... In fact, I had never seen anything
so beautiful. I had sailed in the medina, wI had visited museums and so on. But I didn't expect to
see such a beautiful house. […] I had also visited small ryads, but they were in decay, with a lot of
fallen rocks. They were not beautiful. But when I entered this one, I felt good. Suddenly, right away.
You cannot know why, I don't know. I think it is the irrational side of love at first sight."
Loïc, a French guest-house owner, underlined the difficulty of putting what he saw into
words. "At first sight, one may see the difference in style [between houses]. But to talk about it is
another matter." Gigi exemplified the difficulty of seeing what others see. She usually presents the
patio to her guests. She explains the symbolism of the architectural decoration and she shows
patterns and drawings with the help of a red laser pointer (cf. appendix p. 387 for a visit). Tourists
then comment: "Ah yes, I see it," or "how have you discovered all of this, it is not blindingly
obvious," or "I don't see anything!" Also, some joke about what is sometimes "far-fetched": "Ah
there, a plane!" or "Look at Darth Vader over there!"
The look on the house changes with time. When Loïc arrived in January 2010, he focused on
general things. "When you take the first tour, and in the beginning, you see things globally. You
perceive the atmosphere. You are receptive to the atmosphere, to the decoration. With time, you see
things in detail, and you become aware of the material aspect of things. You see the lamp, but when
you come closer, you notice it is chipped. So, it is the process I'm living now: I observe things in a
more and more detailed way."
More than a simple look at the house, sight is correlated to affects – love, well-being – and
qualities of the house – light, beauty. Informants mainly associated the patio – its luminosity, its
greenery, its decoration – and the rooftop terrace – its panoramic view – with sight. Among other
qualities, many foreigners evoked the excessive ("too much") aspect of Moroccan architectural
decoration. Kate, an American guest-house owner, explained that she "left the walls blank. You do
need a place for your eyes to go to, but simple, clean, white. That's a challenge of putting furnishing
in a house like this, with all that zelij [i.e. mosaic]. I put comfortable furnishing that so eye-catching
at once, let this architecture speak to the house, and use the furnishing as a way to fasten the edges.
Everything is very symmetric, and there are no curves, there are no soft edges."
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Some informants also associated sight with blindness or knowledge. According to Omar, a
Moroccan guest-house employee, "[t]o look at something comes from two things. Curiosity first:
how was it made? How many clients asked me about the painted plate on the wood ceiling: is the
plate made first, or do they [i.e. carpenters] stick it after? That’s curiosity. And then, there is interest.
To some people, my wife for instance, a LCD screen doesn't mean anything. But it means a lot to
me! So, you look at something with two eyes. The first looks at with curiosity, the second, with
interest." Michel, a French resident, put to the fore his skill to visualise. "I'm quite lucky. I studied
architecture and drawing, even if I'm a pretty bad drawer. I'm also a sculptor used to working in 3D.
So, I can visualise instantaneously in 3D. I can see the potentials and what I want it to become."
Benoit, a French guest-house owner, for his part removed all the zelij (i.e. mosaic) from his house,
even if "[a]ccording to him [i.e. David], I had wonderful zelij on the floor, pure marvels. They were
in absolute shambles. I didn’t see anything. I didn’t see it was wonderful zelij."
Informants also put emphasis on sounds. They generally mentioned the sound of the water in
the fountain, or the remote call to prayer. They asserted they felt at peace in the house, as if they
were protected from external noises, as if the house provided only peaceful sounds. They opposed
the silent house to the noisy medina. A bad soundproofing constituted an exception. Jawad
underlined he could often hear what happened or what was said in the nearby house because of the
open rooftop and the bad soundproofing of walls. Similarly, informants gave importance to sounds
in the medina. In the early 20th century, Burckhardt (1992: 7) wrote, "[e]qually unmistakable are the
sounds. I could find my way blindfold by the clatter of hooves on the steep paving; by the
monotonous cry of the beggars who squat in the dead corners of the streets; and by the silvery
sound of the little bells, with which the water-carriers announce their presence when, wending their
way through the sūqs [i.e. markets], they offer water to the thirsty."
In a house, the noise intensity varies according to the moment of the day. In guest-houses,
the usual "line of noise" starts in the early morning – before 8 a.m. Only birds, voices of employees
preparing the breakfast in the kitchen and the prayer call interfere with the silence. At about 8 a.m.,
the first tourists start talking in the patio while having breakfast. The height of noise level occurs
during breakfast, while from 10.30 a.m. to 4 p.m., the house is quiet again. Only the employees
cleaning the rooms and preparing dinner make noise by talking and washing. For instance, cleaning
ladies sometimes sing while working. Others do not hesitate to talk or to tell jokes. In the evening,
during dinner, noise is not as clear as in the morning. Guests speak in a more muffled way, in order
to not disturb the neighbouring table.
Ruth, mentioned "the call of the house" to explain the reason she bought this house. "In the
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beginning, it [i.e. the house] bewitched me. It told me 'Buy me, save me. It is me!'" She later added
in the discussion that "[w]hen I saw this house, I said 'Wow.' I entered, and I felt strange. In my
head, I couldn't realise I was about to buy this house. The house was empty, but I heard children’s
laughter that filled the house. It was a joyful house."
Informants hardly evoked the senses of touch, smell and taste. Taste most of the time relates
to the claim that home-made food is better than in any restaurant, be it tourist accommodation
owners lauding their cuisine or Moroccans explaining why they never go to the restaurant. Michel
Possompès, a French architect, was an exception. He sent me some of his writings after his stay in
the medina in April 2011. "Afterwards, all my senses imbued by the Medina, my own flesh printed,
I felt sensations in my palate, like an after-taste, a flavour that remains."
More often than talking about taste, Moroccan informants recalled the cedar or sandalwood
scent weekly burnt in houses in the past. Others mentioned the smell of food being cooked in the
kitchen, for instance the smell of bulfaf (i.e. liver brochette whose pieces of meat are rolled into a
fat membrane and dipped into cumin and salt) during the ‘aïd el-Kebir (i.e. Feast of Sacrifice).
Guest-house owners evoked the difficulty to avoid bad smells when the drains drove smells back.
Smells were more evident in the medina. Burckhardt (1992: 7) writes that "[n]othing stirs
the memory more than smells; nothing so effectively brings back the past. Here indeed was Fez: the
scent of cedar wood and fresh olives, the dry, dusty smell of heaped-up corn, the pungent smell of
freshly tanned leather, and finally, in the Sūq al-'Attārīn [i.e. Attarine market], the medley of all the
perfumes of the Orient." Berrada (2000: 208, my translation) describes the surroundings of the
Moulay Idriss mausoleum as a place "astonishing for its commercial diversity. The object of cult is
confused with the pleasure of senses. Musk, incense, rose water, orange blossom water, and other
voluptuous scents mix with herbs whose steams are supposed to calm jnun [i.e. genies], such as
thymus, geranium, camomile or coriander seeds." Some tourists evoked the bad smell of the
tanneries and their surroundings during the summer. Shopkeepers in the main street quickly washed
the soil when a mule or a donkey had defecated on the way. Shortly after I left in the summer 2009,
garbage collectors went on a strike for almost two weeks and many informants mailed me about the
stench in the medina, substantiated with pictures.
Jawad mentioned the sense of touch when talking about the coldness – in winter – and
freshness – in summer – of zelij (i.e. mosaic). Following this idea, Rachid, a Moroccan architect,
made a clear distinction between the tactile qualities of materials. "When you touch this [i.e. mosaic
represented by the glass covering his desk], it is not the same as when you touch wood. There is a
difference in the temperature. The tactile quality of zelij is very important." Loïc evoked the first
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breakfasts on the terrace in spring when the skin is warmed by the sun. Touch may also be interior,
as Philippe, a French art historian, explained. "I thought I had to soak up with the house, because it
has a life in itself. One can feel the house is alive. And I felt I was impregnated with this by staying
in the house, sat in a corner, looking and being touched by the house." Possompès, the French
architect, also mentioned in his writings the walls he had touched while walking in the medina and
the work of the hand in the construction of the city. "A human city as Titus Burckhardt qualifies it,
with a human size, where the hand demonstrates ineffably its knowledge. The city was build with
the hand; everything in the city is used with hands; everywhere in the city the hand, your hand, our
hand, wants to touch, to skim, to caress, to follow, to rub, to rest on; finally, the hand exposes itself,
expert-like, in the street by performing to the delight of passers-by."
Finally, the tactile description of senses in a house sometimes turned into an outburst of
senses. As I visited a building site with him, Antoine, the French manager of a building company,
stopped in front of the plasterer working on a frieze around a door. "It is pure bliss. This work is
very sensual in the way he holds the tool, the way he progresses along the frieze." He said he really
admired the plasterer's work but would be unable to do the same because he was not "clever enough
with my hands." When presenting his garden, and more generally Arab-Andalus gardens, to tourists,
Simon, a French guest-house owner, described them as a "festival for the senses," for plants provide
smells with flowers and trees, tastes with fruits and spices, colours with the flowers and the leafage
and sounds of the wind in leafage or water in the fountain.
5.2.2. Sensual perception, skills and reflexivity
Aside from a link with the qualities and the atmosphere of a place, informants tended to
consider sensual perception a skill, a competence. Omar considered sight as a skill one may learn,
coming from curiosity and interest. Benoit admitted he didn't see the beauty of his mosaic. Tourists
in Gigi's house managed to see the symbols hidden in the patio decoration. Antoine was not clever
enough with his hands to make sensual plasterwork. Rachid evoked the distinction in the tactile
qualities of materials. In the academic area, Ingold (2000, 2001) and Hennion (2007) make skills
out of sensual perception in the sense of competences, the ability to give attention to things in a
given environment while experiencing it. Skills then emerge from a specific coupling of sensual
perceptions and movements of attention. This approach implies that some individuals are skilled to
sense, while others are less so, according to the degree of attention they give to what they encounter
through their movement in a given environment. However, if senses relates to attention giving and
attention taking, informants usually didn’t give attention to their sensual environment except in case
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of a rupture in their daily environment – with for instance guest-house owners evoking the bad
odours coming out of the drains. This sensual environment is "blindingly obvious."
I argue than in addition to being a matter of skill, sensual perception is a matter of reflexivity
– what Hennion briefly mentions. If both Evelyne and Loïc stressed the sensual perceptions they
had in their house, Loïc underlined the difficulty to put what he saw into words and Evelyne
concluded to the impossibility of knowing what she had felt. Without reducing senses to language,
the opportunity for individuals to share what they sense partakes in the sensual relation with their
house (Candau, 2000). Also, aside from being rooted in the present experience, sensual perception
provides a link with memory, as many informants evoked memories to talk of their sensual relation
with the house or declared that senses summon memory. Ingold (id.) and Hennion (id.) mention
memory and repetition in the learning of giving attention and in the acquisition of skills. Human
actors become skilled with time and through repeated experiences.
Finally, the skills in sensing the environment allow overtaking an approach of perception in
terms of a mechanical and transitive relation with the environment. It includes movement into
perception and sensing (Gibson, 1979) and proposes that human beings are in a productive
engagement with their environment when giving attention and having sensitive experiences.
"Perception is the achievement not of a mind in a body, but of the whole organism as it moves about
in its environment" (Ingold, 2011: 11). If I singled out each sense, the body – and not one specific
sense – perceives the environment. This sentient body at once produces and perceives the
environment. Inhabitants in Fez most of the time mentioned their movement in the medina or in
houses to evoke what they sensed except in the case of sitting in the patio to admire it. As such,
what they perceive is not so much the house in itself but what the latter affords in the pursuit of
their current activity.
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5.3. Affective relations with houses
Away from the distinction between emotions and affects – a wide debate I do not claim to
feed
110
– and between a psychological and a cognitive approach of emotions (Damasio, 1994), I
consider affects as states of mind related to a connotation of pleasure or unhappiness, of appeal or
repulsion toward an object, a situation, a human actor (Schore, 1994). Affects also correlate to
memory (Leitchman and al., 1992). They serve to preserve the trace of past events, actions,
encounters, and bring them into the present as potentials (Mazzarella, 2009). They may intervene in
actions and decision-making (Kals and al., 1999). "Any social project that is not imposed through
force alone must be affective in order to be effective" (Mazzarella, id.: 298). Affects finally refer to
the capacities to affect and to be affected, to engage and to be engaged with the object of affection
(Navaro-Yashin, 2009). In the following, I nonetheless respect the terminology used by scholars and
write "emotion(s)" when they use this word.
In France, several scholars work on "heritage emotions." Fabre (2002) takes emotion in its
first meaning, that is to say a makeshift collective movement. Dassié (2006) stresses that action – to
preserve elements of heritage – relates to emotions linked to both the destruction of an element and
to personal history. Whitehouse (1996) also underlines the importance of traumatic and highly
emotional ordeals in initiation cults that facilitate the printing in the mind of religious performances
and practices. Barbe and Tornatore (2006) are more interested in the politicisation of heritage
emotions, in the mobilisation based on an affective capital and in how to turn negative emotions
into positive emotions for action. "Through a kind of politicisation of emotions, these heritage
crystallisations,111 drawing the edges of a community of affected, are instrumentalised in the
110 Anthropologists evoke the "affective turn" (Clough, 2007) or the "emotional turn" as an attempt to make room for
affects in their discipline and to overtake main dichotomies in the study of affects, such as universal or specific, rational
or irrational, in the nature or in the culture realm, the body and the mind (Wulf, 2009). This turn gave rise to numerous
studies and a proliferation of terms and notions related to affects – passions, emotions, feeling, impressions.
Rather than in the individual predispositions – be they biological, neurological or psychological – anthropologists
usually explain affects by reference to the culture and they make of affects social and cultural constructions. Some, such
as Turner, consider affects as universal features they may recognise from one culture to the other through empathy.
Doing so, they dismiss language, for affects exist without any linguistic, social or cultural context. Scholars in the
hermeneutic approach focus on the cultural meaning of affects and interpret them as cultural categories (Geertz, 1974
[1959]; Rosaldo, 1980). They focus on the vocabulary of affects and on their performative side. As a consequence, they
lose the feeling side of affects. Researchers in ecological anthropology for their part study the physical and natural
environment and focus on the bodily and experiential aspect of affects. Milton (2002, 2009) investigates the "love for
nature" and emotions and human ecology, Ingold (2000) examines the perception of the environment in everyday life.
Several scholars study the spatial aspect of affects (Navaro-Yashin, 2009; Smith and al., 2009; Thrift, 2009). Aside from
affects as discourses, texts, or representations, they study the non- or pre-linguistic registers of experience. Finally,
some scholars developed in the notion of "affective economy" or "economy of affects" focusing on the role of affects in
building subjects (Ahmed, 2004) or on the role of affects in facilitating economic change (Richard and Rudnyckyj,
2009).
111
Trepos (2002) defines politicization and crystallisation as two fittings of collective expression. Politicization is the
institutional expression of social practices, while crystallisation occurs when a non-institutional group makes a social
practice explicit. Politicization and crystallisation may oppose to each other, ignore each other or support each other.
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construction of the cause" (Barbe and Tornatore, id.: 9, my translation).
To investigate heritage emotions, these scholars take as a basis a disaster destroying or
threatening a tangible element. However, there is no pending threat in Fez. I base my description of
affects on the daily life in medina houses. I had access to these affects through what informants told
me about what they felt or feel in their house. My approach of affects is therefore mainly
discursive.112
5.3.1. Affects in Fez
I mentioned that "love at first sight" mixes physical reactions, qualities of the house, and
affects. Some informants particularly stressed the affective side of this initial shock. Benoit evoked
his feeling of excitement. "I don't know how to say. It is stupid, but when I went to buy the
alcantara,113 and I saw this purple alcantara, I can swear I was in such a state! I was out of breath,
out of breath. And I know it is emotion." Others, as Evelyne, underlined having a good feeling with
the house. Marie, a French tourist accommodation owner, declared she had "visited a lot of houses,
in a lot a different neighbourhoods. In some houses, I think it is a matter of energy. I felt... Yes, I
think houses diffuse energy. And in our house, I felt a positive energy, I felt people had been happy
in this house." Also, many foreigners, as well as some Moroccan inhabitants such as Abdelhay,
talked about the aesthetic subjugation they felt in their house.
Fatima, a Moroccan architect owning a guest-house, explained she developed a strong love
relation with her house. "You know, we knew it [i.e. the house] when we were children," because
she was living in a neighbouring house. When she was a young adult, her father wanted her to buy
the house but it was too expensive. She eventually bought the house with her husband after her
father died. Doing so, she had the feeling to have done what her father wanted her to do. Also "you
give your best when you restore a house. So the house acquires a soul. The relation with this house
is filled with love."
Benoit evoked the humility and respect of living in an impressive architecture. "I think the
architecture is so imposing that something happens. People respect something. People are maybe
overwhelmed, but not in a wrong sense. I think that all what is beautiful in them goes out. They
become completely societal again. They feel humble but they feel good. They feel impregnated with
something beautiful." Simon, a French guest-house owner, said that tourists who come for the first
time in his house are impressed because "it humbles their pride." According to Mehdi, a Moroccan
112 I do not dismiss psychological or neurological approaches of affects, but I have neither the information nor the
training to provide such analysis.
113 Artificial suede leather made of composite materials and used to cover surfaces.
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inhabitant, traditional houses oblige you to "keep your feet on the ground" because the house is so
huge and amazing, that one feels small and this precludes arrogance.
Informants also mentioned affects related to well-being and peace, such as security, serenity
and intimacy. Antoine declared that "[c]ompared to the very lively medina, in terms of activity and
noise, I would say that when you enter into the house, you find tranquillity, you find a haven, a
place where you want to settle with your bundle, to rest, to have warmth in winter and freshness in
summer." Abdu, a Moroccan guest-house owner, declared that each time he went to his house, "I sit
in a corner and I forget myself. I forget myself until I look at the clock. I then notice that it is a bit
late and that I have to go back home. I don't know how time passes there." Informants living outside
the medina also evoked the well-being they felt in medina houses and they described them like
paradises and kingdoms of peace. Meriem, a Moroccan architect, said that entering a house, "is like
a relief, you have the feeling of entering into a haven. […] I told you earlier people built those
houses according to a principle, that is to say their house should be a paradise. It means that when I
enter into a house, I should feel good and relax. The house should succeed in providing these
feelings. And I think until now, they still manage to do so today."
Informants usually associated well-being to specific elements in their house. Loïc stressed
the symmetric layout of the house. "With the arcades and pillars, I feel safe in the courtyard." He
added that this harmony "carries you into another world. You switch registers." Antoine mentioned
the architectural decoration. According to him, women are more attracted by and feel better in his
house than men, for his house was a chikhat's114 house. "Women entering this house are caught
straight away. They feel good in this jewel because of the decoration. This is what most of them told
me." In his view, women appreciate his house "[b]ecause it is tiny, because it is cute, because it is
plentiful yet not overabundant. […] Here, there is not such much zelij [i.e. mosaic] but plenty of
painted wood. Literally, to dress wooden structures with high quality and delicate paintings give
them the appearance of lace. And women are sensitive to this." He also linked luminosity to affects.
"In most houses, the sculpted wood closing the skylight gives a feeling of claustrophobia. These
houses are very oppressive."
Informants associated specific rooms with well-being. Among them are the patio and the
rooftop terrace because they are places to relax, to sleep, to refresh or to warm up. As Steve, an
American tourist accommodation owner, said, the rooftop terrace is an open space in the enclosed
medina. Ruth declared that the patio of her house was "wonderful" with its "amazing zelij [i.e.
mosaic]" and the "astounding fountain." She nonetheless preferred the rooftop terrace where she
114 Nowadays, chikhats are known as professional singers. Nonetheless, as Newcomb (2010) put it, singing is not
recognised as a profession for women in Morocco, and is often associated with prostitution.
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found fresh air and a view. Loïc thought the patio was a key element for the well-being of tourists
because of its size, its decoration and its openness. As Gigi said, the patio is so "strong" that it is
impossible to not feel anything there. Informants, mostly Moroccans, also mentioned the sound of
the water running in the fountain and the greenery in the patio. One should add the bedroom in
private houses. Some Moroccans elected their bedroom as their favorite. Omar favoured his
bedroom because of the intimacy it provides. "I rather live in my bedroom than in the house. When
I come back home, I go to my bedroom. It is my world." Also, the salon, when equipped with a
chimney, was part of the favourite rooms for the atmosphere it generates during wintertime. It is a
place to meet people and to warm oneself up after a long day in the medina.
However, the architectural features of the house may also stir bad feeling. For instance,
French resident Sarah said that when she entered into some "medina HLM [i.e. high houses with
many windows in the patio], I feel dizziness from all the openings alone! At some point, I have to
go out."
Many foreigners remembered their sadness and anger because they spent more time, more
money and more energy than expected on construction works. Olivier, a Belgian resident, asserted
that after the restoration experience, he felt "[s]adness. But above all frustration. Frustration because
of waiting and a lack of accomplishment. The first year, I was motivated and crazy. […] But today,
I’m broken; I'm tired in spite of my age and my experience in managing projects." Ruth
remembered of the construction works like "bad moments. […] The house made me suffer a lot.
There is a lot of my suffering inside. It was 2.5 years of nightmare." Yet even though her affects for
her house "are not really cheerful, I really love this house. I put my heart and my soul inside. And it
is a wonderful house."
Others mentioned crying in their house. During the interview, Emma, an Australian tourist
accommodation owner, cried several times when evoking hard or joyful moments. The sentence "It
is emotion, forgive me" punctuated her discourse. Evelyne declared that "I often say to the clients
that I filled the swimming pool with my tears. Because I cried, I cried, I cried. I sometimes cried of
despair." She carved the words salam (i.e. peace) and Hub (i.e. love) in the second patio of her
house as an act of atonement. Kate experienced the tears of the former owners. "The mother in the
family I bought the house from didn't want to sell, but the father did. When they gave me the keys,
the woman cried, that was so awful. 'Please promise me, all my children were born in this house,
my history is in that house, don't change it too much. Don't do anything crazy to it'."
Fettah and David admitted their disappointment about their past involvement in the medina
preservation. All the attempts of the former to create a space combining discourses about and
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actions of preservation were thwarted from the inside because of financial and relational issues. The
latter saw how Moroccans would not follow the movement and actions he implemented in the
medina. Both attributed their failure to the fact that Moroccans, and more especially medina
inhabitants, are not aware of their cultural heritage while they are more interested in short-term
benefits. Laïla, a Moroccan architect, showed more balanced in her affects for the medina. "I feel
this emotional vibration as soon as I talk about the medina, an attachment that is not so rational. At
the same time, I feel a kind of huge frustration because thousands of projects aborted and haven't
been implemented. People live in intolerable living conditions. When it is raining, I'm in panic and I
say 'Sure people are going to die because houses are going to collapse on them'."
Some Moroccans spoke of their sadness and anger after a house had collapsed. They
mourned human beings who had died or were homeless rather than the loss of a beautiful house.
But more than houses, the medina concentrated their negative affects. They were angry because
they felt public authorities did nothing to improve the medina while numerous works were
undertaken in the New City. Facebook friends of the National School of Architecture Facebook
page reacted with anger and rage to pictures Tayyibi115 – the ENA director managing the page – had
posted. One wrote the works in R'Cif square116 were "[s]o ridiculous that it comes close to
absurdity. Why the arcades? Why this gate in concrete there, with these shapes and ornaments?
Each time, I feel distraught when faced with these 'defacements'." Others evoked their shame at
seeing the medina in bad condition – "Yesterday, I was ashamed with a friend [to see rubbish
around fountains]" – while others underlined the necessity of showing such "atrocities" for people
to see and become aware of them. They also shared their pain – "I have a pain at my world heritage"
– and they sometimes drew a parallel between the decay of houses and heritage and the decay of the
human soul, the former reflecting the latter.
Moroccans117 evoked nostalgia for the lost way of life in the medina, the bygone Golden
Age of the city, the former supremacy of the Arab-Andalus style and the Qaraouiyine mosque and
university (cf. supra p. 46). In his novel, Berrada (2000: 76, my translation) describes the trip of a
As the Moroccan holder of UNESCO Chair "Network in earthen architecture, constructive cultures and sustainable
development, his warhorse is the promotion of traditional architecture, and mainly earthen or natural architecture, as a
solution for ecological and sustainable issues.
116 Construction of a new gate, a square and riverbank between 2009 and 2012.
117 Many Sephardic Jews and French were born in Fez but left after Independence in 1957. They nowadays live in
France, Israel or Canada. To them, Fez and the medina are an opportunity to recall memories. On website forums, they
share information related to historical reports and the medina current decay: the history of a hotel that should be
demolished, the history of a church that is now a house, or the supposed restoration projects. In general, they are
looking for former friends or family members, former names of streets, city maps, and pictures of the places they knew
and attended (cinemas, swimming pools, schools, sweets shops). They also relate to how great, while hard, was their
childhood in the city. The medina is mentioned in the souvenirs as a place where to eat donuts after a night of dancing in
the new city, as a place of insecurity, or as a place of child day time expeditions.
115
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Fassi in Andalusia in the 1970s. "I felt a mix of pride and despair when I understood that such a
refinement could reach its peak only in such an environment [i.e. the Al-Andalus Empire]. There are
reasons to cry in front of such a wonderful piece of art disfigured and orphan of its mosque". For
their part, most foreign inhabitants did not lament a vanished way of life, as for them, life in the
medina, to a certain extent, is like inhabiting a medieval European city. Nonetheless, they
mentioned the disappearance of houses as described in books and TV documentaries and depicted
in Orientalist images and writings produced under the Protectorate period (1912-1956). They also
evoked the past Golden Age of the medina as a time of opulence.
Many Moroccan informants evoked memories – be they good or bad – related to houses.
Meriem, a Moroccan architect, said that "[w]hen I go to my grand parents' house, I always
remember. For me it is... This bedroom was my grand-father's lay rahmou [i.e. polite expression
when speaking of a dead]. There is a mark in each corner of this house. And maybe somebody else
coming to my grand-parents' wont have the same feeling because he doesn't have an idea of the life
that once was there." Ahmed, a Moroccan guest-house owner, remembered "[t]here was the lemon
tree [in the patio] in which I climbed everyday. And the fountain was as high as I was. But it is over
now." Ahmed also told me that his brother drowned in the central fountain. Others recalled the
economic crisis of the 1980s, the deprivations, the eventual move to the New City or to a smaller
house in the medina.
Abdelhaq, a Moroccan belt-maker, told me once how people were living in his family when
he was young. "The Fassi way of inhabiting houses was and is not anymore. Nobody could afford to
live like that. For instance, at home, we always had a maid, never with her husband but always with
her children. […] We lived downstairs in the summer because it was cooler and upstairs in winter
because it was warmer. Each of us had a bedroom. I never lived with my sisters. They were already
married when I was a child. Maybe we lived together, but I do not remember. Also, it is certain I
wasn't born when the gas bottle appeared. But I still hear my mother saying it had been a relief
when they brought butane. But I remember the pressure cooker. I was born. It was also a relief for
my mother. She could have time for herself, because before, she was busy with preparing food the
entire day. Every morning, my father went out to the sūq in R'Cif [square]. There, men were
waiting, sitting down. Those men were porters. We called them zerzaï. And each Fassi arriving at
the souk had his porter. So the porter took the basket and followed the Fassi. They didn't even speak
to each other. The father did shopping. The porter put it in the basket. And when it was finished, the
father went to his work, and the porter brought the basket home. […] The father, when he came
back home at noon, everybody was already sitting down at the table. And it was forbidden to talk
while eating. Now, I allow my children to talk, because I didn't like it as a child. Maybe it wasn't
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stupid, but it is different now. It must change. […] So, when the father was there, you had to be
quiet. The father, when he was at home, you felt his presence. It is as if he was part of the
architecture. He was never kind, and he never intervened. He ate, and afterwards took a nap. And
most important, it was forbidden to speak during the news report. It was serious."
Foreigners also spoke of their memories in their house. Amélie, a French guest-house owner,
declared that she had "a lot of memories of our beginnings with the children, of all this time with
[her husband], of Fez, of very happy moments." Kate even associated rooms to moments of her life.
"I can walk into each room and I have memories of people and events that happened long before
most of my friends were even here. So I can remember parties I had in 2004. The salon was the
place I lived, and I had my TV and one bed where I slept, and my dining table. And then, I came to
this suite, because it was the first we finished. And so I moved into each suite as we finished. […] I
have memories like, when I met my husband, I was sleeping in this suite. But when he proposed to
me, we were up in that suite. So my personal history is completely interwoven with the history of
the house. And maybe that's why ownership is so important. If I were to sell the house, it would be
difficult, because I would be selling 10, 12 years, from the age of 28, of my life. Everything
happened here, or somehow is connected to here. I don't have a home somewhere else. Everything I
own is here."
A last kind of affect is their absence. Marc, a French tourist accommodation owner, declared
he was not attached to his house. "I do not attach myself to houses anymore. I think I was attached
to the familial house by duty, and it was too heavy in the end. So, I do not get attached to houses
anymore. When I'm in a house, I may feel good and restore it. But after, I have no difficulty getting
rid of it". Several Moroccan inhabitants told having no affect for their house because they mainly
considered it as an ordeal and a constraint that they wanted to get rid off to move to the New City.
Members of institutions usually approached houses in terms of categories – ryad, dār,
masriya – and rules to respect (cf. infra p. 203). However, despite the distance produced by
categories, criteria and rules, members of institutions in Fez do have affects. Hassan described
houses in a more affective way. Looking at the pictures of Dar Ba Mohammed Chergui [i.e. the
house of a previous Basha118 of Fez, Ba Mohamed Ben Chergui], he exclaimed, "it is an
extraordinary house, which is finally very modest, sober. It is a place that deserves to be preserved
as such. There is not a lot of decoration like in Dar Glaoui [i.e. the house, in Fez, of the eponym
Basha of Marrakech], not so high. But it is in this simplicity that it represents hmm... These last
days, I even worked on a project of listing it before they start the works." Moreover, Hassan was
118
City Governor.
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nostalgic of the great days of UNESCO, when major restoration works took place in the 1970s and
1980s and when "everybody respected UNESCO." He was also upset in front of a house radically
transformed by its owner who, for instance had destroyed the former architectural layout and
decoration and had replaced them with features at odds with the medina.
Lamya, an ADER technician, didn't hide her disappointment because she "visited houses I
finished restoring with the 100% programme[of financial help]. A disaster. The walls, we had
repainted them white one week or fifteen days earlier, they were black with grime. They do like that
with their hands [she imitates somebody rubbing one's hands on the wall]. Cats everywhere,
rubbish... We cleaned the whole house... Everything was very clean... But the most important aspect
is security. Now, there is no more danger." Finally, some nostalgically mentioned their childhood in
the medina and shared the discourse of ordinary Moroccan inhabitants about the past way of life. At
the same time, they underlined that life was easier in the New City where they now live and that
they wouldn't move back.
5.3.2. Heritage, affects and distinction
Numerous typologies may be drawn from this list of affects. A first typology takes account
of the punctuality or the sustainability of affects. In this typology, only love at first sight is punctual,
while well-being, humility and respect, love, sadness and disappointment, loss and memories and
absence of affects are sustainable. A second typology distinguishes affects related to feelings – love
at first sight, well-being, humility and respect, love and sadness and disappointment – and affects
related to property – loss of what people had before, knowledge putting affects at distance, absence
of affect. In the context of a third typology, love at first sight, well-being, humility and respect as
well as sadness and disappointment are "causal affects", that is to say they are caused "by" the
object of affection – in this case, the house. Love, loss and memories and the absence of affects
rather constitute affects "toward" the object of affection. Finally, a more refined typology simply
qualifies the listed affect with a generic term. Love at first sight is an aesthetic affect produced by
the beauty of the house, love for the house is an intimate affect, well-being is a security affect,
humility and respect relate to moral affects, sadness and disappointment are associated with
negative affects, loss and memories are socio-biographic affects when they relate to the personal
history and they are historical affects when they relate to the history of the medina. The absence of
affects belongs to professional affects with a concern for the past and rules.
None of these typologies draw a clear distinction between categories of human actors.
Taking the specific example of nostalgia, Berliner (2012) distinguishes endo-nostalgia and exo-
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nostalgia. While the first is the "nostalgia for the past one has lived personally", as in the case of
Moroccan inhabitants for instance, the second is the "nostalgia for the past not experienced
personally" (Berliner, id.: 36). However, both foreigners and Moroccans evoked personal memories
linked with their house. They referred to historical common grounds such as the heyday of Fez or
the success of the Qaraouiyine university. The difference between foreigners and Moroccans lies in
the willingness to talk about affects and in their availability in memory. For instance, affects are
related to a rupture in the life of foreigners – they moved in a new country, they experienced
construction works, they started a new life and a new job – and they are more "striking" in the
memory. However, affects are rather inscribed in a continuum of Moroccans' life in the medina.
Finally, it is difficult to assert which affects are heritage affects. Etienne (2006) aims to
understand how an emotion may be a heritage emotion. According to him, the passage from the
familiar and the intimate to the public allow the rise of heritage emotions. He distinguishes two
typical categories of heritage emotions. Socio-biographic emotions relate to familiar things and
individuals tell their memories about them, inscribe them in their trajectories. These emotions, close
to personalisation, participate to the rise of heritage emotions but they do not stand on the heritage
side for they are still too personal and intimate. Aesthetic-historical emotions include the object into
a wider geographical scale and into a wider history. This process119 of inclusion allows comparison
with elements of heritage of the same kind. None of these categories of emotions relates to a
specific category of human actors. One and the same person is located in a continuum between
these two poles and may express the two kinds of emotions in the same discourse.
I however assert that aesthetic-historical emotions are not the only type of heritage
emotions. Many informants who talked of aesthetic subjugation and showed nostalgia for the past
way of life or what they evoked in their memories did not especially consider their house as
heritage. I admit that comparison with other elements and the inscription in a wider historical
context helps in qualifying something as heritage, as Etienne (id.) put it. However, it is rather a
matter of knowledge than a matter of affect. According to their role in or their experience of the
situation, human actors insist on one pole rather than the other. For instance, professionals of
heritage, at first sight, take a distance from affects and put their knowledge – categories, rules,
criteria – to the fore. This last remark nonetheless deserves to be questioned. Are professionals of
heritage affects-free, while inhabitants would be enclosed in their affects and lacking any
knowledge?
119 The
term "process" does not mean the way something stop being what they were to become something else, as
Geertz (1971) suggests, but has to be understood as a realisation, a non-exclusive establishment.
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5.4. Experts120 and non-experts’ relations to houses
Similarly to members of institutions, Moroccan elites and foreigners deny any heritage skill
to Moroccan inhabitants. Social science scholars for their part often oppose experts and non-experts
in their relation with objects121 In their report about heritage in Morocco, Bouziane, El Maliki and
Hakik (2010) reproduce the gap between experts and non-experts by presenting on the one hand
normative heritage (heritage in the Conventions) and on the other hand the social definition of
heritage, that is to say the attitudes and perceptions of heritage among the Moroccan population.
In this chapter, I question this expert and non-expert relation to things. I aim to show this
divide is irrelevant as long as expertise is considered as a profession or as a kind of knowledge. I
first describe experts and non-experts in their relations with houses and I then introduce the
intermediary category of autodidact experts, or amateurs.
5.4.1. Experts, autodidact experts and non-experts in Fez
5.4.1.1. Experts
I sketched out three kinds of experts122 in Fez. The first intends to preserve the medina and
to undertake construction works. They work as consultants for international institutions such as
UNESCO or the World Bank (Bianca, Burckhardt, Lahbil-Tagemouati), as academic scholars
120 In French, the word "expert" is both a noun meaning "somebody who has the function to formulate expertise" and an
adjective meaning "able, skilled in a specific field or practice" (Roqueplo, 1997). In the following, as I will argue it, I
choose the second meaning of the word.
121 Scholars have been interested in experts and expertise, which cover a wide range of attributes (skills, knowledge,
abilities) and actions (tasks, activities, jobs, sports, games). Many of them take for granted that non-experts have rather
an affective relation with things – they act passionately – while experts have a knowledge relation with things based on
objectivity and distance.
Scholars in the cognitive and the psychological sciences try to sketch out the characteristics of experts and their
performance in decision-making or responsibility taking (Chi and Glaser, 1988). They consider expertise as a
performance, a human attribute whose scholars study the processes and manifestations. Social scientists in the technical
area focus on processes of innovation (Akrich, 1993), or the construction of expert systems that characterize modernity
(Giddens, 1990). In the artistic field, scholars (Moulin, 1992; Hennion, 1993) investigate the role of experts in art
making. To categorize an object as a piece of art is not enough because the public has to recognise and to welcome it as
such.
On the other hand, in their investigations of non-expert, scholars focus on folk taxonomies (Atran, 1998), the native
point of view in development projects, everyday language, and everyday life (Hall, 1993). Some scholars even try to
cross the bridge by studying amateurs (Stebbins, 1992), passionate (Hennion, 1993), or the role of users in the diffusion
of innovations (Akrich, 1998).
In the heritage field, scholars study "heritage from below" (Roberston, 2012), "social heritage" (Rautenberg, 2003),
"revivals" (Bromberger, Chevallier and Dosseto, 1999) or "cultural citizenship" (Albro, 2005). They show how local
claims about heritage encounter official processes of heritage making and go along with them – with the creation of
quality labels in the case of food revivals in France – or conflict with them – in case of misunderstanding or nonrecognition.
122 By expert, I mean any professional of heritage or architecture.
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(Revault, Golvin, Amahan, Buob, Skalli), as members of the Inspection of Historical Monuments
(Hassan, archaeologists and civil servants) or ADER, and as tourist guides. They usually don’t live
in the medina for several reasons. Hassan declared that he wanted to buy a house in the medina but
"I do not have the money to do so. Really, I cannot afford because of property prices. As a civil
servant, I cannot afford buying a house." In another discussion, he added a matter of habit – he was
used to having a car and to living in the New City – and of security. He "would maybe have had a
problem with security, but not anymore. There is no problem with the built environment".
In his daily practice of houses, Hassan referred to four categories. The ryad is a house with a
garden, and, in Fez, most of them date back to the second half of the 19th century. They reflect a
horizontal evolution of building, and not a vertical one like in the dār. Diyour (sg. dār) don’t have a
garden but several floors to exploit a maximum of space. In those vertical houses, rooms were
occupied according to the season – floors during the winter, ground floor during the summer to seek
some freshness. The masriya is a small two-floor house that wasn't autonomous but was attached to
a bigger house. However, masriya now constitute houses in themselves, which is a big change.
Finally, a ksar is a palace. Hassan also mentioned rules and criteria which had to be observed when
undertaking works in a house or in any building in the medina. He wanted to avoid any radical
changes that could threaten buildings and their transmission to future generations.
Tourist guides approached houses in both their singularity – the history of a particular house
– and their generality – categories of houses. During a tour, a guide presented the same four
categories of houses as Hassan. He then asked in which kind of house they were – this question is
sometimes tricky because houses are not always as complete as in their original display. At the same
time, the guide told stories and anecdotes about a visited house or houses in general. For instance,
there are sometimes two doorknockers, and the guide gave several explanations, without saying
which one was the correct one. Either the upper one is for donkey riders and the bottom one for
pedestrians, or one is for women and the other for men, or one is for foreigners to the house and the
other is for relatives in order to know who is at the door, as the two knockers produce different
sounds.
Faouzi Skalli, a member of a leading Fassi family, used to live in the medina but he has
moved to the New City at the time of my fieldwork and now shares his time between Morocco and
France. As an anthropologist, he devoted his Ph. D. dissertation – published in 1994 – to Jesus in
the Islamic mystic tradition and wrote a book, Saints et sanctuaires de Fès (2007). He is also an
active member of the Boutchichiya Sufi brotherhood since the late 1970s. He initiated the Fez
World Sacred Music Festival in 1991. Shaken by the Kuwait and Iraq conflict, he gathered ten
filmmakers to present their work about different spiritual traditions. However, songs of Morocco's
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religious brotherhoods, more than the films, which struck the public and the participants of this
event. Every year since 1994, he has reproduced an international festival of sacred and spiritual
music aiming at the promotion of intercultural dialogue through music and spirituality on the one
hand, and at the enhancement of the socio-economic dynamism in Fez on the other. Although Skalli
does not take part in the restoration of the medina and its houses with the money earned through the
festivals, he uses monuments as places of concerts and events. Finally, he created two associations –
Fès Saïss and Esprit de Fès – in charge of organising these festivals (Culinary Festival, Andalus
Music Festival, Sufi Culture Festival).
The members of institutions in charge of the medina and issuing permits – i.e. mainly
architects and urban planners – compose the second category of experts. They usually do not live in
the medina for the same reasons as the first category of experts. Architects have recently become
essential actors. According to Gallotti (1926), this profession didn’t exist in the past. Architects
arrived during the French Protectorate. They were either private architects or architects working for
the Protectorate, such as Cadet and Brion. Nowadays, inhabitants have to hire an architect in the
case of a V1 permit request (cf. supra p. 113).
Jean Paul Ichter is a French architect and urban planner who arrived in Fez in the 1960s. He
worked as the Inspector of urbanism there for 20 years. Among others, he participated in the
drawing of the city’s Master Plan in the late 1970s and of the Tourism Regional Development
Programme in 2004. In the medina, he supervised the restoration of the Riad al Bartal, the Palais
Amani and Dar Adiyel. In 1975, he took part in the opening of R'Cif square and to the covering of
the river Oued Jawahir – and then to the destruction of two hundred houses. Between 1979 and
1990, he was in charge of the association Fez Hadara. With some friends and the economic help of
Jacques Chirac, he rented a famous palace, the Riad Mokri – nowadays the building of a school of
craft – to make it a cultural centre where many concerts took place, and which was also a place to
think about and practise restoration. Fettah later reproduced this idea. Finally, he was among the
founders of ADER in 1989 and got involved several times in the organisation of the Fez Sacred
Music Festival.
Tayyibi, the former director of the Fez National School of Architecture, posts pictures on his
Facebook page. His Facebook friends react by posting comments. Most of them are professionals or
students in architecture or are involved in building works in Morocco. They give, or they ask,
information about what the pictures are about. They also underline the role of the architect as an
expert. Most of them include intellectuals in the restoration of heritage, which is a matter of skill
and practice on the one hand, and books and knowledge on the other. "Architects change the shape
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of the environment, but radical and deep changes result from the intellectuals and thinkers who
draw attention on what should be improved. Other stakeholders may intervene in their own field
after intellectuals raised their awareness: in politicians to establish laws, in architects, urban
planners and landscape artists to improve the environment quality, in teachers to educate future
generations, in economic investors to help the economy. And the list is to be continued."
Foreigners called in the context of a restoration project constitute the last kind of experts.
During my fieldwork time, Catherine Rochant, a French architect, was in charge of the caravanserai
programme of the Millenium Challenge Corporation project. Also, after the medina was listed as a
World Heritage site, a lot of foreign experts came to Fez – Burckhart, Van de Kerkove, Michon,
Bianca. Numerous scholars carried out investigations – Revault and Golvin in architecture, Anton
Escher in geography, Justin McGuinness, Baptiste Buob and Frédéric Calmès in anthropology,
Philippe in art history. Some of them bought a house in the medina but do not live in Fez the whole
year round.
Christophe Boulle is a French archaeologist trained in monumental archaeological heritage.
He was a member – and after the director – of the Fondation de l'Œuvre Notre Dame.123 He came
twice to Fez for an exchange between Strasbourg and Fez, two twin cities. The exchange concerned
craft and more particularly regulating lines. French and Moroccan craftsmen intended to compare
the structure of mosaic and plaster carving in Fez with the fenestration and the gothic rosette in the
cathedral of Strasbourg. He told me that he learnt more about affects than about techniques during
his two stays. He also put emphasis on "the necessity to include the master craftsman. I worked
during 7 years on the project of a 3D modelling of the Strasbourg cathedral. I gathered three
specialists together: an architect specialised in computer graphics – he was the hand drawing –, an
art historian and a sculptor master craftsman. There was also Roland Recht, a professor at the
Collège de France, a leading expert in Rhineland art. He had written a book about the Strasbourg
cathedral and the sculptures on its facade. In that book, he had done what any specialist does: a
typology and an iconographic study of many statues and he had concluded with several assertions.
During the project, the sculptor master craftsman however simply looked how the return of statues
had been carved, with which tools and so on. Because workers didn't use the same tools in the 14th
and the 19th centuries and, as a consequence, didn't leave the same traces. The sculptor master
craftsman was able to identify them and to correct several of Recht’s assertions."
Philippe is an art historian specialised in French art and he is the author of a discovery book
about Morocco. He arrived in Fez in the mid-2000s to open a real estate agency – which doesn't
123 This foundation, created in 1246, aims to collect money in order to restore and preserve the Strasbourg cathedral and
to organise the various professions involved in these works.
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exist anymore – with two partners. Thanks to this job, he visited many houses and acquired a
practical knowledge. Also, his professional training pushed him to read a lot about Fez. For
instance, he declared he was good at dating houses. "Each time period had his type of house. Well,
all of them have a central patio, with a minimum of one room around that patio for the smallest
ones, but generally two to four rooms. And one floor. Builders kept that basic structure, they didn't
create anything new. Over centuries, they reproduced the same kind of house, with some changes
over time. Interior balconies for instance arrived in the 18th century. They made balconies around
the passageway to add more space in the rooms. It also allowed going from one room to the other
without crossing all the rooms. […] You also recognise a house thanks to the plaster and the doors.
The oldest plaster, well most of the time, it has disappeared. A very finely wrought plaster, plaster
lace. So, as it was finely wrought, it was fragile, and it disappeared. The newest plasters are very
crude, with flower patterns, and they are painted. […] The newer the plaster, the cruder it is."
In Fez, foreign and Moroccan experts want to protect houses without especially living in one
of them. They think of houses in general terms – e.g. categories, definitions – and measurable and
objective features – e.g. architectural features such as plaster. Knowledge is of prime importance to
them and they sometimes link their occupation to a cultural engagement. They give voice to affects
in public discourses to stir the expression of affects in their audience – by stressing the risk of
disappearance and the urgent need to act for instance – or they talk about affects in their work.
5.4.1.2.Autodidact experts
The relationships of Gigi, Fettah and David with their house suggest that the opposition
between experts and non-experts is not relevant. One should add at least one category, that of
autodidact experts, or amateurs. Autodidact experts have acquired and developed a specific
knowledge about the medina, its history and preservation, as well as about houses and their
architecture. Although this knowledge is not officially recognised, they present it to anybody
willing to have information or some advice. Experience and time are the two key elements in their
acquisition of knowledge. For instance, the Fez Riads’ website124 informs that the manager of the
agency, "[t]ravel writer, Lonely Planet author and resident Morocco expert, Helen Ranger, is in a
perfect position to design a trip tailor-made for you. Helen has lived in Fez for almost eight years
and has travelled extensively throughout Morocco during research trips for Lonely Planet as well as
for magazine and blog articles."
124 http://www.fez-riads.com/
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I sketched three kinds of autodidact experts. Intellectuals active in the preservation of the
medina, such as Fettah and David, constitute a first category. They took part in the creation of
associations – Needa Fez as a place of discussion, Fez Riads as a renting agency. They implemented
restoration projects – of houses, fountains, Koranic primary schools and walls. They facilitated
house purchases by foreigners.
David didn't present himself as an expert. In his view, he restored houses as a hobby and not
as an occupation. When asking David when craftsmen started to paint plaster, he answered he was
"not a expert in plaster" but that according to him, craftsmen have always painted plaster, as well as
doors, with a relative stress on painting according to the fashion in currency at the time. Entering
into a house with David is to open oneself to a detailed description of the house and its decorative
patterns, in order to date the house and the changes brought later. He starts from the patio and goes
to the open roof, comparing the house and its patterns with those he has already observed. For
instance, when we visited his so-called Imam's house, he showed me windows whose model was in
Dar Batha. Also, he compared the house to a minaret when the patio shutters of the three floors are
open. He was generally astonished when he saw something unique or for the first time.
However, several foreign residents esteemed David as an expert, as a "purist of heritage" in
the medina. As Amélie said, "David, the American, preserves authenticity. He didn't change too
many things in his house, I think. I do not speak of the one he restores but the one he lives in. There,
it is authenticity. He is looking after redoing things identically. It is unbelievable. He is in this spirit
of authenticity. Me, I'm looking for an art of life. A little mix here or there doesn't shock me. But
purists like David will tell you not to do so." Others criticised his expert’s status, saying that his
knowledge was only bookish – that he has a charming and reassuring discourse but has never
worked with his hands. Others accuse him of being a plunderer and of sending containers full of
stolen goods to the USA.
Guest-house owners constitute the second kind of autodidact experts. They have developed a
discourse about their house and present it to tourists. Gigi describes and deciphers her house
through astrology, one of her passions. The house belongs to a Sufi, the symbolism of which she
considered to have inherited. Anybody entering Gigi's house has to be ready for a 30 minutes
presentation of the patio, its architectural decoration and its symbolism (cf. appendix p. 387).
Amélie and her husband presented themselves as passionate collectors. They dedicated the
ground floor of their private house to their two boys for them to play – and damage the plaster. But
they devoted the first floor to their passion: a collection of Moroccan crafts. When they settled in
Fez, they bought objects in second hand markets in order to decorate their house. They gave interest
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to the objects’ (hi)story and not especially to their value. Amélie and her husband were eager to
present objects of their collection because of their unique colours or shapes and to explain their
origin. They even integrated odd objects. "This one is a bit strange, and we had to search what it
was" declared the husband while manipulating the famous objet, a round tool to cook thin fritter
leafs. Many Moroccan and foreign residents who knew them described their houses – both the
private and the guest-house – as a museum.
The presentation of their house was at the core of a short movie shot in 2007.125 In the
kitchen, the husband said, "I took down three objects that were behind me. So, this one, probably all
of you know it is a French butter mould. Then, in the same register, that is to say a wooden mould,
you have this tool, which is Moroccan, for cakes [he imitates the use of this tool leaving a print on a
cake]. And more interesting is this small object I bought from a Moroccan man who even didn't
know what it was. It is a bread mark [he presses the object on his palm]. Because as you know here,
breads are baked in public ovens, and to recognise theirs, people marked the bread. But it is quite
difficult to find this kind of tool nowadays."
Foreigners who manage a construction company in the medina compose the third kind of
autodidact experts. Their expertise comes from their professional training – some are engineers – or
their practice – they have restored several houses. Bonnie and her husband manage Medina
Solutions. Bonnie graduated in architectural engineering. She arrived in Fez as a Fulbright126
scholar in 2000. She carried out surveys about the Sbaiyin medersa (i.e. Koranic school) to try to
launch a restoration project. After her Fulbright scholarship ended, she opened a construction
company in order to make a living. Valentin and Valentin, two French airline pilots, who have been
restoring their private houses, created Andalus Renovation in order to insure a job and a social
security to their builder workers. However, this firm is much more a facade than a real firm. The
Valentins are not eager to lend their workers, for they want to finish their houses first. Antoine first
restored his private house and after a TV documentary dedicated to his experience in Fez, several
foreign newcomers asked him for tips and advice. He slowly became a restoration work manager,
having his own company – but being the only employee – and his own team of builder workers. He
read books to learn more about houses. As a consequence, he was able to date a house from its
decoration – the architectural style – and its location – the further from the centre, the newer.
In spite of their differences, autodidact experts share similarities. Except managers of
construction companies, they are not given any official status or recognition for their knowledge
http://youtu.be/HqcVrB90E4w
"The Fulbright Program is the flagship of international educational exchange program sponsored by the U.S.
government and is designed to increase mutual understanding between the people of the United States and the people of
other countries" (http://eca.state.gov/fulbright)
125
126
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and practice. Sometimes, they even fight with official experts. For instance, Ichter and David
disagreed on the way to undertake works in the medina and on the materials to use. Also, similarly
to experts, autodidact experts have a network – of workers, official experts, shopkeepers and
antique dealers – they share if needed and asked. Finally, they mention learning is at the core of
their knowledge and practice. Contrary to experts, autodidact experts live in the medina.
I finish with an example of an autodidact experts’ initiative around heritage. In 2011, several
guest-house owners wanted to organise a tour for tourists to visit guest-houses. The idea came from
Loïc, who was already active in the cultural animation of the medina – he hosted concerts and
exhibitions in his guest-house. He had mentioned several times the existence of a tour allowing the
visit of various craftsmen workshops in the city of Sète (France). For my part, I had from time to
time asked owners – and Loïc among them – to bring tourists in their house for a visit. On that
basis, we asked other guest-house owners to participate to the organisation of an official tour.
The idea was to open guest-houses once or twice a month to show tourists this very rich
"heritage that often remains hidden," as Loïc said. Other owners used this official tour as an excuse
to send away those tourists who come randomly knocking on their doors, asking to have a look
inside. Jean-Marc, a French guest-house owner, was bothered with tourists asking to visit the house
only out of curiosity. He had decided not "to open my door" anymore. Also, if he had to believe all
the Moroccans who claimed that "they were born in this house, the house would had been a
maternity hospital."
Loïc wanted to make the tour educational, "to go beyond what lambda owners could tell
about their house," without lapsing in an overly technical discourse. First, we asked volunteer
owners to collect general information about houses, architecture, history and the medina, as well as
anecdotes and stories about their house. We sent a form (cf. appendix p. 389) to owners, which they
had to fill out. But Loïc quickly admitted he didn't have as much knowledge about his house, its
history and its architecture, and that after one year in Fez, he was yet unable to provide accurate and
precise information. He knew the house had changed since its building in the early 20th century but
he didn't know anything about these changes, except the very recent ones. Loïc and I then contacted
several experts – architects, members of ADER, members of the Fondation Esprit de Fès – to
provide the knowledge owners didn't have: on the one hand to help the owner learn about their
house and fill out the form, and on the other hand, to provide an expert eye on the house and to
reveal the unknown originality of some houses, such as a specific mark or a particular mosaic
pattern.
After several problems – how to prevent "awful" houses from applying and joining the
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project, how to perpetuate the involvement of owners, how to make the tour official and legal – and
petty arangements to satisfy everyone's desires, powers and sensibilities,127 after a year of work and
meetings, we had our first tour.128 Mainly French guest-house owners took part in it. Out of the 8
houses, 2 were Moroccan-owned, and 1 was British-owned. All of them were official guest-houses.
During the first tour, tourists mainly asked when the house was build, who inhabited it, what
kind of construction works had been undertaken, how long the owner had been in Fez, why they
decided to open a guest-house. During their talk, owners underlined the specificity of their house.
Jean-Marc's house was built in 1816 by a qadi (i.e. judge) and was not excessive in its decoration –
a feature that tourists generally appreciated. Simon, a French guest-house owner, put emphasis on
the luminosity in his house because of the first floor bay window. This bay window was unusual in
the medina – where houses are "traditionally closed" – and was due to the openness of the first
owner – he was supposed to have travelled – and the absence of an opposite house from which
neighbours could look inside his own.
In addition to information about his or her house, each owner was expected to develop a
topic related to a specificity of his house or to a main personal interest. Jean-Marc chose the topic of
food because, after being the residence of a qadi (i.e. judge), the house was a khli' 129 (i.e. dry meat)
factory. Jean-Marc was also an amateur of good food and his table was famous in the medina. Gigi
proposed information about mosaic and their fabrication, patterns and colours, about fountains,
about spiritual life – religious ceremonies, prayer – and about symbolism in the decoration. In
Simon's house, tourists learnt about the Arab-Andalus garden, as gardening is one of Simon’s
passions. But neither in the talk about their house nor in the topic they developed did owners ever
mention World Heritage and they hardly ever pronounced the word "heritage."
5.4.1.3.
Non-experts
Jawad and Abdlehay are among the 280,000 non-experts living in the medina whose main
concerns are having an easy access to this 300-hectare pedestrian area of narrow streets (to bring a
fridge or a television in a house may turn into an adventure that may end with the devices’ entrance
in the house through the open roof), having water and electricity supplies and feeling safe in the
127 Cf. appendix p. 391
128 I left the process in
for a better depiction of the nest of vipers.
July 2011, because my time of fieldwork was over. The team of owners still had some meetings,
and a first official tour occurred in December 2011. I had to opportunity to attend to two tours in June 2012, during a
short stay in Fez. The final conditions for a tour are the following: visit of four guest-houses (Maison Bleue, Riad
Mabroucka, Riad Souafine and Dar Victoria) by a group of minimum 5 and maximum 15 tourists, each of them paying
80 Dh – 150 Dh for two (about 7.5 and 13.5 €) – for a four hour tour.
129 Khli' is a beef or dromedary meat cut in pieces, hung to dry in the sun, cooked with fat and spices and then
preserved. It is typical of Fez, and usually served for breakfast with eggs.
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streets. In short, they desire a comfortable house in a convenient medina.
If they hardly gave dates of the medina’s history, Moroccan inhabitants posses a fair
knowledge of its architecture. Amal, a Ziyarates landlady, explained that "houses built at the same
period feature similarities. When the time period changes, the house changes. Something is added,
something is changed in the house. For instance, close to Moulay Idriss, there is always a second
floor and balconies with mucharabieh [i.e. lattice wood]. When you go a bit higher [in the medina],
there are no balconies anymore, and the windows are different. Here, in Batha [i.e. a neighbourhood
close to the city walls], the characteristic is the blue and white zelij [i.e. mosaic]. There is no colour.
[…] It was like a trend at that period. But in the oldest houses, at the bottom of the medina, even in
the patio, there are colours. I noticed it, because some family members live in the bottom [of the
medina], and I live in Batha."
Foreign non-experts put learning at the core of their experience. In addition to experience,
they also learned from books and the Internet. Michel, a French resident, "browsed the internet in
priority in order to reproduce a pure Merinid style in his house. The Merinid period wasn't a time of
opulence but of morality. People spent their money differently [than in architectural decoration].
Social values were different. Houses were sober, the Merinid style is sober, pure, uncluttered. There
is no decoration. To me, the Revault and Golvin [i.e. book of architecture] was less useful than the
Internet." Some foreigners even provided advices and information to newcomers. However, instead
of talking in terms of expertise and knowledge, they mentioned personal talents. Michel for instance
"has the eye" to see problems in a house, because his family was in the building sector and he has
this skill "to visualise things in 3D."
5.4.2.
Expertise
"I’m not Muslim, I don’t know a lot about Islam, I’m even not familiar with the
Fez medina and the virginity of my eyes cleared from any historical, cultural,
archaeological, theoretical or erudite consideration, took me though an innocent
surrender, lifted me up and tipped me over in an amazing astonishment. […] I
finally encountered the prop of my research, the ideal space that illustrated my
discourse for an urban manifesto."
Possompès, French architect
Scholars often take knowledge and affects as a basis to differentiate experts from nonexperts. They investigate the acquisition of expert skills through both learning and the development
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of routines (Tornatore, 1991). Latour (2012) studies the making of scientific knowledge and
describes it as the result of a chain of reference, a translation of experiences into immutable mobiles
through scriptural and visual processes of stabilisation and formalisation. This stabilised and
formalised knowledge is highly mobile and can circulate with a minimum of distortion, allows a
rise in generality in knowledge, and becomes a powerful argument in a discussion because of its
being taken-for-granted – Latour speaks of "black boxes". In this view, experts organise their
experience around classified objects, mastered techniques, and recognised competences. They have
learned to recognise the qualities of objects and to erase their impressions in favour of objective
statements. Milton (2002) also points a denial of emotions in Western debates about the protection
of nature to the benefit of a rationalist scientific discourse.
In heritage studies, Heinich (2009) investigates the work of experts at the French General
Inventory of Cultural Heritage. She stresses how experts determine the categorisation of an object
as heritage, how they transform uncertainties into certainties thanks to professional training and to
heritage criteria, how they differentiate authentic elements from uninteresting ones. She
meticulously shows how experts are supposed to take a distance from affects – and by that token
totally forgets any kind of experts’ affect in her analyse – and to give free speech to objectivity
through scriptural procedures, categories, criteria, embodiment and experience. Although she
opposes the affective actions and mobilisation of non-experts to the expert work, Pecqueux (2006)
argues that heritage experts and non-experts have affects. Also, Datson (2008) shows how scientists
linked passion, pleasure, senses and attention in their observation, description and categorisation of
natural events and beings. James (2009 [1896]) more generally asserts that beliefs, opinions and
passions drive the choices and attitudes of experts and scholars.
In the following, I challenge this dichotomy between experts and non-experts. Although
Roqueplo (1997) defines, and limits, expertise as a knowledge input that scholars bring to answer to
a demand and to include in a decision-making process, this definition opens the door for other
categories of "experts" than those who have the official status to take part in expertise. I introduce
the category of autodidact experts as a first step to balance the usual opposition between experts and
non-experts. Willing to write an article about classical music amateurs, Stebbins (1992) underlines
how social sciences haven't developed a concept of the amateur. He defines the practices of
amateurs as a "serious leisure," that is to say "the systematic pursuit of an amateur, hobbyist, or
volunteer activity that is sufficiently substantial and interesting for the participant to find a career
there in the acquisition and expression of its special skills and knowledge" (Stebbins, id.: 3). He
lists some characteristics of this serious leisure, such as perseverance, personal efforts, feelings of
accomplishment, enhancement of self-image, social interactions, and belonging to a group. The
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main difference between experts and amateurs then consists in the professional and official status
given to the former while amateurs don’t have a status and are more emotional.
I however underline a continuum between experts and non-experts in terms of knowledge
and affects. Bessy and Chateauraynaud (1995) as well as Hennion (2012) show the continuum
between experts and forgers, as they share techniques, ways of working, competences. Also, as
Trepos (2002: 8, my translation) underlines, experts and non-experts share "a know-how, that is to
say a repertoire of keys for actions; a know-understand, that is to say a means to appreciate how to
use know-how; and a know-plan, that is to say a strategy to plan the different stages of his/her
intervention." For my part, I argue that the difference between experts, non-experts and autodidact
experts doesn’t rely on the affective engagement, on the professional status, on the quantity or on
the objectivity of knowledge but on the stabilisation and formalisation of the latter in the context of
a specific engagement.
First of all, experts and non-experts share senses and affects in their relation with houses.
Abdelhay mentioned he could stay hours in his patio observing the plaster details, and Gigi
proceeded to an in-depth reading of the symbols in her patio. Jawad evoked the freshness of the
mosaic and Hassan touched the coating when he entered a building site. Boulle, the French
archaeologist, declared affects were at the core of his practice. "Emotions are continuous and very
strong. The emotions we have when working on a cathedral, or other buildings, or when I tread
upon an archaeological site, are essential driving principles. But it is impossible to describe them."
Hassan was made indignant by owners destroying their house and expressed concern about a
possible inscription of Fez on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Other members of institutions
spoke of their memories and their nostalgia for their childhood in the medina. For different reasons,
members of institutions and inhabitants may be sad when a house collapses. The former would be
sad because they know they can't rebuild the house identically, the latter would be sad because a
part of their life, of their neighbourhood, or their friends, died. More than a permanent quality of
experts, the purported absence of affects is part of their relation, of their engagement, with houses.
This "professional" engagement goes together with a reduction of affects through several means
such as categories or definitions. But this distance doesn’t prevent experts to feel affects and to
express them.
Secondly, the engagement of expert, non-experts and autodidact experts with houses
involves knowledge and processes. Experts described the object and its physical characteristics with
the help of techniques and normalisations – criteria, guides. Promoting scientific and objective
knowledge, experts tend to discard local and practical knowledge as well as the place and role of
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master workers in the restoration process.130 Moreover, experts usually base their practice on
scientific knowledge. In Hassan’s view, a relevant intervention involves specific knowledge and
studies. Non-experts also have knowledge. David developed a wide knowledge of architecture and
houses in Fez. Loïc made a parallel between the tour of the craftsmen in Sète and the tour of guesthouses in Fez. Several Moroccan inhabitants compared their house to the Merinid period and
monuments in Spain even if they had never visited them. Amal spoke of the difference in
architecture throught time. Amélie and her husband collected and displayed objects whose (hi)story
and scarcity they knew. They also classified objects in categories and based on the benefits of fame
or of self-satisfaction they gave them.
Inhabitants and experts also played with the image of Fez as a medieval and timeless city
whose way of life is stuck in the past. Foreigners praise the medieval aspect of the medina.
UNESCO consultants, such as Bianca (1980a), play with this feature of timelessness in their
reports, urging for the preservation of the city. Moreover, both experts and non-experts used to
bodily metaphors when talking of the medina. When allocating a value of life to their house,
inhabitants provided them with human body and human characteristics (cf. infra p. 229). In the
same vein, Bianca (1980a) compares the medina to a dying body, and Ichter declared that, similarly
to bodies, houses eventually end up dying. Finally, experts and non-experts mentioned famous
people and famous periods of time when talking about the medina and its houses. Ibn Khaldoun,
Avéroès, Pope Sylvester, Moulay Idriss, are present in the discourses of inhabitants and
shopkeepers, as well as in the leaflets of Ministries and other institutions in charge of the medina
promotion. As such, all of them referred to the medina as "le pays de quelqu’un" ("the country of
somebody") (Clemente, 2009: 215), that is to say a place marked by the past presence of famous
people.
This overview of what experts and non-experts share suggests that neither affects nor
knowledge per se differentiate them. The difference is rather to be found in the privileged relation
each category establishes with objects, that is to say in their expertise.
Investigating gardening practices, Bergues (2004) distinguishes three models of expertise.
Gardeners of rural gardens know the colours and size of their flowers – but rarely the scientific
name – and they exchange flowers as a proof of a shared taste for flower. To them, flowers
represent vertical links with former generations, for gardeners sometimes inherited them from
parents or grandparents. They provide flowers with human qualities – flowers are generous, they
130 Paccard
(1981) however dedicates his book about Moroccan crafts to the ma’almine (i.e. master craftsmen) for they
are the practitioners and they transmit their knowledge and know-how orally and rather jealously.
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have a body and a rhythm of life. Gardeners of blossoming gardens – i.e. gardens dedicated to
ornamental flowers and shrubs – go to garden centres to buy flowers and products. They also
participate to competitions where they learn the image of a beautiful garden as defined by experts.
Finally, the garden of the elites is based on an idealised, harmonious nature and a bygone past.
Elites know the scientific name of flowers, buy flowers and plants in specialised garden centres,
forbid purely ornamental flowers, and exchange knowledge about them. They particularly stress the
importance of learning by observing and by reading magazines and books.
These three kinds of expertise are found in Fez. Moroccan inhabitants put to the fore their
experience – "I was there" or "I have been told this." They generally did not refer to categories to
speak of their house while mentioning anecdotes and stories about their house or a famous house in
their neighbourhood. They shared their concerns – about security or finding workers – with other
inhabitants. In relation with the second kind of expertise, several inhabitants organised their relation
with houses on the synthesis of what they had learned by talking with other inhabitants and by
reading books or Internet websites. They guided their actions by images of the medina and its
houses and they relied on their experience in Morocco and elsewhere. Although there was no
(official) competition between houses in Fez – unofficial competition exists as the judgements in
terms of taste (cf. supra p. 145) suggests – owners were proud to distinguish their house from other
ones. They also made their house visible by allowing visitors to take a tour, or for other owners to
receive advice and to share experiences. Autodidact experts developed a specific relation with
specialised workers and antique dealers to improve their house. Finally, elites, be they foreigners or
Moroccans, often compared their houses and the medina with remote places and exchanged
knowledge with professionals located out of Morocco. Members of institutions have an easy access
to this international network. Also, experts approached houses, the medina and heritage through
categories and criteria. They mentioned books and articles specific to their discipline.
On the basis on this distinction, I argue that rather than to a status, expertise relates to an
engagement with the object. This engagement influences the kind of affect and knowledge experts,
non-experts and autodidact experts express. Tornatore (2004) asserts that experts are "engagés en
critique" ("engagement in criticism") with objects, that is to say that they mix distance – through
knowledge – and involvement – through the admiration of aesthetics and cognitive value in the case
of heritage. This specific relationship comes from learning and results in a neutralisation – through
its inclusion in a wider history – and an aesthetisation of heritage. In addition to learning,
engagement relates to time. One need to spend time with the object to be able to tell what it is, what
it does, what it provides, what its felt qualities are. Moreover, this engagement involves both an
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individual and an object. The object must have the capacity to catch the attention131 and to surprise
the individual(s) in relation with it (Hennion and Teil, 2004).
Experts are not the only ones to learn, to spend time with objects and to give them attention.
Bessy and Chateauraynaud (1995) define expertise as an ability to take, an art of taking. In other
words, anybody is able to "subject objects to relevant trials and to develop appropriate holds"132
(Bessy and Chateauraynaud, id.: 236, my translation). As a consequence, Tornatore (2010:112, my
translation) pleads for a softer notion of expertise133 as "the capacity to become its [i.e. an object]
spokesman, to engage into an action for its promotion. In other words, the ability of expertise relies
in a relationship with an object and defines the position of the speaker; it is by no means reliant,
contrary to its common meaning, on a profession and the competences related to it." This focus on
human capacities discards an approach of human actors in terms of resources and favours the
investigation of possible skills and competences that are neither embodied nor linked to any rational
choice (Genard and Cantelli, 2008).
In this context, the person who knows a lot of (hi)stories about houses possesses o form of
expertise for many inhabitants. The Moroccan inhabitant repairing his house according to tradition
possesses expertise. The antique dealer going on about the objects he sells is an expert for the
foreign residents. The foreign owner living in the medina is an expert for the tourists. The member
of the Inspection of Historical Monuments is an expert for UNESCO members. Instead of a
profession, an attribute of human actors or a knowledge characterised by its objectivity, expertise is
a kind of engagement developed between human actors and objects and resulting in a shared and
recognised ability to speak in the name of these objects. The strength of expertise then depends on
the degree of formalisation and stabilisation of the knowledge in categories and criteria that allow
knowledge to circulate and to last in time. Experts generally rely on institutions and on a stable
knowledge that circulates a lot, while non-experts share anecdotes, advices and practices that
remain in a situated location. This approach of expertise allows us to understand why experts, less
numerous than non-experts, hold the dominant discourse about houses, and about heritage more
generally.
Attention is the "[m]oment of the problematic, uncertain formation of links between features and qualities,
measurable effects and felt effects. Place of contacts where are deployed both the object and its effects, and the amateur
and its pleasure" (Hennion and Teil, 2004: 122).
132 Similarly to affordances, holds are what the eye, the look, retains.
133 In his investigation of the heritage stage around blast furnaces in the North of France, Tornatore (2001) sketches out
7 kinds of expertise – working, technical, political, historical, artistic, socio-anthropological – according to the position
of the speaker on the stage and its capacity to speak of the blast furnaces in their name.
131
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5.5.
Contentious relationships with houses
In this chapter, I describe trials and conflicts134 related to houses and the adjoining
justifications given by individuals in the Fez medina. I used them as a methodological tool on the
field because conflicts and trials do not fully characterise the daily relationship with houses. On the
one hand, my presence and the questions I asked raised many trials for informants. I put emphasis
on the contradiction between their discourses and their actions. I asked them to take position and to
justify it. But these trials usually didn’t go beyond the walls of the house. On the other hand,
consensus rather than conflict allow efficient actions with objects. Dassié (2006) shows in her
investigation of the Versailles Park that emotions resulting from the storm and the destruction of
trees lead to a consensus among people, and not to conflict. I then argue that conflicts are only one
tool of investigation to spot justifications and their referent – conventions – as well as what
individuals care for.
5.5.1. Conflicts in Fez
I have already stressed the disagreements arising about the styles of furnishing or the
materials to use in construction works (cf. supra p. 104 and 149). Michel, a French resident, made
sure workers hadn’t added cement to the coating each time he entered his house during construction
works. In the room in which coatings were made, he would smell as well as crumble some up
between his fingers. Michel even pressed charges against one worker who constantly added cement
to the wall coating. The justice system supported the Moroccan worker because no precise rule
forbids the use of cement – solely reinforced concrete is forbidden. Moroccan workers use cement
because the coating dries faster this way and because cement is stronger and more sustainable than
earth and sand. However, many foreigners like Michel refused to use cement because it doesn’t
134 Biershenck and Olivier de Sardan (1994) make of conflicts a methodological tool in the investigation of groups and
their claims. In the heritage field, numerous scholars take conflicts as an open door to investigate heritage making. For
instance, Veschambre (2008) focuses on the memorial conflicts within urban spaces, on the fights for the appropriation
and the legitimatisation of heritage, on the struggles against oblivion, and on the relation between heritagisation and
destruction.
Scholars of the sociology of conventions – or economy of conventions, or theory of conventions – focus on
discordances, on disputes, on trials. This focus is based on the assumption of a plurality of worlds and of a permanent
alignment of human beings with each other in their actions in the aim to reach momentary agreements (Dodier, 1991).
Scholars put to the fore the notion of coordination or negotiation, that is to say the processes to reach harmony and
alignment through engagement. Scholars also work with the notion of trial between human actors and with their
material environment. In these trials, human beings justify their actions and sayings. Doing so, they refer to
conventions, that is to say "interpretative frameworks set up and used by actors in order to evaluate situations of action
and their coordination" (Diaz-Bone and Thévenot, 2010: 4, my translation). Conventions, be they human beings,
material or immaterial things, are not linked to a particular situation, and actors mobilize them to justify qualities and
ways of doing.
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allow the walls to breathe.
Another kind of conflict occurred between neighbours. One day that I visited her, Gigi told
me the police had just left her house. She has filed a suit against her neighbour, a Moroccan guesthouse owner, a few days earlier because he had raised the rooftop wall and had placed air
conditioning units above Gigi’s terrace. This obstructed her view of the medina on that side and all
the water and waste produced by the air conditioning units was dropping into her terrace. She
initially reported the problem to the presidents of the Association of Guest-houses but they told her
it was not their responsibility to arbitrate this problem. She then decided to file a lawsuit because
the neighbour didn’t have the right to raise the walls and to begrime her house. Several Moroccan
informants also told me their neighbours had called the local authorities when they were
undertaking works because of the noise or damages they caused. Most of the time, these informants
asserted neighbours had called authorities not because of a real problem but on the grounds of
jealousy. Finally, both Moroccans and foreigners reported problems and lawsuits with their business
partner after they had bought a house together. Evelyne’s Moroccan partner took the money for the
guest-house construction work to restore and open his own guest-house. Michel’s Moroccan partner
refused to pay his part of the house. Mehdi’s Moroccan partner stole money allocated to the
construction works.
Another conflict concerns the replacement of wooden doors by metal ones. Inhabitants and
shopkeepers argued metal doors were cheaper when one needs to replace the old wooden door (a
new metal door cost between 800 and 1000 Dh135 while a new wooden door costs between 1500
and 2000 Dh136). They also underlined their strength and resistance as an asset against robberies.
Najib, a shopkeeper, replaced his shop and his private house’s wooden doors by metal ones in order
to be fashionable and to insure a better security against thieves. Tayyibi, the former Fez ENA
director, bemoaned this trend. According to him, the metal doors are not beautiful at all and they
threaten the traditional aspect of the medina. "What I think about when seeing these doors is a
growing lack of security, a closure and a distance toward the other, less hospitality, more
individualism, a lack of innovation and adapted solutions, mass production, monotony, archetypal
models, disharmony." A ENA student acknowledged that "[u]nfortunately, we cannot hinder the
march of time even if it goes against our taste and artistic preferences. Evolution is unavoidable.
Similarly to TV and satellites dishes before, metal doors modernise the life of residents who are
now open to the outside world. As regards the aesthetic value of these doors, we can put the blame
on the inhabitants’ limited economic means."
135 72 and 91 €.
136 135 and 180 €.
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Pic. 30. Two decorated
metal or wood doors.
Credit: M. Istasse
I observed few conflicts between inhabitants and members of institutions. The most obvious
kind of conflict occurred during the controls by the commission issuing the work permit for tourist
accommodations. Members of the commission reported the lack of respect of the rules, while
owners complained about the lack of expertise of the members (cf. supra p. 137). But in general,
Moroccan inhabitants showed indifference to public authorities. There are exceptions, however.
During the Protectorate, the French decided to keep the small shops in the central area (Qissariya)
as such, because they participated to the medina's medieval essence. The mercantile elite for its part
wanted to modernise the shops, to replace the wooden doors by vertical doors and to have shop
windows. Prosper Ricard considered these changes as overly European and threatening the
picturesque and original look of the area. A fire in 1918 finally brought about a compromise.
Merchants could change their doors and window display, but they had to keep their alignment.
Conflicts occurred among experts and members of the commission issuing work permits.
Hassan, the architect Ichter and the economist Lahbil Tagemouati did not always see eye to eye on
the actions to carry out in the medina. Tayyibi, the former ENA director, complained about the lack
of public and institutional actions. He also pointed to the absence of proper architectural training for
those interested in the restoration of old houses.
Taking the example of construction works in houses, Hassan defended the idea whereby it
was unthinkable to destroy the mosaic of the central courtyard if it was not unavoidable, or to add a
second staircase disrupting the symmetry of the house. The preservation of the structure and the
architectural decoration took precedence over no other consideration. "If you undertake radical
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changes to a traditional house, it is clear my answer is going to be unfavourable. […] If they [i.e.
members of others institutions] try to convince me, they will fail because it is against the law,
against the rules." On the other hand, the chief of firemen saw no problem in destroying the mosaic
to put in pipes, and he obliged owners to build a second staircase for security reasons. Members of
the Ministry of Tourism for their part agreed with major transformation when turning a house into a
tourist accommodation because they first and foremost promote the comfort of tourists and the fame
of the city.
A project of turning Dar Ba Mohammed Chergui, a huge palace, into a five-star hotel offers
a striking example of these conflicts between members of institutions. Hassan vilified members of
the municipality. "We gave back twice an unfavourable recommendation to the bacha [i.e. city
Governor]. I personally wrote them [i.e. other public authorities]. They want me to change my
mind, meaning to understand this investment will create job opportunities, and is then beneficial to
the economy of the city." However, Hassan refused and introduced a request to list that palace as a
national heritage in order to preserve it from transformation. On the other hand, a member of the
Ministry of Tourism vividly supported the projects for two reasons. First of all, it would create jobs
for medina inhabitants during the restoration works and afterwards for the management as well.
Secondly, the palace is located at the heart of the medina. The opening of a five-star hotel there
automatically involves a reinforcement of security along at least the two main streets of the medina.
This kind of conflict between members of institutions is by no means new. Among the first
departments of the French Residence in 1912 were the Urban Planning Department and the Fine
Arts and Historical Monuments Department. Both were supposed to work hand in hand to "protect
the local colour," the Fine Arts and Historical Monuments being responsible for the aesthetic and
the preservation of the medina, and the Urban Planning taking care of the urban development. In the
1920s, in order to connect Rabat, Fez and Oujda by train, a train station was built in Bab FtouH (i.e.
a neighbourhood bearing the name of a gate), outside of the medina walls, after the victory of
aesthetic and heritage reasons against economic and development ones. In the 1930s, the Semarine
gate in the mellaH (i.e. Jewish neighbourhood) crystallised another opposition. Traffic jams were
numerous, and members of the municipality had decided to make a larger opening. They won
against the Fine Arts Department, headed at that time by Jules Borely.
Finally, conflicts interest scholars investigating the various restoration projects that took
place in the medina. Idrissi Janati (2001) outlines the two main and conflicting logics orienting the
preservation actions conducted in Fez. The first, conservative, looks backwards and aims to
preserve the old medina urban fabric, to preserve the local and identity specific features against
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Westernisation. Lyautey implemented this archaeological and anti-interventionist approach – he
built the New City clearly separated from the medina – and UNESCO applied it during the first
decade of the listing. The second logic, more progressive and innovative, aims to introduce
modernity in the medina and to upgrade it on the basis of Le Corbusier’s ideas and the tabula rasa
ideology.
The question of accessibility to the medina crystallises the encounter of both logics. The
medina has always been a "car-free urban zone surrounded by city walls" whose contact with the
exterior passes by "a hierarchical system of gates" (Idrissi Janati, id.: 362, my translation).
Contemporary changes, characterised by more intense flows inside and outside the medina, lead to
transportation and accessibility problems. In the 1970s, an opening was made in R'Cif square and
the Oued Boukhrareb, the river separating the medina in two banks, was covered in that place. It
became a bus and taxi final and parking station. The works stopped in the 1980s after the Master
Plan recommended the absence of any bus or car in the medina. The logic changed to promote the
centrality of the medina and the improvement of the living standards there while preserving its
heritage. An international architects and urban planner office managed by Pinseau updated this
Master Plan in the 1990s. Within a Haussmanian logic, it turned the medina into one neighbourhood
among others. At the same time, both ADER and the Urban Agency were created, and the Moroccan
Government, together with the World Bank and Moroccan and international consultants, carried out
studies. They concluded the enclosure of the medina was one of the reasons of its degradation and a
hurdle to its development. Shopkeepers and craftsmen who owned a car supported this idea. But
several civil servants and academics proposed other logics to avoid the deletion of the medina from
the World Heritage list. According to them, accessibility would not solve the major problem of
security but would rather threaten the ecological and heritage values of the medina (the simple way
of life or proximity of public and collective facilities).
5.5.2.
Justifications
The aforementioned trials show that informants refer to justifications to put their argument
to the fore, to defend their position and to justify their actions. I take the specific example of the
replacement of doors. A first justification is economic, as a metal door is cheaper than a wooden
door. Another justification is more practical. A metal door is easier to install – it requires less work –
and is less heavy than a wooden one – a metal door is easier to deal with, particularly in the case of
old people. Aesthetics constitute another justification. Some informants condemned metal doors for
not being aesthetic while others installed a metal door to follow a trend. One final justification is
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security. Metal doors are supposed to be stronger than wooden ones – anyone who had been
burglarised or anyone willing to prevent a theft installed a metal door on their home.
More generally, in the conflicts I described, the main justifications were technical (concrete
is stronger than lime and sand), legal (to respect the official rules or not, be they related to heritage
or not), economic (to buy the cheapest materials), functional (no function or reason for an
architectural feature), and aesthetic (beauty of an architectural feature). They may also relate to
preservation aims (to preserve the traditional aspect of the medina), security, comfort (for oneself or
for guests), or jealousy.
Justifications are also found outside conflicts. Economy is the main justification for
undertaking actions or not in a house. Moroccan inhabitants said they did not undertake major
works because of the costs involved. Jawad insisted on the cost of undertaking works in the medina
with traditional materials. He also bought industrial carved plaster to decorate the walls in his shop
because traditional carved plaster was too expensive. Moreover, some informants linked the lack of
works to a feeling of economic inferiority. Nordin, a Moroccan guest-house employee, declared,
"[b]efore, if we said we lived in the medina, it meant we were rich, we had a huge house. Now, if
we say we live in the medina, it means we are poor. Inhabitants want to move to the New City.
That’s why they [i.e. Moroccan inhabitants] don’t undertake work in the house, they do nothing."
Close to the economic justification, we find that of tourism. The latter justifies both the
presence of foreigners in the city and the works owners undertake in their houses. According to
Gigi, as the house is a tourist accommodation – and not a familial house – it has been improved
instead of being restored or preserved. Simon decided to add some architectural decoration in the
guest-house to give guests a better feeling of Morocco, for his Art Deco house was characterised by
simplicity.
Memories, habits and personal interests constitute another kind of justification. Some
Moroccan informants didn’t want to change the atmosphere they had always known in the familial
house. In tourist accommodations, Moroccan owners undertook major changes but they made a
point of honour in preserving the atmosphere of their familial house and in keeping some elements
like the fountain, a tree, or by naming the rooms with the names of relatives.137 For instance, Abdu,
137 Moroccan inhabitants generally didn't name their house. They referred to it as the familial house, or they named it
after one of its quality. Amal, a Ziyarates landlady, declared her house was an "ecological house" because it was made
traditionally without reinforced concrete. Her house was also the "house of the sun" because there was a lot of natural
light. Mohammed, a retired soldier living in the medina, covered his roof with a telephone network (called tissalat)
plastic poster, and, during the interview, we renamed the house the "tissalat house" for fun. Some foreigners also put to
the fore a quality of their house to name it and to present it. Antoine presented his house under the form of a riddle. He
offered me a tour of his house and showed it room by room, explaining the changes he brought and the history he knew.
He also told me he would give me clues to answer the riddle at the end of the tour. Once we were back in the groundfloor salon, he asked "have you found the answer?" His house was a chikhat's house, the house of the mistress of a
prestigious lord.
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a Moroccan guest-house owner, declared that he "wanted to come back a bit to my childhood when
I lived in a traditional house. When I was a teenager, I left to visit the other side of the world. I
stayed a bit outside [i.e. abroad]. When coming back here, I wanted to live in the modern side, in
the New City. And now, I'm back to the root, back where I found my soul."
In opposition to continuity and habits, informants mentioned that they wanted to follow the
fashion, to be modern. David, Antoine and Philippe mentioned the successive fashions in
architectural decoration throughout history. Najib, a Moroccan shopkeeper, changed his entrance
wood door for a metal one because "it is the trend." Also, some foreign inhabitants proudly
mentioned how they had been the first ones to do something, to have launched a trend. For instance,
a German guest-house owner claimed to have first implemented the thematic bedroom furnishing
and the trend to hang up kaftan (i.e. traditional cloth) on the wall. Amélie and Loïc described Swiss
clocks as an important, but bygone fashion in Fez which they tried to revive – one could find these
clocks in guest-houses or in religious buildings.
Solidarity is also mentioned by foreigners to justify the help they gave to their Moroccan
acquaintances or neighbours. In their view, as well as for several architects, restoring the nearby
houses is a way to improve the life of neighbours since it brings some security in the architectural
structure. After she had paid his neighbour to rebuild a wall in his house, Emma declared that she
had "been helping in that little way." Helen, the manager of Fez Riads, claimed that the win-win
principle was her core principle. Tourists want to sleep in the medina, tourist accommodations
owners can hosts them, and money can benefit inhabitants who have the desire but not the money to
take care and to improve their environment.
There is also an educational and communicational justification. In the view of many
members of institutions, it is necessary to learn about houses and heritage to take care of them, to
become aware of them. Kate suggested that UNESCO "create[s] educational centres for women and
craftsmen to train them to their art." Tayyibi, the former ENA director, insisted on the role of his
school to be a place of awareness and dialogue about architecture and heritage, a place to teach
students to know their heritage and to respect it when undertaking works. The A.J.V.C.I
Tourist accommodation owners have to name their house as the official rules ask for in order to be registered. Ziyarates
families often gave the name of their family to the house. Fettah gave three names to his houses, in relation with the
activities he developed and aims he wanted to fulfill. "Al Kantara" is the "bridge" between cultures and people, "Needa
Fez" gathered "the friends of Fez" to think of the medina preservation, and "Fez Hadara" aimed at the promotion of
cultural activities linked to "the civilization of Fez". Evelyne named her house "La Clé de Fès" (The Key of Fez)
because she found a box with keys in the patio during the works.
Most of the time, owners chose names of persons – Riad Damia, Dar Victoria, Dar el Ghalia – or names related to
places in Fez – Riad Boujloud, Riad Souafine, Dar Seffarine – or to the Orient – Riad Sheherazade, Riad Mabroucka.
Also, owners favoured Moroccan-like names easy to pronounce in any language and different from others so that there
is no confusion possible – Dar Victoria, or Riad Soundouz. Moroccan owners rather chose names of relatives. Dar
Anebar is the name of the owner's grand mother. Every room of Dar Ghalia was given the name of a female relative.
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(Association of International Young Work camp Volunteers) developed the summer work camp of
construction works as an educational project for children to not stay idly on the streets during the
summer holidays. David deplored the lack of interest and knowledge among young generations to
explain the deteriorations and damages done to religious monuments in the medina.
Finally, Adbelali, a Morocco-French guest-house owner, mentioned an aesthetic
justification. The beauty of his house prevented him from digging up a swimming pool in his patio.
"This house is huge, with gardens in perfect condition. It is a perfect model of Arab-Andalus
architecture. So, it would have been criminal, it would have been ridiculous [to have a swimming
pool]. I have a wonderful pool, why should I dig a swimming pool? It would never be as pretty as it
is now. And we would never have the same atmosphere without the noise of the running water."
Conflicts do not constitute the main kind of relation individuals have with houses in the Fez
medina. As a tool for investigation, they shed light on the problems and on the justifications of
individuals. During conflicts and trials, informants evaluate the situation according to criteria and
confront them to define the best way to achieve their goal or a negotiated agreement. This statement
is close to the theory of convention. According to this theory, conflicts consist in trials for human
actors to find an agreement in court, that is to say an agreement around a common worth (Boltanski
and Thévenot, 1991).
Through their justifications, informants referred to various conventions, such as the relations
between neighbours, beauty, or rules. With these conventions, a situation is made exemplary – it is
not a specific situation anymore but it becomes a general situation. For instance, a conflict between
the members of two institutions is turned into a conflict between values or between institutions.
However, the legal apparatus – one arrangement to reach generalisation and coordination – does not
especially bring a solution to a conflict. Many informants who experienced a lawsuit said it was not
useful. They spent hours, days, years and much money for almost nothing, since they usually found
an informal agreement with their opponent.
Justifications also shed light on actions carried by human actors. Inhabitants preserve and
transmit houses. Fettah and David were involved in the preservation of the medina. They created
associations and they encouraged foreigners to buy houses there. Preservation also made Gigi busy
in the reading of the hidden messages in her house and their transmission to tourists. She moreover
stored pictures and descriptions of the patio in her computer and she wrote texts about the patio and
its symbolism. Abdelhay stayed in the familial house and didn’t get married in order to take care of
both the familial business and the house. Instead of selling the house and moving to the New City,
he decided to welcome tourists. Youssef wanted to keep the objects in the familial house when he
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made it into a guest-house, to preserve the familial atmosphere to a certain extent. To compare this
with another heritage site, Brumann (2009b) underlines how one of the main reasons for inhabitants
to preserve traditional houses in Kyoto is the aesthetic and the emotional harmony of the house, that
is to say its beauty, its atmosphere and the feeling of harmony the architecture of the house
provides.
Inhabitants also instrumentalised houses, meaning in this context that they used them for
another purpose than their initial function. The transformation of houses into tourist
accommodations is a glaring example of instrumentalisation. On the one hand, tourist
accommodation owners transformed their house not to make it into a familial house but to welcome
guests. On the other hand, they presented their house on their website in a way that attracts guests –
they improved pictures, they put to the fore extravagant advantages and qualities of their house.
Organisers of music festivals also choose famous houses – Dar Chergui, Riad Glaoui – to host
concerts. Finally, politicians instrumentalise houses when they ask for a restoration budget from the
Government, or when they promote the identity of Morocco and Fez though the presentation of
famous houses and heritage.
In the investigation of the link between justifications, conventions and actions, the theory of
Boltansky and Thévenot (1991) stresses the skills, abilities, competences of human actors to spot
the worthy (i.e. valuable, which might be endowed with a quality) elements in their environment, to
rely on them in the trial, to develop arguments about their worth (i.e. reference quality in a
situation). However, Boltanski and Thévenot (id.) mainly work with human actors and the worth
they allocate to other human actors according to conventions. Objects only support this allocation. I
for my part was interested in an object, houses, and how it was allocated a heritage quality.
Secondly, I faced an issue: is heritage a new city with its own worth, or a worth among others, or an
object inscribed in a city? At first sight, I could hold the three positions: heritage is a city whose
worth is authenticity, heritage is a worth circulating between various worlds or heritage is an object
part of the domestic world based on intergenerational transmission. Also, one can find the six
worlds in UNESCO writings. The 1972 Convention about the Protection of World Cultural and
Natural Heritage is inscribed in the domestic world, the nomination guidelines in the opinion world,
the management guidelines in the industrial one, the discourse of Malraux from 8 March 1960 about
the safeguard of Abou Simbel is inscribed in the world of inspiration, the Conventions defining how
UNESCO works belong to the civic world, while critics about its politicisation show its links with
the market world.
As a consequence, rather than a link with a specific world and worth, I underline the link
between what people care for and the allocation of qualities to the object of care. In Dewey’s (1939)
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view, to value (valuing) means "to prize," "to care for," "to admire," "to be concerned by," "to give
interest to." The last chapter of this section is dedicated to value-giving, or qualification.
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5.6.
Qualification
Many scholars study art-making. Shapiro and Heinich (2012: 20, my translation) name it
"ratification," that is to say the "process of transformation of non-art into art", resulting from a
horizontal – and not vertical – displacement of a border. In the heritage realm, Heinich (2009, 2012)
studies the axiology of heritage, that is to say the system of values underlying the criteria and the
statements of heritage-making, also named heritagisation. Rather than their heritagisation, I focus
on the qualification138 of houses in Fez, that is to say the recognition, allocation and evaluation139 of
a quality-value140 (Thévenot, 2006) to a thing.
According to Descola (2011) tangible and intangible things are packages of qualities that
humans detect or ignore. Berque (2010) coins "prédication" (predication) the ontological jump
giving birth to predicates from substance and realising the features of things. Although he
acknowledges the role of human beings in this process, he rather focuses on the ontological
difference between the predicate and the substance. Once the predicate – the quality – given, the
thing is ontologically different – is given a "surcroît d’être" (surplus of being) – and cannot be
something else. I however argue that a house can be endowed with several qualities without one
dominating or being ontologically different from all the others. Moreover, Berque forgets the
physical engagement with things, their experience, and drastically distinguishes the tangible and the
intangible aspect of things – he mostly investigates the symbolic and social contemplation of
landscapes through texts and words allowing for the circulation of this predicate (abstracted from
the substance "earth").
As James (1976) put it, human actors tend to identify salient parts in their environment, to
fix and to abstract them through nouns and adjectives, and to maintain them into existence.
"Experience now flows as if shot through with adjectives and nouns and prepositions and
conjunctions" (James, id.: 94). Qualification then emerges in a specific situation141 from the direct
appreciation or depreciation of a situation, a thing, an event, a person and this
138 The notion of qualification is rooted in the sociology of work and of economy which both focus on the qualification
of goods and human beings. Scholars such as Karpik, Thévenot, Callon, or Musselin give interest to the learnt and the
needed qualities for a worker to be hired or for a good to be used. Scholars of the sociology and anthropology of art also
pay interest in qualification. Michaud (1999) defines art qualities as secondary qualities that allow recognising a kind of
practice – artistic practices – through the precision in the repetition, the accuracy of the resemblance, the monumental
aspect, the creativity and inventiveness. "The piece of art must have some of these qualities to worth, at a certain time or
in a specific community, as a piece of art" (Michaud, id.: 36, my translation).
139 According to Musselin and Paradeise (2002), identification is the definition of a good or an individual and
evaluation is the judgement of the attributes.
140 I use the term "quality" and not "value" because this latter in anchored in political economy and economic theory.
Moreover, the term "value "relates to the dichotomy between alienable and inalienable goods while I'm interested in the
qualitative richness and features of things.
141 This focus on experience avoids making a difference between primary qualities – supposed to be objective – and
secondary qualities – supposed to be subjective as well as it prevents from formalism – which equates a quality with a
form and with a thing.
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appreciation/depreciation participates to its individualisation. But according to Dewey, the
allocation of a quality is not purely verbal. "In empirical facts, the measure of the value a person
attaches to a given end is not what he says about its preciousness but the care he devotes to
obtaining and using the means without which it cannot be attained" (Dewey, 1939: 27). Also, a
thing exists beside its qualification. The house (as a building) exists even if it has not been qualified
as a dwelling or as a piece of heritage.
In the following, I describe the qualities informants allocated to their house and I investigate
how and when the heritage quality of houses emerges. I finish by challenging the notion of heritage
border presupposed by the heritagisation of a thing. If qualification is equated with the displacement
of a border, as Shapiro and Heinich (2012) assert, should then an object belong to only one
category? Should an object be qualified as heritage, and nothing else?
5.6.1. Qualities of houses
Most of the time, informants mentioned the physical and architectural qualities of their
house. Guy, when asked to describe his house in a few words, chose only architectural terms such as
the patio, mosaic, wood, carved plaster and the fountain. Inhabitants of small houses underlined the
warmth of the house during the winter months. As Amal put it, a small house and low ceilings
contribute to a greater feeling of warmth. Omar explained the difference of temperature between the
outside and the inside of the house. "Walls of medina houses are extremely wide. They can be up to
60 centimetres wide. […] As the walls are thick, they heat slowly when the sun hit them and the
house is not very warm inside. And it is the same in winter. The cold is not well carried through the
thickness, so the house keeps its heat."
On the other hand, physical and architectural features may appear to be disadvantages. Many
inhabitants complained about bad odours coming from the sewer, from a nearby tannery or about
deep staircases. Rachid, a Moroccan architect, said that he was a man of "a certain age, and I have
problems with my knees. It is really hard to climb some steps. […] Of course, if you are used to it,
it is a physical exercise." Also, many Moroccans declared the house was too big for women to clean
it properly. As families are divided and many women are working – mostly as house lady or cook in
guest or private houses –, there is little time and help to take care of the daily works in the house.
Houses were also said to be damp. Several inhabitants showed the moisture on the ground-floor
walls, complained that painting didn't dry fast and caused blisters to form. In terms of luminosity,
Abdelhaq, a Moroccan belt-maker, compared houses in the medina to guts and Helen, a British
resident, even spoke of rabbit holes.
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Many informants endowed houses with a life, with a personhood. The vocabulary carried
this quality of life when informants spoke of the house through bodily and human metaphors. A
house empty of its inhabitants is "dead," the walls can’t be covered with cement because it doesn’t
allow them to "breathe," the medina is transformed "into an old body weakened by time," the house
is a friend or a baby, the house has a "human size" to live comfortably in, workers "raped" or
"undressed" the house during the construction works, the house has a soul or a spirit. When Gigi
entered her house for the first time, "it was dying" and waiting for somebody to be revived. She
took it upon herself to make it known and alive again. In her view, the house also has a soul. "I
think, following Chateaubriand’s writings, well, I will not recite the poem, but 'Objets inanimés
avez-vous donc une âme qui s'attache à notre âme et la force d'aimer?'142 And I think there is
indeed a soul and energy in houses. You know, everything is energy for me. Waves converge to one
point, and some points last longer, such as pyramids, and others collapse, such as some houses in
the medina."
Informants underlined that the life of the house was longer than human life. They admitted
that the house existed before them and would probably survive them. In this context, they could
only take care of it. Moroccans emphasised this idea of the house surviving their human inhabitants
when they talked of their familial house. They insisted on the continuity in furniture and in the way
of life, and on the – problematic – transmission to future generations – as young Moroccans
generally prefer to live in the New City. In keeping with this idea of life and death, Meriem, a
Moroccan architect, asserted that "it is not a disaster if a house collapses. If it does so, well, good
ridance, it frees some space. All the houses are not meant to live endlessly. I think it is very human
in fact. And I find it very poetic."
This quality of personhood allows the development of an intimate relation with the house. I
have already mentioned the "love at first sight" similar to the one has with another human being.
Also, some foreigners, such as Gigi, declared they were "friends" with the house. As Kate
explained, "I did live here through the restoration. And I know every corner of this house so well. It
is like an old friend. A friend you had fought with but still a friend, and your friendship is longer
because you had a bit of difficulty." This friendship "is like being in a relationship with a person."
Evelyne compared her "house to an old lady with scarves, rheumatism. She always has a pain
somewhere. She wobbles. I pamper her."
To many informants, the soul of the house – foreigners more likely spoke of positive energy
– consists in its character, its cachet, its authenticity, what provides its uniqueness and what should
be preserved when undertaking works. Antoine advised me to "live in the house. And then you
142 "Inanimate things, have you a soul do you, which attaches to our soul and the strength to love," my translation from
Lamartine, Milly ou la terre natale written in 1827.
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discover it has a spirit. Right now, this house is ordinary. But when it is night and that the artificial
lighting is on, it is enchanting. You are into another world." Informants also associated the soul with
the life in the house. In Amélie's view, "the patio gives everything. The soul of the ryad is there.
Life is there." Philippe, a French art historian, asserted that the spirit of a house was "the people
who lived there, who left something behind, who left a trace."
Others mentioned the presence of other beings such as genies. As Abderahim, a Moroccan
employee in a tourist restaurant, put it, two kinds of inhabitants live in a house, human beings and
genies. When one of them leaves the house, the latter dies and becomes a ruin. Also, many
Moroccans evoked the feeling of not being alone in the house, particularly at night. Fatimzohra, a
Moroccan inhabitant, was afraid of sleeping alone in a medina house because of jnun (i.e. genies).
The third main quality allocated to houses is beauty. The care for beauty is obvious in the
interest inhabitants have in furnishing their house (cf. supra p. 137) and in making them pleasant.
However, informants generally linked beauty to a particular element or a specific room. Inhabitants
often presented their rooftop terrace or the patio as the most beautiful place in the house. Their
terrace offered the best view on Fez. Loïc said that "the house is like a mystery. You discover its
beauty when you raise your head from the patio." Steve, an American tourist accommodation
owner, described his house as being "embellished," as "a piece of art" because of the 50 plus
patterns of mosaic in his house. Informants also mentioned the symmetry and proportions of houses.
As Marie, a French tourist accommodation owner, said, "[y]ou notice a balance in the architectural
structure. For instance, [all around the patio] you have four doors, they are super symmetric. Houses
are built following principles, and symmetry is one of them. Just look at columns or the windows
system. The basic structures and geometrical principles, according to me, make the beauty of the
house."
This beauty is not always material. According to Abderahim, a Moroccan employee in a
tourist restaurant, human beings see the beauty of houses through their heart and not through their
eyes. Youssef, a Moroccan guest-house owner, said that his house is beautiful to him, even on the
architectural plans, because he carries it in his heart.
Houses also have a spiritual quality, that is to say they relate to immaterial forces, be they
religious or not. Abdelhay insisted on the religious aspect of his house. Watching his house from the
patio gives him the feeling of exploring the Arab-Andalus culture as religion is inscribed in the
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architectural decoration. As Moulay Idriss dedicated the city to religion in the 9th century,143 the
house reflects religion in the fountain and in carved plaster writings lauding the words of God.
Fettah, for his part, explained that rooms are 12 meters-high in order to elevate one to Allah.
To him, a fountain is beautifully decorated because it brings the water needed by Muslims in their
everyday practices of purification and cleaning the house and the body. In his view, the constant
presence of water shows the religious aspect of the house, as water is essential to Muslims. He also
made architecture into the major art. Wood, mosaic, plaster, are only materials behind which the
principle of unity and beauty rests. In his view, foreigners gave more importance to materials, their
beauty, and their authenticity.
Gigi described the symbolism of the architectural decorations as related to Sufism. This
quality is written in the decoration and writings of the patio. However, nobody could translate these
writings and the few who tried generally stated that "these writings concern Allah, but are not
Koranic writings." As the meaning of numerous decorations has been lost and nobody could give
her an explanation, Gigi ascribed to herself the mission to find them back. She specified that her
astrologist training helped her in reading the meaning of the symbols in the patio. "Everything holds
together, everything is meaningful." Also, her work of beautician was helpful in noticing details in
the architectural decoration while her computer allowed her to zoom in on details and store the
information under the form of pictures and descriptions. Beyond religion, Gigi stated that the house
passes on "a message of humanism, peace, openness, union. Everything is represented in the patio
for human beings to help each other and to stay united. And I think this house should be better
known, because humanity can learn something positive and peaceful from it. People some 260 years
ago had already understood it was better to get along and to accept all the religions, by accepting
each other, by opening up granaries when others were hungry. It is more than humanist, it is
altruistic."
Other informants, particularly Moroccan ones, mentioned genies sharing houses with human
beings. As they live together in the house, human beings have to respect spirits. In Jawad's house,
the mother regularly poured milk in the sewing pipes to soothe genies and make them happy. Many
inhabitants explained they burnt cedar scent to maintain good relations with genies in their house.
Stories about the presence of genies in houses are abundant. Abdelhaq, a Moroccan beltmaker, recalled personal memories. "I tell you things as they were. My father had his own room in
our house, where he communicated with spirits. I didn't know anything at that time, because my
Moulay Idriss II is said to have declared: "O Allah, You know I have not built this city out of vanity, out of a desire
for fame, or from pride. But I would like You to be adored here, that Your book be read and that Your law be applied as
long as the world lasts. O God, guide toward godness those who live here and help them to accomplish godness. Veil
the sword of anarchy and dissent in their eyes."
143
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father never spoke about that. He died in 1982, lay rahmou [i.e. polite expression when speaking of
a dead]. One day, I came back home and I saw smoke on the ground. We had a house that is now a
bazaar. The entrance door is here, and here it is a wall [he draws the entrance door and the wall with
his fore finger on the table]. So, I saw smoke. At first, I laughed, but then I thought 'Shit, it is dark,
maybe it is a fire.' So I went nearer, and the smoke gathered together and stood up in front of me,
like that [he draws a human shape in the empty space], with a head. I clearly remember. I was
working on my Bac S [i.e. school degree] and I thought it was an alien. I was afraid. He turned on
himself and pffff, he was gone. I always thought it was an alien. But five years ago, a man told me
my father communicated with spirits. Genie or djin, it is the same. And I remembered my father's
room, huge and dark. My father told me not to enter this room. He knew a spirit was living there."
And he continued with several stories of that kind. "It is not all houses. But there are forces in some
houses for sure."
Finally, escapes links with spirituality. Evelyne spoke in terms of dream when she said that
she had had "a hard time, a very, very hard time. It was difficult everywhere. Because my husband
didn't understand why I kept on going on this house. He told me 'Evelyne, you have all the money
you need, you do not need to do this.' But I answered him 'It is not a matter of money anymore; it is
a matter of dream.' I dreamed of myself in this house." Also, according to Rachid, a Moroccan
architect, "dream and poetry are inscribed in the volumes and decorations."
Informants also issued a quality of exceptionality and uniqueness to their house. "It [i.e. the
house] is a bit similar to the Lascaux cave, there is one in Fez. […] The others [houses] are
beautiful but they don't have anything special about them. They are inscribed into a tradition, they
have a style, they are typical, but they are not original." And she added later "[in other houses],
there is nothing in their decoration. Only flowers and repeated drawings. But here, there is this
richness [in the decoration]. […] If there is one house you have to see in Fez, it is this one [laugh].
It is so unique and extraordinary to me" (Gigi).
Nora, a British guest-house owner, explained that the originality of her guest-house came
from the disco ball in the patio, the covered rooftop terrace, and more generally the "young
atmosphere" she created in her house. According to Ruth, the exceptionality of her house lies in its
perfect symmetry. Antoine attributed the exceptionality of his house to its bartal (i.e. alcove) – a
rare thing in such a small house – to the refinement of the architectural decoration, and to its history.
Instead of being exceptional and unique, the house may also be representative of the
Moroccan culture or the Moroccan way of life. Loïc made of his house a perfect example of Arab-
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Andalus house. He even declared that he "wouldn't have bought a less culturally imprinted house."
He presented his house as "a jewel" in order to discover the Moroccan culture. The visit of Morocco
starts in the house. […] When you enter the house, you know you are somewhere else" because the
house "reflects an art of life, tastes, specific ways of building. It is marked by a tradition." Diya, a
Moroccan inhabitant, made of this Arab-Andalus representativeness a mark of distinction between
Morocco and other Arab countries. "A traditional house reflects the Moroccan architecture, the
Arab-Andalus architecture. It is purely Moroccan and Andalus. When Andalus people left Spain,
they split through North Africa. And a lot [came] in Morocco. The architecture is like in Granada
and in Cordoba." Although she has never been to the Alhambra, she said palaces and houses in Fez
are similar to this building. "The matter is not the size but the detail. Even the Alhambra, according
to the architectural plans, consists of small houses linked together. It is luxury in the detail. There is
nothing big. But when you go to the Emirates, everything is in the size. The bedroom, I don't know
how they do, it is as big as a house!"
Beyond being an appreciated quality, the representativeness of a house has wider
consequences. In Fettah's view, architecture is "the cultural genetic" of a society and a "cultural
expression that gathers the whole society." A harmonious house then reflects a harmonious society.
As a consequence "[w]e [i.e. Moroccans] find our history, our past, our childhood in these houses."
In this context, he asserted that his house was a way of "making an ethnography of my own
culture." Philippe, an art historian, also made of houses the result of "a certain way of life, or more
precisely art of life. Art of life, meaning that everything participates to the well-being of inhabitants,
for them to enjoy being inside instead of going out. Because people didn't go out often, especially
women."
Hassan thought it was important to pass on this representativeness to future generations. In
his view, "domestic architecture is the witness of the way of life and the architectural evolution in
Morocco." The destruction of the architectural structure or the decorative patterns prevents future
generations from seeing and knowing this way of life. Also, the various categories of houses – dār,
ryad, masriya, ksar – represent the evolution of architecture in Morocco and in Fez more precisely.
Houses also have an economic quality. The house is a source of income, a commercial
project in the case of a tourist accommodation. This economic quality has an influence on the
choice of the house: easy access, the proximity of markets and taxis, number of rooms. Due to this
economic quality, owners undertook many restoration and upgrading works. Informants then
mentioned the investment they made and the money they earned. The tourist crisis, which stared in
early 2010, made tourism accommodation owners anxious about their capacity to pay both their
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employees and the everyday works in the house.
Houses are indeed "an upkeep abyss" because of the everyday tiny works they involve – this
feature is common to both residential and tourism houses. Jean-Marc, a French guest-house owner,
specified the paradise he lives in costs a lot in time and money in order to remain a paradise. With
humour, he declared that houses couldn’t be similar to the Muslim paradise, as some scholars wrote
it and as some Moroccan elites lauded it, for in the Muslim paradise, nobody has to pay his comfort.
Finally, the Moroccan wife of a Belgian guest-house owner, declared a house in the medina "is
priceless." She was born in the medina but her parents had sold the grandfather's house when she
was a child and she regretted it quite a bit.
Informants also mentioned functionality, and comfort, as other qualities. Aside from tourist
accommodation owners, inhabitants declared their house was first and foremost their place to live.
Many Moroccan informants asserted that "dār diali, saken ana ou walidi. Ou katji l’ayla tchoufou
(i.e. This is my house. I live here with my children. And the family comes to visit)", as a former
Moroccan soldier did. Hannah and her husband bought two houses in Fez. Their place to live is not
a "beautiful house" compared to the guest-house they intended to open. Christina, an American
resident, exclaimed that she was "more comfortable here [i.e. in a medina house] than in some
places in the New City."
Since a house is a place to live, inhabitants generally undertake works to improve its
functionality (cf. supra p. 100). They also buy electric devices such as a fridge or a washing
machine. Jawad installed a Western toilet because his father had surgeries and couldn't use the
Moroccan bathroom anymore. Managers of construction companies asserted that they first of all
looked at the functionality of the house to propose changes in the architectural plans. Antoine took
pleasure in finding new functions to useless rooms such as junk rooms. Abdelhay on the one hand
promoted an authentic way of furnishing, as he disliked foreign residents furnishing in a Western
way. On the other hand, he was not opposed to the introduction of washing machines or gas stoves
in houses, for these are "functional."
The architecture of the house is an element to make it comfortable. Philippe, an art
historian, argued that "it would be impossible to live in a house with low ceilings. You cannot live
in a room 2.5 meters wide out of 8 meters long, with a ceiling at 2 meters high. But you live easily
if the ceiling is 7 meters high." A lot of inhabitants underlined the cosy and comfortable aspect of
their house. Cosy then means intimate (possibility to enclose oneself in a private space), Western
(addition of comfort), inviting (the salon with the chimney during winter time), comfortable,
charming and quiet. For instance, Emma found her house cosy because "I don't have bedrooms on
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that lower level [i.e. ground-floor] and I'm very happy not to have bedroom there because it is much
a busy place. The bedrooms are on the upper level only."
Few informants provided the house with a temporal quality. Contrary to its importance
during the works (cf. supra p.107), oldness is not a main quality of houses. Moroccan informants
usually complained about the oldness of their house and all the inconveniences and maintenance
work it involved. Foreigners generally knew little about the history of their house. Gigi didn't look
for more information about her house while she knew its importance – at least the importance in her
eyes. To know that the house was about 260 years old was enough for her. Loïc admitted he was
unable to tell any story about his house. He knew what the former owners told him. The house was
called "Essada" (i.e. happiness) before and belonged to a family of weavers. But it had been
abandoned in the late 1980s. He also knew the house had a garden that had been sold in the 1940s.
While he was eager to gather any information about the house’s history, he didn't prove very proactive, either.
Owners did not know much because there was usually "nothing special to say" about a
"fairly new house" or a "house without history," except that after the death of one of the parents, the
children decided to sell it and to move to the New City. Jean-Pierre, a French guest-house owner,
declared that "[a]pparently, this house has no history. I didn't read anything about it in any book. I
don't think there were any philosophers, sultans, and so on, who left a trace. I only know it belonged
to shopkeepers. It belonged to the Bennani, a famous and widespread family but I don't have more
information. According to the builder, the house is 420 years old."
Many foreigners contented themselves with the information and the date that the builder, the
former owners or the traditional notary gave them. Most of the time, they gathered information
thanks to the former owners who came back to visit the house or through neighbours. Kate recalled
that "about 6 or 7 years ago, oh no, 4 years ago, someone knocked on the door. It was an old man,
and he asked to come in and see the house. It is common for Moroccans just to be curious. We
usually don't let them in, because it is not great for the guests. So we said 'Sorry. We don't allow
people to come in and look.' He said 'No, no, I'm the grandson of the men who built this house.' And
he gave the name. And I knew that was correct. 'Oh, marhababick [i.e. welcome], come on in.' And
it was wonderful because he walked around, he was an old man, and he told me the history of every
room. 'I remember we tiled the courtyard in 1923 for my sister's wedding, and she spent her
wedding night in this suite.' In my office, he laughed 'It is so funny it is your office, this is always
where I studied.' He showed me another place 'Oh here, I fell down the stairs and broke my arm'."
However, others such as Abdelhaq, a Morocco-French guest-house owner, didn't believe what he
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had heard about his house. "I do not trust stories I'm told about this house. I heard 25 of them. So,
none holds water."
Few owners showed interest in the age and the past of their house. Jean-Marc, a French
guest-house owner, was among the rare owners to know the history of his house built in 1866 by
one of Hassan I’s son-in-law. Three generations of qadi (i.e. judge) inhabited the house. Jean-Marc
bought it from the biggest khli' (i.e. dry meat) producers in Fez. Simon, another French guest-house
owner, declared that his house was "a link with a past period of time that inspires me respect and
attractiveness, but no regret." He was much more interested in "the ingredients in the house that
allow learning from the past in order to draw the future."
For the few owners looking for information about their house, the young age of a house
makes research easier because written documents exist, the neighbours knew the family and the
builders might even be still alive. Marie, a French tourist accommodation owner, admitted that she
"traced [the history of her house] back up to the first owners. The house was built in 1915. Then, it
was bought by the Hotel de France on Batha square. So this house was sold to the hotel by the
grandfather. When the hotel stopped any activity, the grandfather bought the house back. And then
he sold it to another family from whom I bought it."
To date the house, inhabitants referred to the style of the house and its decoration. For
instance, the acanthus leave on the columns is typical of the Alaouite style, while the door paintings
go back to a Merinid style. Or they referred to the history of the neighbourhood because, as Antoine
said: "Starting from the Qaraouyine, the medina developed by slides trough the time. It means we
know that such neighborhood, R'Cif, Bab Guissa or Cherrablyene, was built at a certain time. So
that in Batha and Ziat areas, you find house aged less than 100 year-old". But the general problem
brought up by Guy, a French tourist accommodation owner, is that "[w]e don't know! The
neighbourhood goes back to the 17th century, the fountain zelij [i.e. mosaic] is less than a century
old and the windows with a upper half circle are typical of the 19th century. And the balcony rather
seems to belong to the 17th century. This blurs the inscription of the house in a period of time and in
a style."
Finally, many informants insisted on the necessary preservation of the traditional or
authentic quality of their house.144 Hassan was looking for the preservation of authenticity in
traditional houses of the medina. As Olivier, a Belgian resident, said, the authenticity of his house
"goes beyond the bricks. It has a deep history." Gigi asserted that her house is traditional because of
its architectural structure "with the patio and the four sides, and the bartal [i.e. alcove opened on the
patio] with the wall fountain. The basic pattern of the house is the square, and the structure is
144
For a discussion of the terms "tradition" and "authenticity", cf. supra p. 107.
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enclosed: you are shut into a square and there are few openings to the outside. Symmetry is also
traditional. Subsequently, tradition is found in the way the house works. There is always somebody
at home. It is rare when there is nobody. There is always at least one woman at home. And, finally,
you find tradition in the furniture: banquettes, chests, low round tables. You find this in almost
every house."
Jawad described his house not as traditional but as a mix between tradition and modernity.
To him, "in a traditional house, it is not compulsory to have a fountain but you find the same things:
two rooms f sefli [i.e. on the ground-floor] and the foqi [i.e. upper floor]. […] Moreover, you see the
way houses are built: ceilings are far [i.e. high]. You close the salon doors and it is like night. And
the walls are very thick. It means you cannot hear noises from the outside." Jawad claimed his
house is not a flat as it extends on two floors (with the rooftop terrace). However, there is no
fountain in the patio (just a tap), no mosaic, no carved and/or painted plaster, no "pure Moroccan
things," as he said.
5.6.2. The heritage quality
Heritage is among the qualities that informants allocated to houses. The house may be a
familial, a personal, an economic or a cultural heritage. A Moroccan teacher and his brother made of
their familial house – a familial heritage (warth) – an economic heritage by turning it into a homestay. Evelyne excluded the house from her economic heritage. "When I'm in France, sometimes, I
evaluate my economic situation. Even when I talk with friends, I never include the house in my
economic heritage. I do not include it because given the Moroccan geopolitics, we don't know what
may happen tomorrow. I know I may lose the house from one day to the other. So, I include the
house into my intellectual heritage if you want. The house is a cultural heritage, intellectual, and
personal."
Amal, a Ziyarates landlady, declared that her house was a cultural heritage (turāth) because
of its location in a medina listed by UNESCO. However, her house was not a familial heritage
(warth), as she bought it with her husband in 2002. According to Amélie, although her house is
relatively recent, "it is a heritage because it is located in the medina of Fez and it belongs to a
whole. It is an additional piece to the entire structure of the medina, and it respects the tradition."
Other inhabitants stressed the fact that their house belonged to the Arab-Andalus architecture to
explain the (cultural) heritage quality.
Antoine also defined his house as heritage because it dates back to "a past and bygone time.
Also, if we wanted to build the same today, it would cost a fortune. Even a small house like this one
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[i.e. his house]. In that sense, my house is a piece of heritage. My uncle worked with the Historical
Monuments in France. He rebuilt a castle and followed the Historical Monuments norms. He had to
use the same materials and the same way of working as those of the period of time he was restoring.
But the amount of materials, wood or slate, is not infinite. So materials are rare and their price is
high." In addition to oldness, price and scarcity, Antoine stressed the heritage quality of a house
through the respect of preservation rules.
Gigi clearly presented her house as a heritage because of its exceptionality, uniqueness and
originality. "I found what the house concealed from us. Well, the house didn't hide anything.
Everything was at our disposal. But I think I'm the only one to know it so well. I'm the first and only
one in a long time. So, yes, I'm the heir, between quotation marks, of knowledge. I'm among the few
to consider having a heritage in the shape of the patio of my house. It is a unique richness. […]
According to me, it is an extraordinary house, in the deep meaning of the term. When I see the
amount of knowledge and culture that was put into this house, I bow to them."
Others underlined the representativeness of their house as heritage. Antoine specifically
located the heritage quality of his house in the architectural decoration. "In fact, the house as such is
not heritage. Heritage decorates the house. It appears in the know-how of work guilds, it reflects the
period of time during which it was built. If you have the same house but without zelij [i.e. mosaic],
without carved plasters, without paintings, what is the interest for the medina to be listed as a World
Heritage site?" Emma considered her house as a cultural heritage "because it still demonstrates this
kind of intimacy of the house, which has to do with the patio particularly, the little windows I talked
about, where the people, and the Moroccan women before them, could look outside without being
seen. It creates mystery. I don't have those beautiful windows, the wooden ones, because my house
is so simple. I don't have beautiful pieces. I don't have a lot of paintings on the woodwork. Because
this is just a simple house, this is not a palace, it is an ordinary house."
The heritage quality may not be obvious, and may need some time to appear. Sarah, a
French resident, declared that she didn’t really care about heritage when she was looking to buy a
house. "The heritage side didn't influence me, didn't appeal to me until I purchased a house. I
noticed some houses were more traditional than others but, I mean, it didn't hit me. And now I'm
starting the restoration works, I'm going to try to come back to a vanished traditional aspect. But I'm
not going to do justice to each nail, to each raw-plug". Loïc stated shortly after he had settled in Fez
that his house was not a heritage, even if he knew he was living in an "exceptional house that
represents a culture and a period of time." Some months later, he said that his house was "part of
heritage. This ryad should be shared because it is part of heritage and should be at the disposal of
everyone". This emphasis on heritage does not simply have romantic or humanistic roots, however.
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As Frederica, a Spanish resident, critically added, tourist accommodation owners develop a
discourse about their house as heritage because "the tourist is looking for a discourse about
heritage."
5.6.3. Qualities and heritage
Informants allocated several kinds of qualities to their house, that is to say adjectives used to
qualify specific features of houses, or entire houses. These qualities related to their architecture,
economic side, functionality and comfort, beauty, life, exceptionality and uniqueness,
representativeness, authenticity and tradition, age, spiritual aspect or heritage quality. Informants
generally evoked the importance of the functional quality (to have a comfortable house) while the
temporal and economic qualities more than often appeared as burdens.
This overview of qualities leads to several remarks. Firstly, heritage is only one quality
among others allocated to houses, and is often linked to another quality of the house such as
exceptionality, oldness, scarcity or representativeness. It doesn't make of heritage a supra and
essential quality which crowns the experience of a house or a secondary quality coming after the
real qualities of the house had been stressed. It rather shows the bundle of qualities that houses
display and the embededness of the heritage quality with others.145 As Keane (1997, 2005) argues,
objects have attributes (or holds), suggest qualities and invite to use them. These attributes are copresent, are bundled, with other attributes even if these latter haven’t emerged – their emergence is
not compulsory. Other qualities than heritage are also preferably bundled with others, such as the
comfortable with the economic, the traditional with the old, the good condition with the lively, and
the beautiful with the exceptional.
The assertion that heritage is not a supra quality doesn't contradict or weaken the statement
according to which heritage emerges from a "plus of attention" as I argue in the next chapter. A
supra quality is allocated after all the other qualities have been unveiled and it "cancels" or erases
these qualities for being less important, less essential. However, a plus of attention results in the
allocation of a quality that is not exclusive and could change in time. For example, a house bought
for its quality of beauty may become an economic object whose purpose is to bring money to its
owner. This latter then "forgets" the beauty quality of the house in favour of the economic one. This
happened to Ruth after she suffered a lot during the construction works. "I watch the house trough
the eyes of the clients who say ‘Oh, it is wonderful here!’, and I tell myself ‘Yes, it is wonderful.’
But I also see… a lot of suffering inside. It was 2.5 years of nightmare."
145 As Berque (2010) shows, numerous scholars made of contemplation – beyond necessity and use – the condition for
landscape to exist.
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Finally, if heritage is a quality, the notion of heritage border, as something that separates
heritage and non-heritage, loses its relevance. On the one hand, Latour (2012) stresses that a border
is a passageway, a trial, a test, a place of connection and of differentiation where exchanges
heighten rather than a clear cut between distinct areas. On the other hand, and more radically than
Latour does, Tornatore (2000) challenges the notion of heritage border by underlining that heritage
belongs to various worlds.146
Instead of investigating how a thing belongs to several worlds, I shed light on the multiple
relations with this thing – sometimes within the same world. Due to the multiples holds they offer,
to the multiples attention they give and take, things invite to a plurality of attachments. In that view,
there is no border between houses and heritage but a different engagement, or relation of attention,
with the thing to qualify.147 As a consequence, it is no more an act of language; the difference
between houses and heritage is unique and definitive. A thing is not enclosed into or is strictly
defined by its quality of heritage, or any other quality. Informants allocated different qualities to the
house according to the situation and according to their interlocutor. If Gigi presented her house as
exceptional to the tourists, she complained to me about the inconveniences of the house. In that
context, the house doesn't cross a border, is not located on one or the other side of the border, but
offers a bundle of possible relations and engagement with it.
Gibson (1979) also suggests a possible solution to explain the belonging of hertiage to several world. Following his
idea of media, surfaces and substance, I propose that houses are subtances, that is to say a relatively persistent layout
having a distinctive shape and a non-homogeneous texture as well as specific properties.
147 In Ingold’s (2011) view, a thing is not delianated and contained within a perimeter against a surrounding
environement (a circle) connected to other things by a line. On the contrary, things are tissues of lines without any
inside or outside, trails of movement, trajectories of life.
146
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5.7.
Attachment
On the basis of this investigation of relations with houses, I draw three concluding remarks.
Firstly, rather than an approach focused on individuals – such as with the regimes of engagement
(Thévenot, 2006) –, on values – following the axiology of heritage (Heinich, 2009, 2012) – or on
the system – in the frame of moral economies (Saxer, 2012) –, I argue that the notion of
attachment148 allows for a better investigation of the relation between human and non-human actors,
for it puts emphasis on the experience of the situation,149 and by that token does not favour any
component of this situation. This notion, through an approach in terms of "relation with" and not
"use of" something, discards approaches based on the instrumentalisation or the aestheticisation of a
thing. In the investigation of heritage more particularly, this notion allows taking distance from
approaches in terms of heritage-making – close to the expert way of institutionalising heritage –, in
terms of values-giving – close to the definition of heritage as an essence – and in terms of
transmission – close to the problematic of heritage production and reception.
Tornatore (2010) asserts that heritage is a matter of actualisation and attachment rather than a
matter of transmission. I rather argue that actualisation and transmission are two different
experiences of heritage. Actualisation relates to the recognition and the stabilisation of heritage
while transmission refers to its circulation in time and space, once it is stabilised. I here focus on the
actualisation – realisation – of heritage in the present, that is to say on "heritage in action."
Thévenot (2006) proposes the notion of "regimes of engagement" to study how human actors
figure action, engage with one another and their visible or invisible, close or remote, environment.
This notion in its multiple variations mainly focuses on human actors and their relations with
actions and with other human actors rather than with objects. For instance, in the familial regime,
human actors look after their comfort and try to avoid anything threatening their intimacy and
privacy. They use objects and customise them according to various intensities of affects. In the
regime of planned actions, human actors aim to act efficiently, with responsibility and autonomy.
Attachment has been mostly investigated in the fields of psychology (Bowlby, 1969; Ainsworth and al., 1978) and
cognitive sciences (Levine, 1990) as a relation of security between a child and his/her parents. Carrying out its
anthropological fieldwork in Morocco, Rosen (1979) referred to the word to describe the possible ties one could
develop with other human beings according to his/her personal capacities and his/her cultural resources – the origins
(where does one come from), the locality (where does he live, to which land is he currently associated) and the
relatedness (to the family, to the Prophet, to a Saint). Also, Barthelemy and Weber (1994) outlined three kinds of love,
or attachments, to the Brittany landscape. These attachments correspond to stances activists of that region developed,
that is to say the defence of the ecosystem, the preservation of the living environment, and the preservation of the
memory of the place.
149 Inspired by Dewey, Hennion (2007) argues that attachment doesn’t relate to a content but to an experience. Based on
his investigation of the passion for music, he states that attachment "could only be experienced, felt – and this includes
its own understanding […] to understand attachment is like to find internal, local and partial causes in the seamless
fabric of heterogeneous realities. It doesn't aim to add explanations or external interpretations to given realities"
(Hennion, id.: 98).
148
241
They use norms, their intention and willpower to establish plans of action, and objects strengthen
these plans. In the regime of justice, human actors qualify and evaluate things and people according
to a worth (i.e. reference value or quality) and a common good, namely competition in the market
world, efficiency in the industrial world, renown in the opinion world, solidarity in the civic world,
trust in the domestic world, or inspiration. Doing so, they try to reach agreements in justice and
objects support frameworks of coordination.
However, in each chapter of this section, I investigated the relations between human actors
and houses – that is to say objects and not actions. The notion of attachment precisely puts emphasis
on what human actors care for. In Hennion’s (1993) definition, attachment holds things together,
results from an attention – a human actor gives to an object and an attention taken by the object.
Senses, affects, expertise, conflicts and justifications and qualities, all these relations show what
inhabitants care for and give attention to – that is to say comfort, money, well-being, or beauty
among others – in their experience of houses. An attachment is not a link, a tie, but is discovered
during a test, a trial in Boltanski and Thévenot’s (1991) meaning. As such, attachment mainly relies
on a body that feels and experiences, on objects such as the object of attachment or intermediary
objects, on systems that act like conventions and mediators, and on collective groups which frame
the experience. In Fez, the corporeal capacities, through senses and affects, participate in the
relation with houses. Several systems and objects also support the attachment to the house – crafts
elements and traditional materials, work undertaking, the invention and stabilisation of a
vocabulary, the implementation of rules, writings and movies about Fez. Finally, residents,
members of institutions, merchants and antique dealers create or gather in associations, institutions
or informal groups in which one learns and receives information and advice.
This focus on experience however doesn't mean the absence of link with the past. One needs
to train to learn how to experience an attachment. Also, as James (1976) puts it, new experiences
combine with former ones and this combination structures the former mass of experiences to extend
the known universe.
Secondly, sensual and affective relations are of prime importance to shed light on what people
care for. According to Berque (2010) sensitive experiences and representations – and what connects
them – are at the basis of humans’ enjoyment of their attachment to the sensitive world. The latter
then do not exist without the representations and values that humans project on it.150 Without
making out of senses and affects a condition for the world to be, Dassié (2006) defines the
"intimisation" of things as their inclusion into personal memories and their link with socioThe sensitive world is "trajective", which means it is not purely objective or subjective, but is endowed with
symbolic and tehcnical systems at the same time it belongs to the biosphere.
150
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biographic affects. Through senses and affects, human actors include things into their life,
appropriate them and allocate them qualities – some of them being heritage qualities. Kate linked
every room of her house to a particular moment in her life. Meriem underlined that somebody else
couldn't feel the same affects in the house of her grandparents for this house wouldn't be part of his
or her personal history. Gigi based her discovery of the house on her passion for astrology.
Moroccan inhabitants evoked memories and personal stories in relation with their house – the
fountain taller than the child or the peach tree in the patio.
The latter example shows the importance of childhood in the process of intimisation. The
end of the "good old days" starts with the end of childhood (Amiotte-Suchat and Floux, 2002).
Informants were nostalgic of what they had known as children, or what their parents and
grandparents had known knew and told them – "I don’t know but I’ve been told that…" As such,
they inscribed this bygone time in a fixed temporality and they referred to their childhood as a
representative moment of this mythic past. Young informants as well as younger ones – such as
Jawad – tended to embellish the time of their childhood. Herzfeld (2005) shows this "longing for
the past" passes on through generations. "Structural nostalgia" is a rhetoric nostalgia reproduced
from generation to generation and opposes a virtuous past (a simple and healthy life driven by love,
generosity, and respect) to an egoistic present.
The notion of intimisation also sheds light on the intimate relation between human actors
and the thing they appropriate. In this context, intimisation is a double opportunity to affect the
object and to be affected by the object. Ruth openly declared that the house called her and
bewitched her when she purchased it. Afterwards, the house made her suffer during the restoration
works. Ruth was affected by the house, as she affected the house by undertaking major restoration
works in it. When informants considered senses and affects as competences, skills, and abilities to
give attention to through an experience, they stressed the mutual influence between objects and
human actors. Human actors have to meet objects to have their skills developed and upgraded.
Affects then lies at the coupling of perception and action (or movement) and are at the base of
skilled practices (Ingold, 2011).
Aside from their participation to the process of intimisation, senses and affects play a role in
the qualification of an object as heritage. According to Berliner (2012: 771), nostalgia is "a set of
publicly displayed discourses, practises and emotions where the ancient is somehow glorified" and
"a major force driving force in heritage-making."151 Dassié (2006) investigate the "patrimonial
action by empathy" that occurred after a storm in the Park of Versailles. A feeling of "loss by proxy"
151 Berque (2010) also underlines the importance of nostalgia that he calls the "thirst for nature" in the case of the
qualification of the environment as landscape.
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became a federative emotion and resulted in a collective mobilisation.152 In Fez, this discourse of
sharing pain is obvious among foreigners when they lamented the loss of know-how and the
collapsing of houses or when they compareed the situation in Fez to what happened in their own
country – i.e. the lack of interest of Moroccans in their heritage and the decay of monuments in
France in the 1970s.
Some informants used nostalgia in their heritage action in the present and for the future.153
The sensual and affective attachment to their house may give rise to a care for preservation, which
contradict the usual denial of heritage skills allocated to non-experts. The old women asking Kate
not to "do anything crazy with it [i.e. the house]," the disappointment of David and Fettah about
their preservation actions, the complaints about the disappearance of know-how are among
examples of care for the preservation of houses. Also, members of the Ministry of Tourism base
their discourses on the past Golden Age of Fez in order to attract tourists and to promote Fez as a
cultural and spiritual capital of Morocco. Organisers of the Sacred Music Festival also play on
nostalgia when announcing a special night of Andalus music in the medina to make this music
resonates in houses "as it was before." Tayyibi and Laïla Skalli, two Moroccan architects, plead for
the use of traditional knowledge in earth architecture to built ecological houses in cities. Foreigners
restore their house "in its original state."
The sensual and affective relations with houses also question the usual opposition between
experts and non-experts. For instance, World Heritage policies, and heritage policies in general,
focus on technical aspects – which techniques and materials to use in the preservation of such
element of heritage –, on economic aspects – project of preservation aiming at alleviating poverty –
or on political aspects – principles of good governance and participation of local populations in the
implemented projects of preservation. Their integrated policies and strategies miss both the sensory
and the affective aspects of heritage, considering them as unimportant. But contrary to what Heinich
(2009) asserts about the absence of affects in the work of experts – assertion Tornatore (2010)
nuances by characterising the work of experts as a game between detachment and involvement –
experts do have affects (cf. supra p. 212). I then argue that, in affective and sensual terms, houses –
taken as heritage or not – constitute a common focus of attention to experts, non-experts, autodidact
experts, Moroccans and foreigners.
Collins (2008) even speaks of a collective redemption through heritagisation and the emotions linked to the entry of
an element in a state of exception.
153 On the other hand, in his novel The City of Brass, Jouiti criticises nostalgia and the recall of the past in the building
and the promotion of modern and global Arab cities and argued the global city cannot be a city from the past because
this latter doesn't exist. The city of the past is nothing but an imagined one, a living myth that encloses Moroccans in the
walls of nostalgia, and produces "cities that functions as imprisoning architectures of memory" (Pieprzak, 2007: 190).
The fixation on the past, more than poverty, closes future opportunities.
152
244
Finally, senses and affects instigate the development of knowledge to both experts and nonexperts. The love for the house pushes informants to look for information about heir house, and the
memories invite owners to tell anecdotes. This relationship between affects and knowledge is
obvious in Milton's (2002) view. Knowledge doesn't come from the transmission of mental
representations but from a capacity to treat the environment as a source of information. In this
context, emotions constitute "devices to help us discover what the world is like" (Milton 2002: 59).
Emotions help focusing the attention on something particular in the environment, and they affect
the treatment of information and its impact on memory and knowledge. Milton thus links affects,
valuation and knowledge in the way human actors engage with their environment.
However senses and affects don't automatically and necessarily lead to heritage (Dassié,
2006). I defend the idea whereby the senses, affects, qualities, justifications and actions are possible
components in the actualisation of heritage. On the basis of this assertion, I shed light on the
continuum between houses and heritage, following what James (1979) calls the conjunctive
relations or continuous transition. For instance, informants mentioned a sensual relation with both
heritage – the sounds of gushing water in the street, smells in the medina – and houses – touching
the mosaic, seeing the beauty of the house. Also, in the second section, I underlined the
characteristics informants associated with heritage in Fez. Ubiquity was a first characteristic, for
heritage is everywhere in the medina. Informants also spoke of scarcity, as heritage is unique and
exceptional. At the same time, heritage is typical of the city, of the Arab-Andalus style. Authenticity
appeared when informants mentioned the link with origins, identity and the entirety of heritage in
Fez. This entirety is close to a characteristic of life, for heritage in Fez is still alive and is
characterised by a specific spirit. Informants also mentioned spirituality, beauty, and oldness. Some
informants mentioned the expertise needed for heritage-making, under the form of knowledge, rules
to observe and necessary distance. Finally, they stressed the transmission and the cost of heritage
preservation.
When talking about houses-as-home, informants mentioned some similar qualities. Houses
are alive. Gigi underlined the exceptionality of her house. Amal declared her house was heritage
because of its location in the medina. Hassan insisted on the respect of the rules during the
construction works. Others underlined the typicality of their house or its authenticity. The economic
quality was also brought up as houses cost a lot, and materials to restore them are expensive. Fettah
mentioned the spiritual quality with the example of fountains or architecture partly explained by
religious reasons. Moroccan inhabitants also mentioned the transmission of the house as a familial
heritage. The list of shared criteria shows that the house-as-home doesn't exclude the house-as-
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heritage. A building can be qualified at once or through time as a home and as a heritage, an
individual can at once see in his house a home and/or a heritage.
The "home" quality is however not similar to the "heritage" quality allocated to a house – in
the sense of building. Both are inscribed in different bundles of qualities.154 Also, what
distinguishes the house-as-home and the house-as-heritage is a plus of attention.155 Some
informants qualified their house as heritage because of its oldness but Jawad declared that "Moulay
Idriss [i.e. the main shrine] is 12 centuries old. My house is less than a century old. It is not the
same." Abdelaziz, a Morocco-French guest-house owner, also took oldness to distinguish his houseas-home from heritage buildings. "The neighbouring house is a ruin. Some three years ago, there
were elements of heritage inside, such as painted wood ceilings. They were more than 200 years
old. But in my house, in terms of heritage? I don't know. It is a 70 or 80 year-old house only..."
Abdelaziz added a distinction based on spirituality. "The Bouanania [i.e. a Koranic school] is a
beautiful building, but I couldn't live in it. I'm not interested in living in a museum. […] The
Bouanania is very loaded historically. The gabs [i.e. carved plasters] are wonderful and they carry
something through time. But our palace doesn't carry much except the quality of the work realised
less than 100 years ago by talented craftsmen. But there is nothing sacred or religious in this
building."
Heritage is not a supra quality but is distinguished from a home by a "something more" than
a home quality, by a different attention given to the house. I then formulated the hypothesis
whereby the plus leading to heritage generally comes from the association of affects of loss,
disappearance or threat; qualities related to time (oldness, tradition), purity (authenticity) and the
object (its scarcity or typicality); and actions or justifications of preservation and transmission. This
by no way lists the ingredients for heritage to appear, but it gathers what informants mentioned most
when talking of and acting around heritage. None of them is specific to heritage or is enough for
heritage to blossom. For instance, a feeling of disappearance is not enough, as about 8 houses
collapse per year in the medina, and Moroccans do not make them, or houses in decay, into a
heritage. However, they shed light on how inhabitants come to qualify houses as heritage.
154 As the theoretical overview in the introduction suggests, qualities of houses-as-home rather relate to sheltering,
providing security, being furnished and decorated among others.
155 Berque (2010) rathers speaks of a different ability to taste the sensitive occurrences. Taking the specific example of
landscape, he focus on this taste that consists in giving a price to what has no price to what those who cannot see as
landscape. As such, human beings actively participate to the realisation of landscape : he must have the proper taste to
bring the emotion or affect realted to the judgement of beauty.
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6.
Heritage as a fiction
6.1. Introduction
"I don't know what this means. I don't think it means anything."
Vedder from the music band Pearl Jam when they received the Grammy Awards for
Best Hard Rock Performance in 1996
In the fourth section, I showed that houses are not always heritage. In the preceding section,
I investigated how houses may indeed become heritage. In the present section, I focus on what
heritage actually is in Fez, for heritage is something, and even many things, in this city. Fez is a city
in which many heritage objects, discourses and practices spread out and circulate in their own style.
Up to now, I focused on houses-as-heritage. I also evoked the World Heritage label, heritage as an
argument in conflicts or in the promotion of the city, heritage as a definition and a category among
members of institutions, heritage as an object of research for scholars. But how do we make sense
of these various heritages?
In order to explain the different definitions of and involvement with heritage, some scholars
refer to the concept of dissonant heritage (Tunbridge and Ashworth, 1996; Bruce and Creighton,
2006). Sharing this idea of different values and meanings allocated to heritage but reducing the
inherent dissonance, Tornatore (2000) defines heritage as a "boundary object"156 linking different
worlds and leading either to the cooperation between or to conflicts between them. Chevallier
(2003) for his part talks of various kinds of heritagisation, namely conservation,157 appropriation,158
and revivals or revitalisations.159 Another solution to make senses of the multiplicity of heritage is
to define it as a "flagship word"160 (Perelman, 1989), a buzzword, a catchword or an "empty
concept"161 (Boyer, 1986) that informants seem unable to define but that scholars assume to refer to
specific phenomena.
I, in turn, wonder rather which content heritage takes in situation. Based on Boltanski and
156
Boundary objects are "objects which are both plastic enough to adapt to local needs and the constraints of the several
parties employing them, yet robust enough to maintain a common identity across sites" (Star and Griesemer, 1989: 393).
157
The change in the status of an object thought designation, authentication and appropriation of an object as heritage.
158
The implementation of specific preservation processes for heritage to become a tool in the development of a territory.
159
The inclusion of an element of heritage in the contemporary market and/or cultural economy.
160
Muddled notions such as justice, pleasure or beauty that have the power to sketch and induce ideals (Perelman,
1989).
161
According to Boyer (id.), these empty concepts are found in common discourses – under the form of general and
abstract assertions – in gossips – under the form of singular cases – and in specialists' discourses – under the form of
statements linking general principles and singular cases. In Fez, the "empty concept" of heritage is present in these three
kinds of discourses. Moroccan inhabitants speak of heritage in the street, many inhabitants associate UNESCO with a
myth and members of institutions are busy with heritage.
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Thévenot's (1991) notion of worlds and on Latour's (2012) notion of mode of existence, I refer to
the notion of form as what remains similar through a succession of transformations and circulations
between localised situations (Latour, id.). I then draw a repertory of forms of heritage I encountered
in Fez. This repertory leads to the hypothesis of heritage as a fiction – the "heritage fiction". This
fiction allows asserting that there is something like heritage, a spirit of heritage,162 which differs
from two other relations with the past and presences of the past in the present, namely memory and
history. It also gives room to the numerous terms meaning heritage in various languages –
patrimoine, héritage, heritage, patrimony, legacy, warth, turāth, athār – without giving the
precedence of one over the others. Finally, the heritage fiction encompasses the forms of heritage.
Each form of heritage is distinct but all of them share the similar features that compose the
contemporary heritage fiction. This fiction is not finite and written in stone, it is not ontologically
stabilised.
I shall finish this section by describing the circulation and the anchorage of the heritage
fiction in specific situations. This fiction, once it is fixed in a medium – label, tool, listed site, house
– is being circulated – by the media, the work of experts, written texts – and anchors in other
situations through a translation or a qualification process. This description opens the question of the
local and the global through the notions of circulation and anchorage. I then argue that the local and
the global are qualities of what is located and framed in situations in the first case, and what is
intensively circulated in the second case.
162
Heritage is not an exclusive word and I do not aim to defend one definition or one meaning of the word. I rather use
the word "heritage" to refer to a kind of "spirit of heritage" and its indeterminate content when it not anchored in a
situation.
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6.2.
Various forms of heritage163
6.2.1.
Heritage as an object to preserve
Numerous international campaigns of heritage preservation took place in Fez (UNESCO in
1985, UNDP in 1992, World Bank in 1996, Millenium Challenge Corporation in 2010) alongside
many conferences – among the most recent ones, "Valorisation du patrimoine culturel de la
méditerranée" ("Promotion of the Mediterranean Cultural Heritage") in January 2013, "La médina
de Fès, 30 ans après l'inscription sur la liste du Patrimoine Mondial" ("The Fez medina, 30 years
after its nomination on the World Heritage list") in May 2011, "Fonctions et usages du patrimoine :
leçons du terrain" (Functions and uses of heritage: lessons from the field") in November 2011, or
"Rencontre internationale Fès 2003 : patrimoine et développement durable dans les centres
historiques urbains" ("International Meeting Fez 2003: heritage and sustainable development in
urban historical centres") in December 2003.
Preservation is also at the core of a wide debate about the terminology to use. In the third
section (cf. supra p.102), I mentioned that informants used several terms – such as renovation,
restoration, rehabilitation, preservation, conservation, and improvement – to speak of the works
they undertook in their house. To this, one could add protection, safeguard, or renewal. Each term is
connected to a different idea of the kind of work to carry out, the techniques and the materials to
use. Furthermore, informants did not agree on a unique definition or a unique way to undertake
works. I evoked the debates about the use of concrete and cement in the construction works (cf.
supra p. 104). I gave voice to the opposed view of work undertaking between Moroccan builder
workers – who redo structures and buildings identically – and foreigners – who insist on the
importance of patina and age.
Another main topic related to heritage as an object to preserve is the listing of the causes of
degradation. Many informants mentioned the river under Fez as a major cause in the degradation of
houses and some added an earthquake as a possible disaster for the city. Tayyibi, the former ENA
director, and his Facebook friends tried to find people responsible for the decay and the lack of
action. They listed human actors – e.g. politicians, inhabitants and rural migrants –, historical
features – e.g. Protectorate, rural exodus – and general reasons – e.g. modernity and contemporary
architecture – to account for the decay. In their view, "[d]ecision-makers have to be aware of the
value of heritage and to increase the number of restoration and rehabilitation actions." Sometimes,
they criticised a specific institution. "What a misery! Is ADER in charge of it?" or "Ouch, but what
163
In this chapter, I also base my descriptions on writings (academic articles, reports, books) and on websites about Fez.
249
is UNECO doing? I thought Fez was a World Heritage for humanity! UNESCO can gather money
and appoint responsible and aware people to restore those poor houses!" Finally, Facebook friends
accused architects. As one put it, "I always wonder about the role of architects in the preservation of
heritage, because what matters, ultimately, is real and concrete action."
In the 1992 UNDP report about the safeguard of the Fez medina, the authors identify
physical and social causes of heritage degradation in the medina. Physical causes concern problems
with regards to foundations, excessive weight on a wall or a pillar, and dampness due to rainwater,
leaking sewing pipes or water used for domestic purposes. The lack of interest and money of
Moroccan inhabitants constitute the main social causes of degradation. On the basis of these
statements, the authors recommend various actions such as the bolstering of structures to reinforce
bearing elements and/or the rehabilitation of woodwork, pipes and, water and electricity supplies. In
their view, only major works on the surface of the house have to do with heritage – except in
heritage houses in which any work is of a heritage-sensitive nature. The authors finally assert that
the safeguard involves the improvement of access to the medina, the test of the project in a
reference zone, the rehabilitation of traditional buildings and houses, the transfer of polluting
activities outside the city walls, the improvement of public services and amenities, a better
organisation of institutions, and the restoration of historic heritage. All the elements – houses,
economic and craft activities, road design – are intertwined, which makes the safeguard more
complex and involves a strong organisation, clear information, specific and accurate aims,
awareness and consultation.
Heritage maintenance is supposed to be a concern and a practice of experts such as
architects and archaeologists. The idea of a necessary knowledge in order to undertake a proper
preservation reinforces this relationship between preservation and experts. In Fez, the numerous
reports edited by UNESCO, the UNDP and the World Bank are typical of this trend of heritage
preservation which firstly involves the gathering of information about the monument to preserve
and its surrounding, and secondly the recommendation of actions as to how to preserve it properly.
As such, the work of the Inspector of Historical Monuments and his team, geared toward the respect
of rules and the preservation of the structure and the architectural elements of houses, is inscribed in
this form of heritage. Sometimes, these experts bypass the definition of heritage and focus on the
restoration process instead. In the 1999 report on the restoration of Dar Adiyel (i.e. a palace in Fez),
the word "heritage" is taken-for-granted and the authors focus on the organisation, the funding, the
techniques and the success of the restoration work. The use of local know-how and materials, the
respect of norms and works done by the book, the cooperation between Morocco and Italy are
presented as key elements in the success of this project.
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More generally, sciences of preservation obviously aim at reproducing heritage in time.
They focus on the perpetuation and inheritance of heritage elements through preservation and
transmission. As such, they try to avoid the disappearance of these elements.
6.2.2.
Heritage as a daily object
Heritage is present in the form of houses. To Moroccans, the house is at best a familial
heritage transmitted through legacy. This kind of inheritance is somehow similar in the World
Heritage site of Chichén Itzà in Mexico (Breglia, 2005). This site is the "family business" of Maya
guards. "[T]rough the inheritance of job positions in the zone, the antiguos [i.e. Maya guards] have,
in a sense, kept this World Heritage in the family."
Indigenous people, by their presence and their occupation, then play a role in the production
and the reproduction of heritage even if they do not see it as such. As Gigi said, "we are inside, we
are integrated with it [i.e. heritage]!" Buob (2009) also points out the gap between the heritage
discourse about coppers – typical craft-making objects such as teapots – and the daily work of
coppers in Fez. He aims to investigate and record the coppers' knowledge and know-how, noticing
that coppers do not match with the image of traditional Moroccan craftsmen. They widely use
mechanical techniques, practice sub-contracting, and suffer from the division of labour and its
flexibility. In other words, coppers generally hold a limited knowledge and know-how and content
themselves with repeating the same task every day. They are a far cry from considering their work
as one of heritage preservation.
Following Fabre (2009) and Latour (2012), one could say that habits create continuity in the
courses of action, veil some affordances and qualities – the heritage quality among them – of things
surrounding human actors, and reduce the attention given to the environment. Only works to
undertake – or any trial – remind inhabitants they have to give attention to their house. As such,
they provide a feeling of immanence. Houses in the medina appear to have always been there, even
the more recent ones. In their discourses, inhabitants date the oldness of the medina to 1200 years.
In the view of many inhabitants', no major change has happened since then. Houses are old – 1200
year-old – or new – less than 100 year-old. Also, the entire history of architecture is reduced to the
typical Arab-Andalus or Merinid style.
6.2.3.
Heritage as an object of research
Scholars in the social sciences face the problem of a difficult – or impossible – definition of
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heritage (Lowenthal, 1998; Smith, 2006), due to its proliferation, the rising number of heritage
categories, and the extension in time and space of the elements it includes. It doesn't prevent
scholars – and other professionals of heritage and culture – to undertake researches and to think
about heritage. As a Tayyibi's Facebook friend stressed, "rebuilding heritage involves knowing the
techniques, details, knowledge. It is more a matter of art than of architecture. It is a matter of
sociology, anthropology and history. It is a matter of reading books, of being at the same time an
artist and an intellectual, not only an artist or an expert, but also an intellectual. It is a matter of
looking for former techniques, encouraging the repetition of the same ways and gestures. With this,
love and perseverance, we'll manage to preserve the soul of houses."
This intellectual work has been partly done in Fez. The Protectorate period (1912-1956) was
an intense time of collecting knowledge and know-how in order to preserve them in museums and
writings (cf. supra p. 35). The Indigenous Arts Department showed to be very active in this task.
One of its directors, Prosper Ricard (1920-1935) presented himself as the Savior of the Moroccan
traditional art. The journal Hepéris collected (and still does) ethnographic researches about crafts
and their history, their techniques and their social context. In 1926, Galloti wrote Le Jardin et la
maison arabe au Maroc with the aim of preserving this architecture. The photographer Vogel and
the architect Laprade helped him in this undertaking. Terrasse and Hainaut (2006 [1924]), for their
part, rather focused on decorative arts in Morocco.
More recently, Revault, Golvin and Amahan (1985, 1989, 1992) published three books
dedicated to the traditional architecture and the famous houses in Fez while Paccard (1981) wrote
about traditional architectural decorations. Buob (2009) focuses on coppers and the manufacture of
copper and brass object through the paradigmatic example of the tea set. McGuinness and Mouhli
(2012) investigate the restoration of patio houses in the medina and McGuinness (2010) sheds light
on the Fez Sacred Music Festival. Girard (2006a, 2006b) studies the link between crafts and tourism
on the one hand, and crafts and the French Protectorate on the other. Skalli (2007) writes about the
Sufi tradition in Fez and in Morocco more generally. Bouziane, El Maliki and Hakik (2010)
investigate the perceptions and knowledge Moroccans have of their heritage and I myself focus on
the way people inhabit houses in a World Heritage site.
6.2.4.
Heritage as a definition and a category
Heritage experts aim to make sense of the cascades of acts, events, discourses about
heritage. To this end, they establish definitions and categories – immutable mobiles in Latour's
(1999) words – that are formalised and stabilised in their writings. As a consequence, categories and
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definitions may circulate and remain constant from one site to the other, from one situation to the
other. These immutable mobiles don't refer to any particular case but they allow for the correlation
of remote places and times.
The 1972 Convention concerning the Protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage,
and the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention offer
examples of stable definitions and categories of heritage. In order to be listed, a cultural site must fit
one of these three main categories and satisfy at least one of the 6 cultural criteria as well as to meet
the qualities of authenticity and integrity. These criteria and qualities are described in the
Operational Guidelines. The 1972 Convention distinguishes three cultural heritage categories,
namely monuments, groups of buildings, and sites. Each of them is defined in the first article of the
1972 Convention.164 The main category of "groups of buildings" includes the subclass of urban
centres, which is itself divided into dead city (archaeological sites), living historic city, and new city
of the 20th century. And among living historic cities, we find the city with an evolution feature
(witness of successive steps in the history) and historical centres (old city included in a modern
city). Fez belongs to the latter category.
In Fez, Hassan works with official categories of houses and of heritage as published by
UNESCO – cultural and natural heritage, tangible and intangible heritage – or by the Ministry of
Culture. For instance, the Moroccan laws 22-80 and 19-05 modified by the dahir 1-06-102 define
what can be listed as natural or cultural heritage. Also, the second volume of the 1981 Master Plan
defines 7 categories of heritage objects in the medina, namely shrines, dwellings (palaces, ryad,
houses), funduk (caravanserai), the traditional water supply, green spaces (gardens, orchards), the
urban landscape (streets, squares) and the city walls. In the report about the restoration of the palace
Dar Adiyel (Touri, Hassani and Barbato, 1999), the authors mention that the medina is a World
Heritage site and they evoke tropes of this listing which are being taken-for-granted. Fez is an
imperial city, a spiritual city, a museum city, a lively city, an intellectual city, a jewel of Muslim
culture. The palace is defined as a cultural heritage because of its beauty and its architectural
specificity – it belongs to the Merinid style even if it was built at the end of the 17th century and
integrates architectural elements of that century, such as a very simple architectural decoration.
164
"monuments: architectural works, works of monumental sculpture and painting, elements or structures of an
archaeological nature, inscriptions, cave dwellings and combinations of features, which are of outstanding universal
value from the point of view of history, art or science; groups of buildings: groups of separate or connected buildings
which, because of their architecture, their homogeneity or their place in the landscape, are of outstanding universal
value from the point of view of history, art or science; sites: works of man or the combined works of nature and man,
and areas including archaeological sites which are of outstanding universal value from the historical, aesthetic,
ethnological or anthropological point of view" (Article 1).
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6.2.5.
Legal heritage
Lawyers develop means to talk about facts, to fill the distance with specific cases and
occurrences. Also, the legal discourse doesn't aim to instigate empathy with victims or at the
objective truth but at linking facts – e.g. a preservation project – to principles – e.g. property. In Fez,
and in Morocco more generally, the Ministry of culture is responsible for the establishment and the
respect of laws related to heritage. The same law 22-80 specifies the procedure to list a building as a
national heritage and it formulates the consequences of this listing. For instance, a listed building
cannot be demolished or modified without the authorisation of public authorities. Moreover, public
authorities have to fund any work deemed useful or necessary to the preservation of a listed
building. For instance, in March 2013, King Mohammed VI signed two conventions initiating
programmes of preservation in Fez. The Moroccan government will allocate 285.5 million Dh
(about 25.5 million €) for the rehabilitation of historical buildings and 330 million Dh (about 30
million €) for the treatment of houses threatened with ruin.
These works undertaken by public authorities and international organisations raise the
question of expropriation. In Fez, the Millennium Challenge Corporation project dedicated to
caravanserai includes a programme of land settlement and relocation – headed by Moroccan scholar
Ahmed Bouziane.165 Catherine Rochant, the French architect leading this project, underlined the
importance of this study defining the people to relocate and to indemnify. She also stressed that this
programme was based on relocation rules as defined by the World Bank. Without these rules, there
would have been simple expropriations following the Moroccan law. The 1992 UNDP report also
raised the issue of expropriation on the basis of public utility, which exists in Morocco in the
context of the promotion of rural lands and in the case of tourist promotion. But there is nothing in
the law concerning expropriation in the case of the safeguard and the rehabilitation of old cities
except a general legislation (dahir 6/05/1982) that involves a long procedure and the rules of
urbanism (dahir 31/07/1952). In both cases, expropriation concerns any real estate property except
religious, public and military buildings as well as cemeteries.
Within the civil society,166 Moroccan architects, doctors, journalists, and collectors created
the association Casamémoire in 1995. It aims to legally safeguard the cultural heritage of the 20th
century in Morocco and in Casablanca more specifically. For instance, the association organises a
heritage day once a year167 and on-demand architectural visits of Casablanca. It participates to
165
This document is available in French on
http://www.app.ma/uploads/pdf/ENVIRONNEMENT/AFM/PAR%20Version%20finale.pdf
166
Understood as the social civil life organised voluntarily and independently from the State.
167
http://youtu.be/jbg8evxG7-w for a video about the 2012 heritage day in Casablanca.
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public events such as the Tango Fest in order to raise the awareness of the public opinion, the
politicians and the social workers. It also promotes restoration and rehabilitation works – Les
abattoirs fabrique culturelle de Casa is one example – and participates to academic research.
In Fez, the Moroccan Foundation for Culture and Arts Hadj Abdelkarim Raiss was created
in 1999 following the death of Hadj Abdelkarim Raiss, a famous Arab-Andalus music player.
According to its current director Mohamed Debbagh, the foundation aims to develop scientific
research about artistic heritage and to promote any association interested in Andalus cultural and
artistic heritage. The foundation participates to the organisation of the Andalus Music Festival in
Fez. This private initiative is inscribed in the cultural right of access to and use of heritage as
defined by the United Nations168 and relates to cultural citizenship (Albro, 2005).
The relation between cultural or human rights and heritage interests Meskell (2010: 839)
who asserts that "applying a framework of universal human rights to resolve heritage conflicts"
raises more problems – such as higher expectations from heritage – than it solves. About the World
Bank "Fez Medina Rehabilitation Project" (1998-2005), Lafrenz Samuels (2010) argues that linking
the human right of poverty reduction and heritage preservation may be fraught. She notices a
slippage between rehabilitating buildings and rehabilitating people. In the World Bank final report,
medina inhabitants became responsible for the degradation of the medina and members of
institution for the failure of the project. Poverty in Morocco became a local problem without any
link to the broader political economy structure. Also, according to Radoine (2003), dealing with
heritage through the poverty lens won't solve the problem of poverty itself, as it treats the
consequences and not the roots of poverty. Poverty should be treated in its own area.
Aside from poverty alleviation, Lafrenz Samuels (id.) focuses on the link between property
regimes and cultural property. She shows that the World Heritage apparatus attenuates or rejects
alternative property regimes, such as the Habous (i.e. public goods belonging to the Ministry of
Religious Endowments). This issue of property is an interesting topic in Fez because of the variety
of property regimes. According to the UNDP (1992), about 80% of the buildings in the medina are
melk (i.e. private property), about 9% are Habous, and about 5% are undivided properties. These
various property regimes relate to different safeguard and restoration rules. The Ministry of
Religious Endowments is in charge of Habous goods (and nobody can oblige them to restore one of
their building) while private owners fall under the official rules of urbanism.
Aside from this issue of buildings' property, the nomination on the World Heritage list raises
the question of the medina's property. Is the medina a "global public good" (Kaul et al., 1999), that
168
In Morocco, the amazigh language and its use in education, media and public life, the creation of museums, the
promotion of crafts are among the cultural rights to heritage as mentioned in a UN report after a mission in 2012
(http://www.ohchr.org/Documents/HRBodies/HRCouncil/RegularSession/Session20/A-HRC-20-26-Add2_en.pdf)
255
is to say a good that is non-exclusive in its consumption (the World Heritage sites benefits various
consumers), non-perishable (its consumption doesn't lead to its disappearance, as long as a
modicum of maintenance is enforced), whose positive and negative externalities cross borders,
generations and populations? Is the medina, because of the World Heritage nomination, because of
the presence of foreigners – be they residents, experts or tourists – because of its sustainability, a
global public good? While I do not have sufficient information to answer it, I argue this question is
of prime interest for a better management of World Heritage sites.
Finally, Hassan raised the issue of the legality of the 1972 World Heritage Convention. In his
view, "there are no UNESCO policies. It is a convention. It is very limited. In fact, UNESCO is not
supposed to intervene directly. It comes to give its opinion about the changes or transformations in a
place. It is an association authorised to stake over some problems. But UNESCO doesn't intervene
through policies. And the reason is very simple. Its policy, if I may say, that is to say the Convention
of World Heritage, is binding on any signatory country. All the states that have signed the
convention have to implement and respect it."
UNESCO and other international bodies such as the Council of Europe or the Aga Khan
Trust, publish conventions and recommendations. None of these legal documents have the value of
law. Countries that ratify a convention have the moral engagement to respect and conform to the
convention, while recommendations are only general principles that countries are free to follow or
not. World Heritage sites are "global" by their nomination on a list, but the nation-state remains the
base of their production and management. The matters at stake then concern an efficient policy to
control those goods, as well as a jurisdictional gap between national and international policies,
between national policies and international issues.
6.2.6.
Heritage as development tool
Heritage is frequently used in development projects, mainly through tourism.169 In Morocco,
a specific programme is dedicated to heritage in the new "Vision 2020," the national programme of
tourism development. In Fez, the Ziyarates home-stay programme clearly aims to "ally tourism and
169
Heritage and tourism share several similarities. The emergence of a global concern for heritage conservation aroused
together with the expansion of tourism as an international phenomenon (Peleggi, 2002; Morisset and Dormaels, 2011).
Also, heritage tourism was born after the ‘Grand Tour,’ that is to say the standard itinerary of travel undertaken by
upper-class Europeans in the period from the late seventeenth century until the mid-nineteenth century. Moreover, both
result from the Industrial revolution extend slowly to more and more practices and spaces – the all tourism and the all
heritage – and can be part of the most radical discourses – destructive tourism and heritage as identity. Tourism and
heritage also share a sacred aspect. The three steps defined by Van Gennep in the rite the passage – separation,
marginality and liminality, and coming back – are used to study both tourism (Graburn, 1983) and heritage (Wallace,
2006). Finally, as Lazzaroti (2000) argues, both are linked and share a common system of values, the same movement
of world ordering. For instance, sustainability is at their core.
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human development." To house tourists in the medina could help preserve houses through a modest
income and then allow inhabitants to remain in the medina. Also, the Moroccan President of the
Association of Guest-houses, member of the Regional Tourism Council and owner of two guesthouses, underlined that guest-houses participate to sustainable development, to the preservation of
heritage and to the economic development of the medina, by offering more than 1500 jobs. In his
view, guest-houses are "not a fashion effect, but a rebirth, a conversion." According to an architect
working for the municipality, the development of guest-houses is both positive and negative. It is
positive, because it helps preserving heritage and it is an "economic movement" creating jobs. It is
negative, because it brings speculation and owners sometimes do whatever they want in their house,
such as building swimming pools inside a living room.
Pic. 31. Ziyarates leaftlet
Hassan, a member of the Inspection of Historical Monuments, didn't oppose tourism and
heritage. "The rehabilitation of heritage for tourism is a way to safeguard it. This is what we are
doing with the city walls, and it is important for the city. With their valorisation, with their partial
reconstruction, they constitute an added-value for the city." In his view, "the tourism process should
help the city to survive because this process benefits the population. […] Once [monuments and
houses] have been safeguarded and protected, it is very important to have tourism. […] Tourism
contributes to the local development. It allows people to work. Maybe some projects are not
257
profitable. But among vehicles of local development, there is culture. Tourism and heritage should
be an integrated local development as part of a larger strategy."
Scholars also address the relation between the UNESCO nomination and tourist
development. In Fez, Lahbil-Tagemouati (2008) particularly questions the economic value of the
medina from the perspective of public and private investments. She bases the measure of the
economic value of heritage on the theory of surplus – the difference between what the consumer
pays and what the consumer would agree to pay. She comes to the conclusion that if the medina
heritage has no price, it has a value. Tourists and experts would agree to pay a fee to visit the
medina and preserve this value. Other scholars (Gravari-Barbas and Jacquot, 2008) nonetheless
warn that the link between tourism and heritage is not automatic.170 Although Fez was listed as a
World Heritage site in 1981, but tourism development only really began in the late 1990s.
International institutions also use heritage as a tool in the context of a sustainable
development. Heritage – and culture in general – could help development projects. This is what
Lafrenz Samuels (2010) calls "globalising heritage" because heritage is involved in global projects
mixing the past and social development. This idea follows the 1982 Mondiacult Conference in
Mexico, establishing culture as a central component in development strategies. This link between
heritage and tourism is symptomatic of a change in the manner UNESCO consider tourism (Cousin,
2008). Tourism is not a threat with devastating effects on heritage if it is well managed. The manual
Managing Tourism at World Heritage Sites (Pedersen, 2002) presents sustainable and cultural
tourism as a key solution in heritage management, for it is both an industry with a cost, and a
potential for preservation. The manual also proposes literature, case studies and recommendations
to use tourism as a tool for conservation. UNESCO collaborates with the World Tourism
Organisation (WTO) to develop programmes and with TripAdvisor since 2009 to rank the most
visited sites. Also, in 2008, the World Heritage Centre was awarded with the World Tourism Award.
UNESCO created a UNITWIN network and UNESCO Chair dedicated to Tourism, Culture and
170
The commodification and touristification of heritage and its consequent inauthenticity are at the core of scholars’
interests. On the one hand, they focus on the heritage industry (Hewinson, 1987), which consists in any commercial
activity of good and services around heritage. It is also a utopian escape in the past that prevents from dealing with
present problems, distracts from engaging with the issues of the present. On the other hand, scholars are interested in
the link between heritage and tourism. Di Giovine (2009) investigates the UNESCO heritage system and its link with
tourism. In opposition to the idea heritage and tourism are simply collaborative industries (Kirshenblatt-Gimblett,
1998), he defines tourism and heritage as two global social structures of meaning making for the heritage scape is a
social structure that have real material effects in accordance with UNESCO’s goal of peace making, an imaginative
reordering of the world that exists in the mind of human beings. Di Giovine (id.) takes for granted the link between
World heritage and tourism. Prigent (2011) also asserts that tourism is nowadays the first function of World Heritage
sites and some scholars, such as Girard (2006b), equate tourism development and heritagisation for the relation of
otherness they implement. However, several scholars question this link between heritage and tourism in econometric
(Tallandier, 2008) or comparative (Nicot and Ozdirlik, 2008) studies. The link between heritage and tourism remains
unclear (Gravari-Barbas and Jacquot, 2008), because of the various and complex combinations between listing,
development, heritage and tourism.
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Development. Finally, tourism issues are mentioned in the manual for the nomination applicant.171
The principles of "good governance" and of "participation of local populations" are of prime
importance in international projects using heritage as a development tool. The notion of good
governance was first used by international financial institutions to define the criteria of a good
public administration in developing countries subject to structural adjustment programmes. It is,
according to the UNDP, the basis of development and of a participative, democratic and open
management of public matters. In Fez, the authors of the 1992 UNDP report advise to control and
regulate the actions of safeguard and rehabilitation but also to urge on and to help inhabitants
engage in these actions. One major aim of involving local populations is the durability and the
sustainability of the project and the actions implemented. The actions "One monument, one
sponsor" and "One monument, one architect" held in 1992 were inscribed in this project of raising
awareness and participation of local populations. It was asked of private sponsors to fund the
restoration of a building, and of architects to draw the architectural plans and to control the works
for free. However, according to Lahbil-Tagemouati (2000), the paternalist and centralised
management of the medina by the public authorities prevent inhabitants from being responsible.
Lotfi, a Moroccan living in the New City, asserted that "people are passive instead of
moving their asses." Meriem, a Moroccan architect, also shared this opinion. "People are lacking
personal initiative. Because, I have to say, we are the best at criticising others. But when you say
'Ok, I think we may solve this matter, who is ready for?' Then, you are alone! People have this
culture. It is this idea of Welfare State. The State provides jobs, food, repairs houses... And at the
same time, we want democracy. But our discourse is contradictory. There are two ways: either you
have a guardian taking care of you from A to Z, so you don't have to criticise its job, because he is
the guardian and he knows things better than you. Then, you have a superior entity that governs
you, and you are happy. You are happy and you shut up. Or you have ideas to be the actor of your
life, to change things, to live better, to express what you think. And you act accordingly."
Among recent international projects, the World Bank (2010) "Fez Medina Rehabilitation
Project" (1998-2005) sought to join heritage conservation and poverty reduction by creating jobs
and raising property prices. The idea is that the medina and its buildings "can play a significant role
in expanding tourism revenues by attracting international cultural tourism."172 This $ 27 million
171
"Tourism management is often a major issue for World Heritage properties given the great interest by people in
visiting properties, the potentially large scale of visitation, and the need to provide information about a property as well
as other visitor facilities. The specific effects of World Heritage listing on visitor numbers vary, and should be
specifically anticipated. Tourism management consistent with and sympathetic to the protection, conservation and
management of potential Outstanding Universal Value must be addressed as part of the nomination. In many cases, a
separate tourism management plan is prepared for properties – integrated with the general property management plan or
system. Such tourism management plans must be implemented and effective" (UNESCO, 2011: 91-92)
172 Nonetheless, if "any medina, by definition, deserves rehabilitation, not all of them can claim a trajectory of
259
(about 21 million €) project was supposed to provide a model of heritage preservation and
development, which, once worked out, could be repeated over and over again in other historical
centres. This programme also differed from the UNDP programme in two points (Abry, 2005). The
first is economic. The UNDP conceived the medina like a place of work173 and focused on the
reinforcement of craft and commercial activities. The World Bank reversed the idea, making of
heritage into an investment with an economic and social benefit. The second issue is social. Both
institutions consider the medina as a place of poverty. Within the UNDP programme, public
authorities focused on housing and tried to reduce the population density in the medina. The World
Bank (1995) came up with the idea of population participation and investment enhancement.
However, both the UNDP and the World Bank were concerned with a cultural issue, namely to
make of the medina a tourism destination without turning it into a cultural industry. Finally, the
World Bank programme rested on two main ideas. Firstly, cultural heritage being an essential
component of societies, it is better to use it like a springboard in order for it to not be an obstacle.
The second idea is the link between economy (poverty and tourism), culture (heritage) and
education to develop a city.
This link between tourism and heritage through good governance is not neutral. According
to Lafrenz Samuels (2010), cultural heritage is a major vector for integrating North Africa in the
world economy. International organisations and foreign countries use tourism development as a
means to open up North African countries politically. They promote economic reforms with the
ultimate goal of instigating political changes, such as the neutralisation of Islam in Tunisia. In Fez,
many informants – mainly Moroccans but also some foreign residents – pointed out that major
works in the medina targeted tourists rather than Moroccans. For instance, tourist areas were
painted and a wooden roof protected passersby from the sun, while poor neighbourhoods were yet
to be supplied with running water.
Development projects establish tools – heritage, tourism, good governance – and concrete
actions in order to settle a project and to change a given situation. Their success depends on the
ability of human beings to adapt them to the situation they encounter. However, each project is
different from the other and the implementation of frameworks in different situations may lead to
scattering and cause resistance or to 'disneylandisation' – the oblivion of heritage in favour of
tourism.
sustainable local development via cultural tourism. For the purpose of identifying the required characteristics, the World
Bank proposes the Medina Tourism Potential Index, as a useful operational check-list."
173
The medina provides the whole city with half of the jobs, even if most of them are in the informal sector (Fejjal,
1991).
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6.2.7.
Heritage as a label
Heritage may be a label – the result of an official nomination that fits criteria – used to assert
a position or to promote a site. Labels constitute a guarantee, a strong argument in the promotion of
tourism. The authentication of heritage by experts diminishes the risk of dissatisfaction the visitor
may feel, since he doesn't know the real quality of the site before visiting it (Morisset and
Dormaels, 2011). Florent (2011) defends the idea whereby the list of World Heritage is aimed to
protect and promote heritage while the World Heritage label is used as a commercial argument.
However, the heritage label is not a major element in the promotion of the city of Fez. Few
tourist accommodation owners mention in their promotional website that their house is located in a
World Heritage site. Also, the logo "Smile, you are in Fez" promoting the city since 2012, has no
reference to culture or heritage. A British tourist in a guest-house was disappointed by this fact.
"Funny, not exactly what I expected from one of the Western hemisphere's oldest cultural and
intellectual centre. In its rivalry with Marrakech, is Fez becoming Disneyfied?"
Pic. 32. Logo "Smile you are in Fez" on a wall in Boujloud square.
Credit: M. Istasse
"Fès, Capitale Mondiale de la Culture et de la Civilisation"174 ("Fez, World Capital of
Culture and Civilisation") is a 8-minute movie shot in 2009 by the Regional Council of Tourism
(CRT). It promotes Fez as a tourist destination. The first part of the movie shows general views of
the medina, craftsmen, people walking in the street, tanneries. There is no comment, only zither
music. After 2.15 minutes, the tourism promotion of the city starts. A voice-over presents the
advantages of Fez and the goals of the city's public authorities. "The Government, the local
authorities, the elected body and professionals are involved in making of Fez, this living millenary
museum, this authentic destination, this city of cultural and spiritual encounters, a high place of
tourism."
174
http://youtu.be/ipdTzYclTlA
261
Generally, the institutions promoting tourism rather refer to the features of the city, which
are by the same token the criteria of the nomination. The websites visitfes.org (managed by CRT)
and visitmorocco.com (managed by the Ministry of Tourism) describe Fez as a spiritual and cultural
capital hosting the first university in the Arab World, as the most ancient town in Morocco, as a
place of exchange between cultures characterised by the quality of its craft industry, as well as a
huge pedestrian area. Fez is also famous for its talented craftsmen as lauded in the description of
"Secret Fez" by the Ministry of Tourism (cf. figure). The TripAdvisor website presents Fez as a
World Heritage site bringing tourists back in the Middle-Ages and famous for its typically
Moroccan mosaic. Pictures in these websites mainly show the tanneries, general views on the
medina, and craftworks such as mosaic.
Fig. 3. Secret Fès
http://visitmorocco.com/index.php/eng/content/view/
full/374
Only the Fez PDRT (Regional Programme of Tourism Development) put heritage at the core
of its projects, starting with the cover of its leaflet. According to this PDRT, heritage represents 47%
of the cultural resources in Fez (museums, cultural festivals, historical buildings, gates, fountains).
However, the PDRT mentions that these resources are of a limited interest – bad infrastructures, no
promotion – compared to Marrakech.
262
Fig. 4. Fez PDRT cover
The label of heritage is clearly present as a justification, as an authority supporting a
decision or a position in a conflict.175 For instance, members of the Inspection of Historical
Monuments and members of the municipality use it to support different – or opposite – actions of
preservation. The municipality allows the use of reinforced concrete in the medina by referring to
the fact that UNESCO agreed to its use in the rebuilding of a minaret in Meknes. The Inspection
refers to UNESCO to avoid the use of modern materials such as reinforced concrete. Conflicts may
also involve other justifications, such as security or development (cf. supra p. 206).
Members of the civil society also refer to heritage to assert their ideas. A Facebook Group
named "Tous pour Fès ville sans bois"176 ("All for Fez, a city without wood") fights against shoring
in the medina because houses still collapse and people die. In their view, wooden shores are not a
secure solution. They shot a short movie177 to pay tribute to the victims of collapsed houses. The 23
members of this group assert that public servants are guilty of an organised crime against Fez.
"Lives, memories, history and heritage die everyday. We safeguard our heritage with wood [stays].
What is the result? Houses collapse, people die and are injured, and heritage is lost."
Finally, heritage as a label also creates unity and may support an idea of community. Many
informants underlined the advantages of the heritage label. According to Hassan, the medina is a
label that "mobilises everybody for the safeguarding, not only in Morocco. Everybody in the world.
[…] It is a label, an opportunity for the city to gather efforts to preserve its heritage." Also, the press
articles and the news-reports invited everybody in the world to participate and attend to the 1200th
anniversary of Fez in 2008. Journalists described the creation of Fez like the moment when the
unity between peoples and its rich diversity were forged. However, the celebrations failed to
175
Berliner (2010) and Herzfled (1991) shed light on this use of the label of heritage in justification processes in other
heritage sites.
176
http://www.facebook.com/groups/72696972618/
177
http://youtu.be/LvhiC4UJKYohttp://youtu.be/N5SPiVRIO98
263
achieve this unifying goal, as Moroccan elites and foreigners composed the majority of the public.
More generally, the World Heritage nomination inscribes a site in a unity through
keywords.178 These keywords relates to:
•
what UNESCO promotes – e.g. peace, diversity, dialogue between cultures and civilisations,
heritage, universal brotherhood;
•
how the goals have to be promoted – e.g. preservation of heritage, education and training,
research and science;
•
criteria determining heritage – e.g. universal value, integrity, exceptionality;
•
categories of heritage – e.g. natural and cultural, landscapes, group of buildings.
These ways of unity-making are at the same time inclusive – i.e. they define a community – and
exclusive – i.e. they exclude those who do not care for it, or those who care in a bad way – i.e.
unskilled medina inhabitants. Nielsen (2011) presents the culture as used by UNESCO as a "right
kind of culture" that is not so tolerant with regards to cultures that do not respect Human Rights.
Maurel (2004) is interested in UNESCO's drawing of cultural borders.
This "list" of heritage forms is not complete. I didn't mention heritage as an economic object
for two reasons. Firstly, on the base of the Fassi case, tourist accommodations more accurately fit in
heritage as a daily object, as owners hardly consider them as heritage. Secondly, the medina as
heritage is rather a label used in the promotion of tourism. In other words, in Fez, the economic side
of heritage blends into various forms and, in my view, does not constitute a form in itself.
This overview of the various forms of heritage nonetheless shows that the multiple heritages
encountered in Fez follow their own logic – each of them tracing a specific trajectory (Latour,
2012), a specific line (Ingold, 2007a). As a consequence, it is spurious to mix them or to approach
and evaluate one form with the criteria of another. Heritage as a daily objet may encounter heritage
as a development tool or as an object to preserve in the context of a project but each of them has
features that are different – if not opposed – to the features of the other(s). For instance, inhabitants
seek comfort in their familial house and this quest may impinge on the preservation of traditional
features in the house. Also, if a category of people – inhabitants, scholars, experts – preferentially
relates to a form of heritage, it is spurious to enclose people into one form. Human beings move
between these forms. Finally, all the forms of heritage share similar features, namely a specific
relation to the past, an idea of culture as an existing entity, an importance of experts, and moral
principles. These four features constitute the contemporary heritage fiction.
178
Keywords, such as peace, diversity, heritage and its preservation, authenticity are also shared by other institutions
acting in the international scene, such as the Aga Khan Trust for Culture.
264
6.3.
Heritage as a fiction
Rather than a value, a sign or a symbolic object hiding a deeper meaning such as identity, I
argue that heritage is a fiction.179 This statement doesn't mean that heritage is a pure fantasy or a
utopia. Beings of fiction are not false or illusory but are real and constructed. Latour (2012),
similarly to Schaeffer (1999) and Ricoeur (2001), makes of fiction a full reality that cannot be
judged in terms of truth and falsity. However, Schaeffer (id.), inspired by Aristotle, characterises
fiction by imitation and "feintise" (feinting) while Latour (id.) defines it as a way of figuration.
Elements of fiction are then external to human beings – they impose themselves to human beings –
at the same time they need them to exist – they wouldn’t last in time without human beings to
support and extend them. Aside from human beings, materials and tools such as buildings,
conventions or project reports, shovels, are of prime importance in the setting and the support of a
fiction. Finally, fiction is a frame for what happens,180 what has to be settled before any action can
happen (Hennion and Vidal-Naquet, 2012), a common space in which relationships, exchanges,
actions, shared meanings, allocations of roles, affects, gestures and tones take place.
This common space of heritage allows us grasping why heritage is a buzzword that
"everybody" understands without having to define it, at the same time as it varies in form and
definition depending on the situation. The heritage fiction is this common space composed of what
is assumed to be obvious – and then glossed over – when speaking of heritage. The aforementioned
forms of heritage are at once different from each other, specific, and similar. One can easily switch
from one form to another without having to redefine heritage because they share four basic
elements, namely a specific relation to the past, the definition of culture as a specific entity, the role
of experts and moral principles.181
Finally, the heritage fiction distinguishes heritage from memory and history. The three of
them share a specific relation to the past and a link with culture, identity and transmission.
However, each puts different stress on the four elements. History is generally – by Nora or Ricoeur
among others – defined as the objective knowledge (or construction, selection of what human
imagine of the past by experts (historians) through documentary evidence and explanatory models.
Also, history is assumed to be free of moral principles. Last but not least, history is about the
179
Heritage as a fiction doesn't contradict my former assertion defining heritage as a quality. This latter refers to the
specific form of heritage taken by the fiction after it has anchored in a situation through qualification (cf. infra p. 278).
180
Instead of a heritage fiction, one could talk of a heritage imaginary or, following Butler, of a "heritagenormativity,"
that is to say a cultural norm or a regulatory idea of what is allowed and repressed about heritage, what is normal about
heritage and what is not. Or paraphrasing Saxer (2013), one could evoke a "moral economy of cultural heritage", that is
to say "the production, sharing, circulation and use of moral feelings, emotions and values, norms and duties in the
social space" (Fassin, 2009: 1257, my translation).
181
In order to go beyond the Fassi case and to extend the idea of a contemporary heritage fiction to the heritage realm, I
support this assertion by adding examples linked to heritage in general.
265
development of a culture through time. As far as it is concerned, Memory is a popular, subjective
remembrance. It is the past as lived by human actors, a kind of oral history that is part of a culture.
What, then, about heritage?
6.3.1. Relation to the past
A certain relation to the past is found in each form of heritage. The past is present in the
legal form with the vocabulary related to heritage – heirs or inheritance. The past is also what has to
be preserved. The past may also be taken as a model in development projects. When taking heritage
as a label, members of institutions promote features of the past such as the traditional and the
medieval aspects of the medina.
The past is part of the definition Fassi informants gave of heritage. Many of them mentioned
continuity in time under two variations: continuity with the transmission of "what has always been,"
or the rupture with the past in terms of decay, loss and disappearance. Foreigners mentioned the
feeling of stepping into the past – Fez is a medieval city in their view – and Moroccans evoked the
Golden Age of the medina during the Merinid period. In this temporal context, oldness – length in
time – is of prime interest. Informants also spoke in nostalgic tones182 and expressed a feeling or
fear of loss, threat and disappearance.
This feeling is at the base of the UNESCO listing of the Fez medina. "The changes had
become so important during the last decades that Fez risks, under demographic, social, and
economic pressures without equivalent in its history, losing its profound originality of being one of
the purest jewel of Islamic culture" (Amadou M'Bow, call for Fez Campaign, April 1980).183 This
loss, or the threat of loss, may be real or not. As De Certeau (1984: 159) puts it, a local authority
"deprives of what it enjoins, [or which] never gives what it promises. Far from expressing an empty
space or to describe a lack, it creates it." As a consequence, one could argue that the moral incentive
to preserve and transmit heritage performs the heritage disappearance.
The past is also at the core of the criteria involved in the listing of the Fez medina as a World
Heritage site. As described in the nomination file, "[t]he medina of Fez constitutes an outstanding
example of a medieval town created during the very first centuries of Islamisation of Morocco and
presenting an original type of human settlement and traditional occupation of the land
representative of Moroccan urban culture over a long historical period (from the 9th to the
182
Nail (1997) argues that nostalgia was at the core of the emergence of gardens as heritage in the 19th century GreatBritain. A sterile, impersonal and blurry past inviting to daydreaming and giving an image of order and harmony was
presented to the middle class and to the bourgeoisie to make them aware of the emergency to protect heritage.
183
Cf. appendix p. 392.
266
beginning of the 20th centuries)."
Developers, and tourist accommodation owners, for their part try to combine modernity with
the past. They aim to provide comfortable houses to inhabit at the same time these houses look old
and authentic to tourists. Lafrenz Samuels (2010) studies the management of past remains at the
global scale in social projects. She takes the example of the World Bank project in Fez to
investigate "how the past is put to work" (Lafrenz Samuels, id.: 23). In another vein, Tayyibi and
Laïla Skalli, two Moroccan architects, defend earth and natural architecture against the new
materials used in construction.
In Fez, scholars aim to preserve the past by writing books and articles about it. More
generally, social sciences scholars investigate the temporal aspect of heritage, and more particularly
the relation between heritage and modernity (Martin-Granel, 1999; Jeudy, 2001; Fournier, 2004) or
the historical depth of heritage as a process (Harvey, 2001). Others, such as Tornatore (2001),
Hartog (2003), Butler (2006) and Hennion (2011), speak of the presence of the past in the present.
To them, the past is necessarily constructed in the present. Things of the past are made present
through their actualisation. The past is not a matter of duration but of use of a representation of the
past.184 In Rethemnos (Crete), Herzfeld (1991: 6) focuses on the "social context of a massive
historic conservation effort," on the "social uses of time and its monumentalization by officialdom,"
on the battle over time opposing a monumental – or official – and single time to a social and
multiple time, on the tension between the experienced social life characterised by a fragmented and
polyphonic past and the powerful model of a monumentalised Western culture.
6.3.2.
Culture as a specific entity185
In Fez, culture is a core notion. The medina is presented as the cultural capital of Morocco
because of its craft industry and the numerous populations who lived – and still live – there. One
can find in the medina a way of life characteristic of Moroccan culture. Moreover, the Qaraouiyine
mosque and university was responsible for both a concentration and a spread of culture in the
Muslim world between the 9th and the 15th centuries. Numerous tourist accommodation websites
make use of culture in their description of the house and/or of the city – the house reflects
Moroccan culture. Institutions promoting tourism also refer to culture in their websites or in their
leaflets.
Lawyers, among others, are concerned with cultural rights and cultural claims around
184
According to De Certeau (1988), the past is written only in the present on the basis of an absence, or in other words,
history doesn’t write the past but realises its lost.
185
A similar investigation should be done about the notion of Nature.
267
heritage and restitution – e.g. a claim for security as the Facebook group "Fès, une ville sans bois"
did. Moroccan inhabitants spoke of the vanished way of life as part of Moroccan culture. Members
of heritage institutions divide culture into categories in order to better manage it and to highlight the
different kinds of cultural heritage. Developers and consultants, as well as UNESCO, use culture –
and cultural heritage – in their projects of economic, tourism and/or sustainable development or in
the context of cultural animation. Finally, when using heritage as a label, members of the Inspection
defend the respect of culture when one undertakes works in a house.
Moreover, culture is one of UNESCO's departments, together with science and education.
The World Heritage apparatus is part of the culture department, and the World Heritage Centre
promotes on its website "[o]ur cultural and natural heritage [that] are both irreplaceable sources of
life and inspiration." It aims to preserve "outstanding examples of cultural diversity and natural
wealth." Culture, being one kind of heritage, is at the base of 6 criteria for listing elements of
heritage as World Heritage. Finally, through the 1972 World Heritage Convention, UNESCO aims
to "encourage participation of the local population in the preservation of their cultural and natural
heritage" and to promote cultural dialogue. Similarly to this idea of cultural encounter, some
informants – inhabitants but also members of the Ziyarates programme and organisers of the Sacred
Music Festival – made of Fez "a very powerful place. Morocco in general, but Fez in particular, is a
really important centre between East and West, between Muslims and non-Muslims. The country
shows tourists that in reality Muslims are not all terrorists and they do all want things like you and
me: good health, education for the children, somewhere to live, good food on the table. I think it is
important" (Helen, manager of a renting agency).
In order to grasp a specific culture and to preserve it, education is of prime importance. The
World Heritage apparatus puts the emphasis on educating people to their heritage. For instance, it
implemented a World Heritage Education kit to raise awareness of young people about the
conservation of heritage. Teachers and educators are supposed to use this education concept
available in 35 languages. In Fez, Moroccan elites, members of institutions and foreigners accused
Moroccans of not taking care of their heritage because they were uneducated. This lack of education
was supposedly one reason for the decay of heritage in Fez. Also, Antoine, the French manager of a
construction company, declared that "we have been educated about this [i.e. heritage preservation].
So, if you want, in France, if you own a good that is part of the national heritage, but you do not
take good care of it, laws authorise the State to punish you or to seize your good to preserve it. And
you know that the State may do it. Here, they [i.e. inhabitants] don't have any idea of what the State
may do to help them or to coerce them."
268
6.3.3.
Experts
Experts are at the core of each form of heritage and they try to silence other holders of
expertise, such as autodidact experts. In Fez, these experts are of various kinds.186 Lawyers
implement and deal with laws and legal documents related to heritage. Archaeologists excavate and
preserve pieces of heritage and curators take care of these pieces in museums. Scholars in the social
sciences are concerned with heritage, its values, its uses, and what it tells about human groups – e.g.
Buob with coppers or Skalli with Sufism. Tourist developers make use of heritage in their politics
and developers involve heritage in their projects. In that context, Lafrenz Samuels (2010) asserts
that the World Bank is a meta-expert in heritage development, for it assesses a cultural expertise
rather than an economic expertise in the field of heritage.187 Members of institutions, such as
Hassan, define or apply the definitions and categories of heritage.
Nielsen (2011) studies the gap between the ideological projects and notions of UNESCO and
the everyday practises of UNESCO experts and employees who refer to institutionalised World
Heritage keywords them in their programmes and reports. Experts believe in UNESCO words and
ideas but they are also critical and take distance from these ideals. For instance, they copy/paste
documents, words or formula from referent document and they use approved keywords to have their
proposals accepted, to gain institutional authority and to avoid censorship, and not by ideological
involvement. Tourist developers make use of heritage in their politics and developers involve
heritage in their projects.
6.3.4.
Moral principles
Moral principles stir many human actors in Fez around the preservation of heritage. After a
principle of equality, developers use heritage as a lever for poverty alleviation, such as in the World
Bank project. Members of the Millenium Challenge Corporation project wanted to avoid mere
expropriation and they took care of defining which subvention to give to inhabitants according to a
principle of justice. Public authorities present Fez as a city of universal concern in the preservation
of its heritage because it hosted the first university in the world, it is the capital of crafts and the
biggest pedestrian area in the world. Legal experts work hand in hand with experts in preservation
to define an ethical law of conservation and protection (Skrydstrup and Wenland, 2006). Social
186
For an overview of experts in Fez, cf. supra p. 202.
Until the 1980s, the World Bank had little interest in cultural heritage. But the failure of its economic development
paradigm of reducing poverty pushed it to the idea that knowledge is a key solution to link economic development and
culture.
187
269
science researchers wonder about their position in heritage settings (Tornatore, 2007).
Moroccan inhabitants talked of the past way of life in the medina as more moral than the
present one, for it was characterised by respect among generations. Also, by using traditional
materials and techniques, informants had the feeling of respecting their house and the heritage of
the city. David and Fettah aimed to spread the moral incentive to take care of heritage in Fez. This
incentive to preserve heritage in order to transmit it to future generations, to safeguard it from
disappearance, to act for the universal sake through cooperation and solidarity – three motto of
UNESCO World Heritage – are coloured with morality (Brumann, 2009a). The restoration of Dar
Adiyel, a palace in the Fez medina turned into a museum of Andalus music, is presented in the final
report (Touri and al., 1999) as an ideal and successful cooperation and as the best way to reduce
misunderstanding between human beings as it matched cultural specificities in harmony and
resulted from international solidarity.
Also, one main aim of UNESCO is to implement "peace in the minds of Men" by means of
the protection and transmission of cultural heritage and its universal outstanding value, for they
contribute to favouring cultural dialogue and to avoiding conflicts. For instance, UNESCO experts
and employees were concerned with a more balanced and representative list of World Cultural and
Natural Heritage in the 1990s. They aimed at representing any country and any kind of heritage on
the List. As Garsten and Jacobson (2011) argue, this is due to the fact that large scale institutions
implement a post-political form of ethics, a form of governance in which political conflicts are
transformed into moral frameworks. Post-political global ethics means that standards are decontextualised from local realities and re-contextualised into a harmonious one-world paradigm. As
a consequence, institutions implement soft rules and soft laws that are normative in content but that
are not backed up with sanctions. The various UNESCO Conventions and Recommendations are
legal texts but are not assorted with specific sanctions. The only sanction is the removal from the
list – which happened only twice. Nation-States that have signed it commit to protect their cultural
heritage and to respect the universal value of cultural heritage located in other countries. By joining
the Convention, States "express a shared commitment to preserving our legacy for future
generations," as it is written in the 1972 World Heritage Convention.
270
6.4.
Circulation and anchorage of the heritage fiction
The contemporary heritage fiction and its forms are not specific to Fez. They are however
not similar in every heritage site. For instance, heritage as a daily object in Fez is not similar to
heritage as a daily object in Luang Prabang (Berliner and Istasse, 2013). Each form of heritage
anchors specifically, and a comparison of detailed anchorages investigated by ethnographers may
help understand and describe the heritage fiction. Also, the fiction and its forms do not come from
nowhere. The Second World War is one of these historical moments that left a deep imprint in the
heritage fiction, as the Protectorate did in Morocco. I however focus on the circulation and the
anchorage of the heritage fiction in this last chapter.
6.4.1.
Anchorage and localisation
I dedicated the fifth section of this dissertation to a specific way for the heritage fiction to
anchor in situation, namely qualification. I insisted on the qualification of daily objects – houses of
the medina. In this section, I focus on some anchorages of heritage as a definition and a category.
Something is anchored, or localised, when it is framed in a situation,188 be it geographic or virtual.
The Fez medina, the UNESCO offices in Rabat and in Paris are located in distinct geographic areas.
These three places are three anchorages and locations of World Heritage. Human actors –
inhabitants, UNESCO experts or employee –, material objects – buildings and their furniture – and
immaterial ones – the presentation of heritage – frame each of these three locations. For instance,
the head of the cultural heritage section defined the Rabat office as an "emanation from Paris" in
charge of the whole Maghreb – save for Libya. Members of the Rabat office do not work in Paris
and hardly ever go there for a meeting. However, they may make decisions in terms of cultural
actions, and constitute an intermediary acting in the name of the World Heritage Centre.
It is commonsense to say that listed sites in their geographic anchorage do not correspond to
their description in the nomination file or on the World Heritage Centre website. The site, the
nomination file, the website are three locations of heritage. During the nomination process, each
relevant criteria and category for the site has to be described on paper. Members of the public
authorities in the country requesting a nomination submit the file. In Fez, they particularly insisted
on the long history of the city, on Arabs living together with Jews and other peoples, and on the
difficult preservation of a decaying cultural heritage. ICOMOS consultants and experts then check
the conformity of the described criteria and categories with the site and they submit an evaluation to
188
A situation is framed by components of various states of being (human and non-human) and coming from different
spaces and times.
271
the World Heritage Committee.189 Diplomats of this Committee finally decide on the nomination
during the World Heritage Committee Session. Fez was listed as a tangible cultural heritage and a
historic centre. Experts in the country, ICOMOS consultants, diplomats, categories and criteria,
missions and sessions then framed the medina of Fez as defined and categorised in the nomination
file.
The presentation of the Fez medina in the World Heritage Centre website190 is another place
of anchorage. The homepage offers various tabs providing information about Fassi heritage. The
tab "Description" starts with a brief historical overview followed by a range of pictures, the
presentation of its outstanding universal value – what it is in Fez, what the nomination criteria are,
what authenticity and integrity are found in the Fez medina, and the protection and management
requirements – and a long description of the criteria and the site. On the top right of the page is the
identity card of the site, that is to say the country with its flag, the name of the site, the GPS
coordinates, the date of inscription, the criteria, the size of the property – 280 ha – and the reference
number – 170. Below, we find a Google map locating the medina in North Africa and links to
media, activities and other links – the same that one finds at the bottom of the page. This top right
column finishes with an access to the "State of Conservation" file listed by year.
The second tab, "Map", shows the multiple locations of the site – 220 ha in Fez el-Bali and
60 ha of buffer zone in Fez-Jdid. The next tab, "Documents", presents the various official
documents to download – decisions, periodic reports and state of conservation reports. A click on
the tab "Gallery" opens two pages of pictures taken by several photographers and presenting views
of the medina – panoramic views, tanneries, minarets, doors, Qaraouiyine mosque among others.
The tab "Video" provides a video that is not available anymore. The tab "Indicator" reports "the
frequency at which the World Heritage Committee has deliberated over this property over the past
15 years". One can learn that the "Threat Intensity Coefficient" is 5 in 2001, 29 in 2004 and 10 in
2011. Finally, the tab "Assistance" gives an overview of the three financial requests the Fez medina
asked of UNESCO. These financial aids funded a photogrammetric survey of the hydraulic clock
(1988: $18,500), the organisation of a meeting in January 1995 (1995: $20,000), and an exhibition
on the restoration work of Dar Adiyel (1999: $3,700).
In the situation of its Internet presentation, the Fez medina is framed by human actors –
photographers who took pictures, IT engineers who update the website, heritage experts who
gathered information, readers who look for information –, material objects such as computers, and
immaterial ones such as the internet. These components framing the anchorage belong to various
spaces – the IT employee and the readers are not in front of each other and the site may be
189
190
http://whc.unesco.org/archive/advisory_body_evaluation/170.pdf for the 1981 evaluation of the Fez file.
http://whc.unesco.org/fr/list/170
272
kilometres away – and times – the pictures have been taken years ago.
Aside from qualification, the notion of translation191 is useful to understand the processes of
anchorages in situation. The heritage fiction would be translated by some actors – those in power –
into what is efficient and sensible in a specific situation, or in other words, in a specific form. For
instance, the notion of authenticity as defined in the World Heritage apparatus192 (heritage as a
definition) is translated as traditional, beldi (from the country) or qdim (old) in Fez (heritage as a
daily object). The rules and permits necessary for any work in the medina (legal heritage) are
translated in constrains by inhabitants (heritage as a daily object). The preservation of the medina
(heritage as an objet to preserve) is first and foremost a place to develop in the view of international
organisations (heritage as a tool for development). Also, Lafrenz Samuels (2010) studies the
"translations of heritage in international organizations" and "how heritage is 'placed' within the
context of heritage development projects" (Lafrenz Samuels, id.: 25). She particularly looks at the
translation of expertise and heritage management from the national to the transnational scale. She
takes as example the technical terms of "significance" in the US context that is translated into "good
governance" in the World Bank project in Fez.
6.4.3.
Circulation of the heritage fiction
The heritage fiction also circulates between situations. In this section, I focus more
specifically on the circulation of World Heritage through the media. Television documentaries
present the heritage richness of the Fez medina. In the United Kingdom, Design 360 on CNN in
2003, was shot notably in a guest-house in Fez. Uncharted Territories on BBC in 2005 presents
adventures of two British citizens in their purchase of a house in Fez. Both documentaries evoke
repeatedly the cultural heritage of Fez and the listing as a World Heritage site. In 2010, the
programme Reflets Sud presented "Fès l'africaine" ("Fez the African") on La Deux, a Belgian
television channel. In that documentary, Fez is immediately described as a "spiritual capital of
Morocco" and a "universal UNESCO heritage." Capital on M6 in 2006 broadcasted a documentary
entitled "Morocco, the new tourist industry." The producers presented several cities – Marrakech,
191
"By translation we understand all the negotiations, intrigues, calculations, acts of persuasion and violence thanks to
which an actor or force takes, or causes to be conferred on itself, authority to speak or act on behalf of another actor or
force" (Callon and Latour, 1981: 279).
192
Depending on the type of cultural heritage, and its cultural context, properties may be understood to meet the
conditions of authenticity if their cultural values (as recognized in the nomination criteria proposed) are truthfully and
credibly expressed through a variety of attributes including: form and design; materials and substance; use and function;
traditions, techniques and management systems; location and setting; language, and other forms of intangible heritage;
spirit and feeling; and other internal and external factors (Operational Guidelines, 2012, § 82).
273
Essaouira and Fez – and insisted on the heritage one could find in Fassi houses.
Maisons du Sud – Maroc dedicated in 2007 three episodes193 to Fez and foreigners who had
settled in the medina. In the three episodes, the same feminine voice-over gives general information
about the medina. This medina was the first capital city of Morocco in the 9th century, it is the oldest
medieval city in the Muslim world, the home of the first university in the world, a leading
intellectual city, a city of faith and knowledge with winding and steep streets and where one can
find the same age-old rituals in the tanneries. "Living in Fez is like jumping back in time. In this
city, Western values are challenged. The fact that no car can go in gives it an exceptional charm. In
the souks, nestled in narrow streets, one can discover the traditional Moroccan art of life." Images
of Merinid tombs, of the Moulay Idriss shrine, of Bab Boujloud, of minarets, of dates' shopkeeper,
of the city walls, of the tanneries, of streets with people and donkeys, and panoramic views of the
medina illustrate these elements of information.
The French television documentary Des Racines et des Ailes dedicated two episodes to Fez,
"Marrakech-Fez" in 2003 and "Taste of Morocco: from Fez to Casablanca" in 2010. In the 2010
episode, Fez is described as a traditional city compared to Casablanca. According to the journalist,
"progress stopped at the medina gates." As a consequence, "time has stopped" and "the city
remained authentic while other cities lost their identity." In Fez, the Qaraouiyine mosque is,
according to the journalist, a very prestigious religious place in Morocco and the first university in
the Arab world. Fouad Serghini, the ADER director then presents the recent restoration work in the
Attarine medersa (i.e. Koranic school) and underlines the financial help from the Moroccan
Government is not sufficient to restore – and even maintain – the medina. The help of private
investors is necessary. Laïla Skalli, a Moroccan architect, is one of these people who preserve
heritage in Fez. As an architect born in Fez, she had the idea to establish a home-stay programme,
Ziyarates (cf. supra p. 67). The journalist then follows her in several Ziyarates houses.
The topic of the 2003 episode aims "to discover the soul of two imperial cities" according to
the presenter. Fez, the eternal city, is compared to Marrakech, the authentic city. Fez is described as
"a city listed on the UNESCO World Heritage," as the "oldest Moroccan city" that "has hardly
changed since the Middle Ages," as a "city with exceptional richness but left abandoned during a
long time," and then as "an awakening city." Several people facilitate this awakening. They are
active in the preservation of this heritage. Fettah Seffar, a "child of the medina," and Amélie Darras
are members of the Fez Hadara Association. The journalist follows Fettah through "a real labyrinth"
and visits key places of the medina – i.e. the main courtyard of the Mokri Palace, the Riad Mokri
which is a school of Moroccan crafts, and sûq (market) displaying pastries, dry meat and olives.
193
Available in French on http://youtu.be/QKDKYMzuTLg ; http://youtu.be/t0i-6jM9roo ;
http://youtu.be/Qh2mR_L6hpo
274
Mohammed Mezine, a historian, then speaks about the Qaraouiyine, a "must-see monument." Fouad
Serrhini, the ADER director, offers a visit of a house that "is restored identically with traditional
means", as "the use of thousand year-old techniques" allows "the preservation of a traditional knowhow". Finally, Abdu, a painter and the "memory keeper of the [Glaoui] Palace" makes a tour of this
Palace and tells "souvenirs" (i.e. memories).
In 1993, Olivier Descamps shot a 51-minute movie, Fez, a walk in the medina. The focus is
on potters, the Qaraouiyine library, the Bab Boujloud place, and the city walls. In 1999, Jacques
Goldstein made a 52-minute documentary, Fez?, which he describes as follows: "No city in the
world is built on the same concept as Fez, for Fez is a concept, a claustrophobic entity which is like
a negation of town planning. This town was built by rejecting the very idea of towns." Foreigners,
ADER members and architects, among others, intervene to show Fez and talk about their ideas. The
France5 documentary Morocco, seen from earth and sky made by Denis Dommel and Xavier
Lefebvre in 2010, presents Fez as "[t]he oldest imperial city [that] represents a jewel more than 12
century-old, whose medina, real labyrinth of a city out of time, is listed as a World Heritage of
humanity. […] Hidden behind anonymous facades, we discover jewels of traditional architecture,
preserved, unique, such as the Mokri Palace." To discover this architecture, Abdelaziz el
Moussaoui, an "architect specialised in the renovation of ryads in keeping with traditional methods"
is called upon.
Other television documentaries put less stress on the World Heritage label of the medina.
Among them is a documentary about the Riad Ghalia, back when it was a restaurant, Dar Tajine.
This documentary aims to "unveil Fassi cuisine." Finally, in 2005, Antoine de Maximy, the reporter
of J'irai dormir chez vous (I'll sleep in your house) went to Morocco, and Fez. He started out with
that city because "it is one of the most beautiful old city in Morocco" with not so many tourists.
Walking in the main street, he presents the medina as a labyrinth, were it is easy to lose oneself.
Internet is another medium of circulation. As Daoust (2007) argues, as the World Heritage
apparatus has an international audience, the New Technologies of Information and Communication,
like Internet, are very useful in public relations. For instance, in Fez, major restoration works are
discussed on the Internet. http://www.skyscrapercity.com/showthread.php?t=790664 is a forum
about the works in R'Cif square.
Also, Tayyibi, the former director of the ENA Fez – and head of the UNESCO Earth
Architecture Chair in Morocco – dedicated a Facebook page to heritage in Morocco and organised a
Facebook day of heritage on the 18th April 2011. Through specific cases – pictures and comments to
which his 1,300 plus Facebook friends respond – he aims to show the value of heritage and
architecture in Morocco, to show that numerous sites are not preserved and promoted as they
275
should. To think about heritage and to raise awareness are his core goals. Generally, in their
comments, Facebook friends address the issues of beauty ("wonderful fountain!"), restoration and
promotion (criticisms of what is done, ideas of what to do), architecture (its specificity to Morocco,
its role in daily life, its characteristics), the medina ("it is a wonderful place where we can find back
what we have lost thanks to the spirit of the medina"); and heritage ("Fez is wonderful, but it is
more than necessary to restore these beautiful buildings. History and memory are essential for the
future of any city").
I particularly focused on 7 albums posted by Tayyibi between January and June 2011,
"Morocco, Spirit of the place" with 77 pictures, "Fez traditions" with 62 pictures, "Your opinion
about Protectorate period architecture" with 10 pictures, "Dereliction and letting go,"
"Contemporary Moroccan Architecture," "Fez for non-tourists," and "Lalla Yaddouna/Fez
Morocco." Pictures are not specific to Fez, representing many places in Morocco. When taken in
Fez, they represent emblematic places (tanneries, the Seffarine and Neijjarine squares, R'Cif square
and gate, city gates), houses in ruins (ordinary houses as well as palaces), elements of decoration
decaying or not (central or mural fountain in buildings or in the street, column capitals, pieces of
mosaic, detail of painted wood, plaster or wood ceilings), artistic pictures (on-the-jar doors, light
and shadow effects), animals (donkeys, mules), panoramic view of the medina or specific buildings
(Moulay Idriss and the Qaraouiyine, minarets), streets with people or prop-up. Comments explain,
describe or give information (mainly internet links or title of television documentaries) about what
is featured on the picture.
The tanneries are taken as a glaring example of heritage to preserve. For years now,
tanneries are supposed to be moved outside the town's walls. It is difficult, however, to assess the
stage of advancement of this relocation process. The latter is inscribed within numerous projects,
and the new space meant to host the tanneries has been partly prepared, but nothing official has
taken place yet. This move is depicted as a tragedy. "It is a deletion from memory, a waste. To reuse
them as jardinières or benches is a bit too simplistic but it is unavoidable..." On the other hand, "I
agree with the idea of preserving a memory. But I think it also involves progress as well as the
transformation of some places. One has to accept that Fez carries a heavy heritage and a one
thousand year history that weighs. […] To reduce the tannery activity may be beneficial for their
preservation as well as to reduce the economic and demographic pressures that increasingly threaten
the future of the medina."
Last but not least, in September 2012, Tayyibi launched a petition "Cultures Constructives
en Danger"194 ("Endangered Moroccan Building Cultures"). He sheds light on "the critical
194
http://www.petitions24.net/cultures_constructives_marocaines_en_danger
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condition of built Moroccan heritage, the need for economic housing respectful of local building
cultures, as well as the necessary Moroccan Government will of including sustainability and respect
for the environment and heritage" in their programmes.
Youtube is the last kind of Internet media I investigated. Aside from the famous music clip
of U2195 – the song Magnificent196 – in which the medina covered and hidden with white sheets at
the beginning is slowly uncovered and then discovered throughout the song, individuals also use
Youtube to post movies and picture slideshows related to heritage. A 4'51" slideshow197 shot by a
Moroccan presents pictures of the royal palace doors, tanneries, Sidi Ahmed Tijani and Moulay
Idriss mausoleums, Neijjarine fountain, Seffarine square, a street going from the Qaraouiyine to
Seffarine, food and suqūq (i.e. markets) with olives or dates, the dyer street, Boujloud square and
gate, the New City (fountains during day and night and main avenue), Koranic schools (Attarine,
Bouanania), the main street in the mellaH, fountains (in the new city, in religious buildings, in the
street), borj (i.e. fortified building) and Merinid tombs, Jnan Sbil garden and its noria,198 public
oven, donkeys and mules.
Movies shot and posted by tourists – entitled 'My Historic trip', 'Family travel in Medieval
Fez, Morocco', 'Fez: the Magic of Morocco' combine music (be it Arab or not199) and information
about the city, its monuments and its history200 or one particular monument.201 The tanneries are
described as "the most remarkable site in Fez, if not Morocco," "some of the oldest tanneries in the
world, nearly unchanged since the founding of Fez nearly 1000 years ago," and "run by one family
who pass down the ancient techniques from generation to generation."202 Sometimes, the video
description or the writings on the slideshow or movie mention that Fez is a World Heritage site, an
imperial city where Muslims and Christians came to study, the "largest medieval Islamic city and
the biggest car-free urban zone on the earth." Images are similar to those mentioned in the former
paragraph.
During the celebrations of the 1200th birthday of Fez in 2008, Moroccan television channels
broadcasted short reports about the history of the city or one particular place in Fez.203 Historians
gave information about the "mythic Boujloud Square whose walls are 13 century-old," the
"emblematic square of the spiritual capital city," famous for being a place of celebrations for
195
The group of rap "Fez City Clan" also chose the Fez medina for the clip of their song "Mghrarba Fl Beat"
(http://youtu.be/u94W07SGP4w).
196
http://youtu.be/Yi52HjJbwVQ
197
http://youtu.be/N5SPiVRIO98
198
Machine for lifting water into a small aqueduct.
199
Ya Rayah, classical music or malhun music (melodic poem inspired from Andalus music, urban sung poetry
performed by man of craftsmen’s guilds
200
http://youtu.be/5fesOgYB0as, http://youtu.be/nF9Mui6oKlY
201
http://youtu.be/chAGtkI23Qg
202
http://youtu.be/5fesOgYB0as
203
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/k3q9gkAE4DRV64zkLl
277
centuries, "will host tomorrow the most prestigious event of its history." Another news report
presents the Moroccan delegation that went to France in order to present the event.204 A member of
this delegation, Mohammed Knidri – a university teacher and former Minister – described Fez as
the city of the first university in the world, the perennial spiritual capital city of Morocco, and a city
that had a cultural influence on the Arab World. A French member mentioned that France was
willing to participate to the celebration "in a city listed as a World Heritage site" and being the
cradle of a "universal civilisation."
On Euronews, one could see a 2010 report dedicated to the pollution resulting from the
tanneries.205 The president of the Chouarra tannery – the "emblematic tannery in Fez" – specifies
that "[I] inherited my work from my ancestors. This work is transmitted from fathers to sons. […]
Fez is the cultural capital of Morocco, but it is also known as the city of tannery. We continue to
work as our ancestors, the first tanners in Fez, did. This contributes to our fame in the country.
Today we still work in the same way as before, when the tanneries were created by Moulay Idriss.
Tannery is an old tradition in Fez, and it will continue for a long time, Allah willing." This Chouara
tannery, a "traditional" tannery uses "natural materials" (pigeon droppings, bark, lime) in opposition
to "modern tanneries" or "new generation tanneries" using chemicals (formic acid, sulphates, and
chromium) in order to gain time. These chemicals pollute the Oued Sebou river. As a consequence,
water treatment plants and a national programme for alleviating the domestic and industrial
pollution have been implemented. Music, voice-over and people talking in Arabic or French (a
Chouara tannery association president, the director of a modern tannery) alternate with oriental
music. Images show panoramic views of the Chouara tannery, workers working, skins drying on the
rooftops, modern tanneries in the industrial area, dark water going out of a cuve.
Institutions in Fez also post movies about the city on Youtube. The ENA (National School of
Architecture) posted a short movie (2'58" in length), "Volunteers at the bedside of the medina",206
about the summer work-camps organised by Rempart – a French association organising unpaid
work camps in heritage sites – and the A.J.V.C.I. – association organising work camps in Fez – in
2009 and 2010. Volunteers are the central actors represented here: they are shown working in
houses in decay, talking with builder workers and walking in the streets.
The Ministry of tourism funded several short movies in 2010. Each of them presents a
person who is active in the preservation of the medina. Fouad Serghini,207 the ADER director, is the
main actor of a documentary whose caption presents the Fez medina. "The Fez medina, historic and
204
http://youtu.be/VNIYuhPefQ8
http://youtu.be/8OgDmzWTgt0
206
http://youtu.be/LYP9G3Tw24Q
207
http://youtu.be/O3nqZzT3s98
205
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a thousand year-old, listed as a World Heritage of humanity, suffers from the march of time. ADER
implemented a rehabilitation project aiming to improve living conditions and the preservation of
architectural heritage." Two other documentaries show Adil Naji,208 a zelij (i.e. mosaic) master and
"a young man who vested himself with a mission: to perpetuate the tradition of zelij inherited from
his ancestors," and Abdelkader Ouazzini,209 a brocade master, "one of the last Fassi craftsman to
product brocades on Jacquard looms [that] were imported some 100 years ago to weave luminous
and luxurious clothes, which creators and brides look for."
Finally, print media allow the circulation of World Heritage, even if their main topic relates
to tourism. Two Moroccan magazines focused on Fez. In 2006, Labyrinthes, cities of Morocco
devoted an issue to the city, "Fès, cité des rois" ("Fez, city of kings"). The more serious and
academic magazine Architecture du Maroc (Architecture of Morocco) dedicated several articles to
what was happening in Fez in terms of restoration and tourist accommodations. In an article headed
"La médina de Fès bouge" ("Fez medina is on the move") Msefer (2001) mentions that Fez is a
"heritage for humanity" listed by UNESCO, a "cradle of humanity." She lauds the authenticity,
dream, peace, truth and change of scenery, as well as the ancestral place and millenarian activities
of the medina against globalisation and standardisation. Lahbabi (2004, my translation) devotes an
article to Riad Fès, a luxury guest-house owned by the architect Chakir Sefrioui. The house is
described as an "authentic specimen of Hispano-Moorish architecture" with a "thousand and one
Andalus nights' atmosphere. Also, Riad Fès represents an example to follow. Sefrioui wants to show
there is a way to preserve the prestigious past of Fez and to make discover the authenticity and the
splendour of noble Fassi families who made of their houses the trustee and mirror of their refined
civilisation" (Lahbabi, id.: 68). Thanks to the owner's training in architecture, the original state of
the rooms has been kept, the traditional and the modern has been married in a balance of warm
colours and noble materials. At the end, "luxury is the master word" in Riad Fès, which is "an
example to save the rich heritage of the imperial city" (Lahbabi, id.: 72).
The media, the actions of the experts on the field and in their offices, the reports emanating
from the assembly meetings, the booklets and books edited by UNESCO and the World Heritage
Centre are undoubtedly media – means, intermediaries – to circulate heritage fiction – as is the case
for fictions, stories and imaginaries (Appadurai, 1996).
On the one hand, the capacity of media – means of communication – to circulate things
cannot be overestimated. Kurzac-Souali (2006) points out that the press articles often follow an
Orientalist approach of the medina giving a wrong image of the city. In the aforementioned
208
209
http://youtu.be/kF0_IjmxwCI
http://youtu.be/QHdALWaHmm8
279
magazines, pictures often show luxury houses with swimming pools, a huge patio, luxurious
bedroom and bathroom, refined architectural details and panoramic views. In movies – television
documentaries and Youtube movies – the same images of the medina (Quaraouiyine, minarets,
Koranic schools, food in the sūq) are often accompanied by an Arab music – except in the case of
movies shot by an institution. McGuinness (2010), taking the case study of the media discourses
about the Fez Sacred Music Festival, argues that the lifestyle press, the official website of the
Festival, the cultural-policy speech, the travel press, and the counter-discourse accounts evolve
around the same tropes, namely the timeless and medieval city, the mysterious and labyrinthine city
in decay, and the city of extremes between wealth and poverty, the best and the worst experience.
On the other hand, media – intermediaries – are unavoidable for the heritage fiction and its
forms to circulate. These media participate to the necessary stabilisation, or formalisation, of the
fiction and the forms for them to circulate in a stable form and to anchor and take form in situation.
Hennion (1993) stresses the importance of objects and devices – such as written reports, press
articles or movies – as intermediaries in the circulation of stable elements. According to Latour
(1985), material objects help stabilise human’s immaterial creations. Their materiality allows them
to travel and makes them visible and stronger. Also, visual and writing techniques favour the
strengthening and the sustainability of actors (Latour, id.). Fixed written and visual forms acquire
mobility, fixity and readability. For instance, the World Heritage Centre website, which presents
written texts and pictures readers can visualise, contributes to the stabilisation of heritage for this
form of heritage to circulate – on the Internet – and to anchor in situation – you reading the
description of the medina.
From this perspective, heritage as a quality (as I defined it in the fifth section) doesn't
contradict heritage as a fiction. Heritage as a quality contributes to the anchorage of the heritage
fiction and its forms in a situation. Once anchored in situation, the components delineate the form of
heritage and it its specificities.
6.4.3.
Local and global
This relationship between anchorage, stabilisation and circulation questions a famous duo in
the social sciences, namely the local and the global.210 Heritage is most of the time studied from a
210
The local and the global have been for long a dangerous duo in social science studies. The idea of a world-system
(Friedman, 1990; Wallerstein, 2004) characterised by a dominant centre and a submissive periphery makes of the global
a superstructure, a holist framework in which to insert the local. Marcus (1995) initiated the idea of circulation and flux
between local sites. Sites are localisations that allow the investigation of the system. Appadurai (1996) more specifically
stresses the flux that de-territorialise and re-territorialise themselves.
The local and the global may also be understood as scales. Marston (2000) distinguishes three of them. A scale is an
280
local or global perspective. Studies often conclude to a gap between the global level of World
Heritage and the local level of the site and to conflicting demands coming from different levels –
global, international, national, local – and actors – experts, non-experts (Fontein, 2006; Collins,
2008). Some scholars address this problem in terms of better management issues (Fletcher and al:
2007), which only reproduces the divide between experts and non-experts and between different
levels. Long (2000) proposes the notion of "creolised heritage"211 as a bridge between the various
levels and actors. Owens (2002) speaks of multivocality and heterotopia to report the presence of
various levels in one site.
However, the descriptions of anchorage and circulation instigates that the local and the
global are qualities rather than scales or levels. Collier and Ong (2005) avoid considering
globalisation as a new order of things or macro-process and localities as resisting to the
globalisation process. They focus on phenomena212 that have the quality of being global, that is to
say abstractable, mobile, dynamic, which could be de-territorialised and re-territorialised in other
context without loosing their efficiency and still producing the same results. As such, the global is
independent of any cultural or societal condition of possibility.
Going further than the global as a quality, Latour (2007) asserts that there is no global or
local understood in their usual meaning. Every action/discourse/… occurs in a localised space. The
local is then the localisation in situation. As I described, being localised means to be "framed" by
components from different states of being and coming from various times and spaces. Being global
means to have numerous anchorages and circulating intensively between situations. This circulation
doesn't occur between a top and a bottom, but between local(ised) situations.
Heritage as defined in the 1972 UNESCO Convention is global, as the document written in
8 languages allows its propagation and reading in many places. Its availability on the Internet
intensifies its circulation. As a consequence, it also anchors in many situations. However, it has
been shaped in localised places, such as the World Heritage Centre offices in Paris, the rooms of the
Committee Session (Brumann, 2011, 2012a and b). The reification of this Convention reinforces
ontologically given category, a preordained hierarchical framework for ordering the world – i.e. the local, the regional,
the national, the global, a province, or a continent. Scales are also socially constructed outcome from the tension
between structural forces and the practises of individuals. It then means a level at which a process operates. Finally, a
scale is a conceptual framework that has material consequences. Tremon (2012) makes of the global and the local sizes
of scales that the researcher discovers during the investigation. Researchers don't have to choose a level of analysis but
looks at the construction of localities. The local and the global are no more analytical tools but are qualities of sites.
211
Creolised heritage is "that loose yet conformed body of archaeological, anthropological, historical (both professional
and amateur), linguistic and geographical knowledge that has been augmented with popular myth, hearsay, valorised
regional and national socio-cultural characterisations as well as cultural and racial stereotypes and caricatures. It is
situated between and forms the foundations for both official, professional and popular, non-professional representations
of heritage. Creolised heritage is hybrid in nature yet the multifarious local, national and global aspects that comprise it
are identifiable as separate elements" (Long, 2000: 320).
212
They investigate three main phenomena, namely technological – techno-sciences – political – systems of governance
– and ethical – regimes of ethical values, trade in human organs.
281
this top-down approach because it doesn't show the human actors, times, places and objects
involved in their construction, stabilisation, circulation and anchorage. On the other hand, heritage
as defined by the medina inhabitants is less global because it mainly consists in oral discourses and
because the writings about it do not spread beyond specific situations (a meeting in Fez, the
readings for a dissertation about heritage in Fez). But both kinds of heritage as a definition are
local(ised) in situations.
This approach of the local and the global as qualities helps us understand why UNESCO is a
prime actor in the circulation of the heritage fiction. Close to Wilk's (1995) notion of "global
structures of common difference",213 Turtinen (2000) develops this idea of a "global grammar" of
heritage promoted by UNESCO. With the World Heritage List, the World Heritage apparatus
classifies Nation-States and creates a new world order. According to Palumbo (2009: 157, my
translation), the system created by the UNESCO World Heritage is a "classificatory scheme within
which the nations states, ideally equals, differ in the elements listed." Finally, Collins (2008)
describes World Heritage as an empire, that is to say "sets of 'imperial formations' or 'politics of
dislocation' [and] processes of dispersion, appropriation and displacement" (Collins, id.: 282) that
implement states of exception based on a state of emergency.
In these studies, the global and the local are polar opposites and power is at the core of their
relationship. Conflicts are the main point of entry to study them and scholars often use the metaphor
of the arena to address them. The discursive approach of World Heritage as an "authorized heritage
discourse" (Smith, 2006) could fit more accurately because of its link with fiction. But heritage is
not only a discourse. It is a fiction made of specific ideas, actions, human beings, temporalities and
spaces. Moreover, the discursive approach doesn’t explain how this discourse is anchored in a given
situation.
Callon and Latour (1981) work on macro and micro actors. They argue that these actors are
not different in nature but rather in size. This size is not given a priori but results from power
relationships – i.e. the power to link or to interrupt an interaction. An actor acquires authority
through associations – with other bodies, actors, institutions, sustainable materials, ideas – that last
in time. The more he creates associations, the more he grows and develops black boxes, that is to
say what is taken for granted, what "no longer needs to be considered, […] those things whose
content have become a matter of indifference"214 (Callon and Latour, 1981: 285). As such, black
213
According to Wilk (1995), "global structures of common difference" are a universal language, a common
conceptualization of cultural difference. In his view, forms of cultural difference are standardized, but their content is
not. Global institutions promote cultural difference, but limit the manner this difference may be expressed by imposing
criteria to make difference mutually intelligible.
214
As Morin (1990: 75, my translation) writes, "[t]he first [dramatic problem in the loss of thinking] is that of general
282
boxes are supposed to carry meanings, forces, actors, without transforming them. The size of an
actor then comes from an asymmetry he created with other actors, and made sustainable by locking
components and relations into black boxes he doesn't have to negotiate anymore.
I support the idea whereby the World Heritage apparatus, this "special animal" (Brumann,
2010), is a macro-actor that sits on a multitude of black boxes. Brumann (2010, 2012) puts to the
fore that notions such as the outstanding universal value, authenticity or sustainable tourism are not
discussed during the Committee sessions. Rather, they are used as stable arguments to defend one’s
statement and position. They are discussed among the experts of the advisory bodies, or during side
sessions held by groups in parallel to Committee sessions. Once those theoretical and philosophical
reflections have been carried out, the notions can be taken-for-granted, and briefly mentioned
during the Committee session itself. They then are relegated to black boxes, which they constitute.
By creating black boxes – categories, conventions, procedures – and by enrolling other
actors – World Bank, NGOs, Nation-States – the World Heritage apparatus also imposes its
temporality, sizes and their measurement, values and their standards, to other actors. The 1972
Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage is one of the
main written documents. This Convention describes the kinds of heritages that could be listed, the
manners and modalities to use the World Heritage Fund, and the role and duties of States Parties.
The World Heritage Centre amended the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the
World Heritage Convention in order to fit the 1972 Convention with realities on the sites by a
reflection over the concepts, knowledge and experiences. The criteria that a site has to meet in order
to prove its "outstanding universal value" are described in those guidelines.
Moreover, the interactions between the various UNESCO bodies participate to the closure of
black boxes. The World Heritage Committee, composed of 21 State Parties elected by the General
Assembly for 4 years, makes decisions during its annual session. It works with the World Heritage
Centre created in 1992 in Paris as a "focal point and coordinator within UNESCO for all matters
related to World Heritage," as general secretariat for all the statutory bodies of the convention. It is
in charge of the daily management of the Convention, the organisation of annual Committee
sessions, it helps State Parties for the preparation of their nomination report, it organises
international assistance upon request and workshops and programmes to raise awareness among the
public, it collects and transmits information. Together with the Committee and the Centre are
working three advisory bodies which provide reports about sites, namely ICOMOS (International
Council On Monuments and Sites), IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) and
ideas. General ideas [...] are words, empty words, abstractions. But unfortunately, everybody rely on such general ideas.
About life, about society, about love, about politic, about Mitterand, about Giscard, about whatever you want, about the
world, about determinism."
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ICCROM (International Centre for the Study for the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural
Property). The first two are Non Governmental Organisations, based in Paris for the first and Gland
for the second, while the third is an intergovernmental body located in Rome. Their aim is to
provide technical expertise: experts are sent on the sites before the nomination to evaluate and
report on the site, and punctually when needed.
Fig. 5. Relations between UNESCO World Heritage bodies
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7.
Conclusion
The core of this dissertation deals with qualifying the Fez medina houses as heritage. During
my fieldwork, it quickly appeared to me that although the medina and its houses were listed as a
World Heritage site, houses were also something else than heritage. Houses have not always been
protected as heritage. Before the French Protectorate in Morocco (1912-1956), the institution of
Habous was in charge of some buildings – houses and monuments – and their maintenance and
transmission. On the one hand, these buildings served the community through financial profit:
either by the products produced in their walls (e.g. mills) or by the services they offered (e.g. public
baths or schools). On the other hand, they benefited to individuals, as when owners wanted to keep
their building in the family and not split it between all their heirs.
During the French Protectorate, French administrators created institutions and laws
dedicated to heritage. Members of these institutions, especially today's Inspection of Historical
Monuments, listed buildings – mainly monuments such as the city walls or Koranic school – and
checked if construction works were in conformity with heritage laws. With the exception of few
palaces (Riad and Palace Mokri, Dar Batha), houses were not considered as heritage during that
period. Their first official consideration as part of the heritage field dates back to 1954 when the
Inspection of Historical monuments listed the entire medina as a national heritage. Since then,
members of institutions de facto integrate houses in the category of cultural heritage. They work
with heritage lists and laws, urban documents circumscribing heritage areas, leaflets promoting the
city to attract tourists. Heritage is a word they use in their daily occupation in a variety of ways: as
category, justification or label.
The next step occurred in 1981 with the nomination of the Fez medina on the World
Heritage list. Scholars and experts from various academic disciplines carried out many studies as
well as preservation and restoration works in the medina. UNESCO consultants stayed there for
several years to help develop the urban Master Plan and to spot the buildings worth preserving and
restoring. Institutions, such as ADER – Agency for the Development and the Rehabilitation – and
schools of crafts were created. Members of institution, UNESCO consultants and scholars also
accused rural migrants – who had been settling in the medina since the 1940 but who started to
massively arrive there as of the 1980s – to cause the building's degradation and the ruralisation of
the medina. Nowadays, Moroccan elites, members of institutions and foreigners generally deny any
heritage skill to Moroccan inhabitants of poorer social background. The latter are accused of letting
houses collapse, of having no taste, or of replacing traditional mosaic by industrial tiles.
International projects subsequently monitor the reduction of population density in their programmes
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of heritage preservation. Since the mid-200s, ADER, on the basis of a World Bank loan, offers
financial help to any Moroccan inhabitant willing to undertake construction works.
Independently from this World Heritage nomination, foreigners come and settle in the
medina where they buy a secondary residence and/or where they open a tourist accommodation.
The movement started in the late 1990s and is closely connected to the tourist development of the
city. In addition to being a sightseeing stop in the Moroccan tour of imperial cities, Fez has also
become a full-fledged destination in its own right. For their part, foreigners have undertaken major
construction works in almost 200 houses.
Despite all these preservation attempts, medina inhabitants, be they Moroccans or
foreigners, hardly consider houses as heritage. In informants’ views, houses are first and foremost
places to live, which have to be as comfortable as possible, and are at best a familial heritage
(warth), an economic heritage when it is a tourist accommodation, a personal heritage – that is to
say a bonus that satisfies personal interest – and, from time to time, or a cultural heritage due to
their being located in a World Heritage site, or to their architectural or historical uniqueness. On the
one hand, informants never fail to remind that the medina and its houses are 12 centuries-old and
that various populations (Arabs from North Africa and Spain, Jews from North Africa and Spain)
found shelter in its walls. The mix of their architectural inputs resulted in a style, the Arab-Andalus
style, which is said to be specific to Fez. This style shouldn’t however hide the diversity in size,
layout, architectural elements such as balconies and architectural decoration, such as mosaic, which
can be found in these houses. On the other hand, Moroccans rather define as heritage a past way of
life (taqalid) and monumental buildings, be they in ruins (āthar) or not (turāth). Foreign inhabitants
are more eager to consider houses as heritage, although such qualification is generally accompanied
by complaints about a loss in know-how among Moroccan craftspeople and about the disappearance
of ruined houses and other rare elements of architectural decoration.
Beyond this absence of heritage in the daily life of houses, I investigate how inhabitants
engage with the materiality of houses, which networks crossed into houses, and which distinctions
between human actors these engagements highlighted.
Firstly, to undertake these works, private inhabitants as well as public or international
institutions, must have a permit issued by the municipality. Indeed, the same institutions as those of
the Protectorate, on top of those created following the UNESCO listing, carefully control any work
undertaken in the medina. However, both inhabitants and members of institutions play with the
official rules in submitting permit requests and in respecting these rules. As a consequence,
undertaking works appears to be not only a technical and official process, but also a learning and a
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social one – mainly for foreigners.
Despite the official rules related to construction works, heritage is hardly a primary concern.
Inhabitants rather face financial issues: buying materials and paying workers, delays in construction
works and bribery. The poorest maintain their house by repainting the walls and improving the
waterproofing. Others improve it with modern comfort by adding a fridge, modern tiles, or airconditioners. Others yet undertake major works when they intend to open a tourist accommodation
or to upgrade the house to the latest comfort standards. As they want a comfortable house at the best
price, they favour modern and practical materials. Some foreigners and Moroccan elites respected
the tradition – traditional materials, traditional techniques, recovering the patina – as long as it
doesn’t entail much trouble – expensive costs or lack of comfort – and the spirit of the house.
Moroccans and foreigners also furnish and decorate their houses. Informal styles of
furnishing and decorating – Arab-Andalus style, Fassi style, familial style, Berber style, minimalist
style, Western style – influence their evaluation of others’ furnishing and decoration. They also
follow principles to furnish and decorate, be they formal such as charters in the case of a tourist
accommodation or informal such as economic incentives, functionality, memories or personal
desires and taste. Taste, rather than heritage, is a master word in the evaluation of others' furnishing
and decoration. In that case, taste is assorted with criteria – originality, harmony, beauty. Taste is
also a skill – innate or acquired. Finally, taste is used to operate social distinctions between those
who have it and those who do not. Foreigners accuse Moroccans of lacking taste with their "kitsch"
and "bling-bling" furnishing and decoration, while Moroccans stress the lack of taste of foreigners
who furnish their house following Western standards and codes of interior design.
A house may be a tourist accommodation – guest house, location de meublé or home-stay –
which involve specific engagements with the house. Moroccan inhabitants who take part in the
Ziyarates home-stay programme welcome guests in their private house. This programme is a way
for them to stay in their house and to have an additional income. Moroccan and foreign guest-house
owners open a tourist accommodation because they want to change their lifestyle, to avoid boredom
in a city that otherwise doesn't provide many forms of Western entertainment, and to make money
on their house, to extend their activity in the tourist area or to become elites of their time. They
generally dedicate one house to their guests – they hardly live in their guest house. Intimacy is one
of their main concerns and living in a separate house or establishing regulations are two ways to
protect it. To be hospitable, owners propose comfortable houses and modern standards in bedrooms.
Hospitality and the human relation it involves tend to minimise the economic side of this relation.
At the same time, owners try to appear as traditional as possible through the furniture and the
decoration of the house or the meals they serve. Tourist accommodation owners, similarly to other
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inhabitants but more obviously than them, follow an "epistemology of presupposition" (Bizzochi, in
Fabre, 2009), that is to say that they define and apply tradition on the basis of their idea of the past
and not on the past as it is officially described by historians.
Inhabitants also evoke the fact that the house allows them to travel, to improve their skills,
to practice intellectual and manual works, to express their imagination and creativity. As such, they
allocate agency to their house and sometimes consider it as a living entity with a soul. These
allocations of agency firstly show that materials and materiality have consequences and, secondly,
that houses are located at the crossroad of several territories (economic, media, fiction). Rather than
intentional (Gell, 1994), houses are accountable (Jansen, 2013) as they are available and they offer
potential holds to be used in situation and to be allocated agency to.
The term heritage mainly comes up when Moroccan elites, members of institutions and
foreigners explain why Moroccan inhabitants do not take care of their house and are blind to their
heritage. They evoke the poverty of inhabitants and the fact they are mainly tenants and not owners,
their main concern with security and daily life, the lack of "heritage preservation culture," the lack
of education and knowledge (compared to France), the absence of civil society. Moroccan
inhabitants themselves invoke economic reasons – materials are expensive – and tradition – to leave
the house "as it has always been" – to account for the scarcity of works they undertake. Rather than
declaring that inhabitants are either blind or aware of their heritage, or to be satisfied with an
explanation in terms of habits, residence and familiarity that erode perception and awareness, I
argue that human actors give attention to specific holds bestowed by things.
I then overview which holds give rise to the heritage qualification. I ask how inhabitants
come to define houses as heritage. I argue that heritage is one quality allocated to the house among
others. This quality goes together with other possible components of heritage actualisation, that is to
say senses, affects, justifications and actions.
Sensual relations are part of the daily relation with houses. Inhabitants and members of
institutions see houses, they touch and smell them, hear sounds and taste some of their elements.
Sensual perceptions also connect with memory, as many informants invoke memories to talk of
their sensual relation with the house or declare that senses stir memory. This sensual environment is
"blindingly obvious" – which may lead to some difficulties to put it into words. If some inhabitants
consider senses as a skill, a capacity to feel senses and to talk about them, I rather link senses with
reflexivity not in the ability to feel but in the capacity to talk about them.
Affects are also at the core of the relation with houses. Inhabitants and members of
institutions are in love with houses, feel good and secure inside them or they feel sad and
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disappointed there, they evoke memories and express their nostalgia. Sometimes, they assert not
having any affect for the house because they do not feel any attachment to it or because they mainly
view houses in terms of categories and rules. However, the latter case does not preclude evoking
memories or fearing a listing of the medina on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Although
Moroccan and foreigners both have affects, none of the typologies of affects I draw show a clear
distinction between them or between experts and non-experts. On the basis of these typologies, it is
difficult to determine which affects are indeed "heritage affects". Nostalgia and a feeling of loss can
be defined as heritage affects but they may be felt outside the heritage context as well, are often
insufficient to lead to heritage awareness and are not the only affects giving rise to heritage – there
we also find empathy or indignation. As such, a strict focus on nostalgia to investigate heritage is
somehow reductive.
Members of institutions, academics, architects, foreign consultants, that is to say experts
issuing permits, defining and applying rules and categories and carrying out projects, cannot, as
they often are by scholars, be simply opposed to non-experts or inhabitants in their relation with
houses. Doing so, scholars lose much of the complex relation of expertise that other categories of
actors may have developed. I showed that autodidact experts constitute an intermediary category.
They have acquired and developed a synthetic knowledge about houses in the medina and the
medina more generally, but they nonetheless remain unrecognized officially. This should be
rectified, as intellectuals who are active in the preservation of the medina, tourist accommodation
owners and managers of restoration firms, all have practical and theoretical knowledge, put learning
at the core of their experience, and develop initiatives to preserve and promote heritage.
Also, neither affects nor knowledge distinguishes experts, autodidact experts and nonexperts. In that view, expertise is an engagement with something and an ability "to speak in the
name of" this thing, to use Tornatore’s (2010) idea. This engagement influences the kind of affect
and knowledge that these three categories of actors develop in their experience of houses. The
strength of expertise then depends on the stabilisation of the knowledge in categories and criteria
that allow knowledge to circulate and last in time. Non-experts tell anecdotes and personal
memories about specific houses and refer to a knowledge transmitted orally. Autodidact experts
read books, write blogs and give advice about their subject of interest. Experts refer to categories of
houses and their associated rules, compare houses in the medina with remote locations (which they
sometimes have not physically been to), and write academic or official documents. Their knowledge
is more stable and may circulate without losing its relevance of efficiency, mostly due to their
reliance on categories and institutions.
This shared expertise between experts, autodidact experts and non-experts does not prevent
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the occurrence of contentious relations between human beings about and around houses. During the
construction works, inhabitants have problems with the municipality regarding to the rules, with the
workers concerning the materials and the techniques, and with their neighbours because of the noise
that works entail. Members of institutions debate about the best way to undertake works, the
materials to use and the destructions allowed in houses. Although some scholars turn conflicts into a
methodological tool in the investigation of groups and their claims or trials to investigate the
multiples worlds and their associated conventions, I argue that conflicts and trials do not
characterise the daily life in houses and are only one tool of investigation to spot justifications –
jealousy, economy, tourism, security, functionality, beauty memories, habits, a will of modernity,
solidarity, education – and their conventions on the one hand, and actions – such as preservation,
transmission or instrumentalisation – carried by human actors, on the other. Most importantly,
conflicts and justifications shed light on what informants care for.
When human actors care for something, they give it qualities. Qualification – "valuation" in
Dewey’s (1939) terms or "instauration" in Latour’s (2012) terms – is the recognition, allocation and
evaluation of a quality to things. A quality emerges in a specific situation, in the flow of experience,
from the direct appreciation or depreciation of a situation, a thing, an event, a person and this
appreciation/depreciation participates to its individualisation. Also, quality allocation is not
exclusive and it could change in time. Inhabitants endow houses with physical and architectural
qualities, with a life and a spirit, with beauty, with spirituality, with exceptionality and uniqueness,
with representativeness, with an economic quality, with comfort and functionality, with a temporal
quality, with tradition and with a heritage quality. These qualities are not allocated altogether, and
the heritage quality generally connects – is generally bundled with – exceptionality, oldness,
scarcity or representativeness.
As heritage is a quality, the notion of heritage border (widely used by scholars without being
theorized) understood as something that separates heritage and non-heritage, loses its relevance.
Things don’t cross a border but offer multiple holds, give and take multiples attentions, and invite to
a plurality of attachments. As such one experience of houses (e.g. house-as-heritage) is not better
than another (e.g. house-as-home). I rather showed the various ways inhabitants shape and give
sense to their experience of houses. How one experience is assumed better than another is a
different question I do not address in this dissertation. I however tend to follow Descola (2011) who
suggests that humans do not qualify things at random but follow elementary inferences about the
qualification of things and about the kind of links between these qualities.
This overview of relations with the house leads me to the conclusion that the notion of
attachment better explains the relations between human actors and things, for it insists on the double
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relation between human beings and things – to attach and to be attached. As such, the notion of
attachment, through an approach in terms of "relation with" and not "use of" a thing, discards
approaches based solely on the instrumentalisation or the aestheticisation of a thing.
This overview also shows the importance of affects and senses in the relation with houses.
Sensual and affective relations shed light on what people care for – beauty, harmony, peaceful aural
atmosphere, well being – and relates to the intimate relation between human actors and things who
mutually affect/sense and are affected/felt. Senses and affects also play a role in the qualification of
an object, on the development of knowledge about this object, and on the active involvement with
this object. Finally, the sensual and affective relations with houses question the usual opposition
between experts and non-experts, and between Moroccan and foreigners, as houses constitute their
common focus of attention in affective and sensual terms.
Senses and affects don't automatically and necessarily lead to heritage. Together with actions
and justifications, they are possible components – and not compulsory ingredients – in the
actualisation of heritage. On the one hand, these possible components shed light on the continuum
between houses and heritage. Houses and heritage share senses, affects and qualities such as beauty,
life or conformity to the rules. In that view, the house-as-home doesn't exclude the house-asheritage. On the other hand, a "plus of attention" distinguishes them – a quality emerges from an
attention given to a thing. This "plus" generally comes from the concatenation of affects of loss,
disappearance or threat; qualities related to time (oldness, tradition), purity (authenticity) and the
object (its scarcity or typicality); and actions of preservation and transmission.
The investigation of the engagements with the materiality of houses and of their
qualification as heritage shows several kinds of heritage: heritage as a daily object, heritage as label,
heritage as an object to preserve, heritage as a definition or a category, heritage as a tool in
development projects, heritage as a legal object, heritage as an object of research. To make sense of
these multiple heritages, I argue that they are forms of heritage, a form being what remains similar
through a succession of transformations and circulations (Latour, 2012). On the one hand, each
form has its own features, its own conditions of truth and reality. On the other hand, they share
similarities. I define these similar features as the "heritage fiction." Fiction is a common space in
which relationships, exchanges, actions, meanings, affects, gestures and tones take place. This
common place is composed, in the case of heritage, of a specific relationship to the past, an idea of
culture as a specific entity, the importance of experts and their denial of unskilled actors, and moral
principles such as transmission or universality. The heritage fiction finally suggests that no form of
heritage, no quality of heritage is more valuable than another.
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This fiction circulates – through the media, the work of experts, written texts – and is
anchored – by qualification, by translation – in situation where it takes one or several forms.
Material devices, visual and writing techniques ensure the stabilisation of what circulates and is
anchored. Though this circulation and anchorage of heritage, it appears that the local and the global
are qualities of what is located and framed in situation in the first case, and what intensively
circulates in the second one. This approach of the local and the global sheds light on why UNESCO
is a major actor in the circulation of the heritage fiction. UNESCO and its World Heritage apparatus
is a macro-actor sitting on many taken-for-granted black boxes and enrolling many other actors –
World Bank, NGOs, states. It then creates an asymmetry with other actors and the forms of heritage
they promote.
This dissertation now comes to its end. Its 300-some pages result from more than 4 years of
work, reflection, travel, good and bad written reports, and discussion with multiple informants and
scholars. I chose to close with the avenues of new discussion which this dissertation opened, and
with the anthropological concepts which it allowed to deepen.
Needless to say, this written report about houses in Fez and the heritage fiction is far from
complete and calls for further investigation on the one hand and comparison with other sites on the
other. Fez shares many similarities with other (World) Heritage sites, be it in its history or in the
way human beings inhabit it. What is happening in Fez, Italian villages (Fabre and Iuso, 2009),
Luang Pabang (Berliner, 2012), Rethemnos (Herzfeld, 1991), Marrakech (Kurzac-Souali, 2006)
suggest that similar – while not identical – investigations and a common framework would help us
understand how the heritage fiction works.
The focus on engagements with and attachments to houses sheds light on criteria informants
referred to when judging an interior or when justifying an action. A concern for axiology compels
one to correlate these criteria to values – or common goods. Beauty relates to the aesthetic,
economy to the economic, personhood to liveliness. Authenticity is linked with purity in the sense
of what is unchanged since its origins and what remains in conformity to its original state. Both
oldness and tradition refer to continuity in time. It includes a strong memorial aspect, through
memories, for instance. When talking about a quality of exceptionality and uniqueness, informants
referred to scarcity, while they based their allocation on typicality in the case of representativeness.
Originality connects with creativity in the case of furnishing, for instance. Usage underlines the
functional quality. Finally, the religious, symbolist or spiritual quality of the house relates to
spirituality. This focus on values shows that heritage is more than a work of experts as it is rooted in
the daily life with which it shares similar values. It also invites to compare elements of heritage
292
between them or with other results of a qualification.
Linking the forms of heritage to the modes of existences defined by Latour (2012) is another
way to improve this dissertation. In his anthropology of the Moderns, Latour (2012) gets rid of the
modernity fillers such as Nature, Society, Subject, Object or Economy and he sheds light on the
various modes of existences, the various ontological ways of being. Each mode possesses its own
criteria, its "conditions of felicity" – that is to say the conditions to say the truth – and one cannot
judge one way of being with the features and criteria of another.
Heritage as an object of preservation relates to the ontology of reproduction in which
inheritance and transmission are two conditions of felicity. Heritage is then a line of force – and not
a line of descent – as it does not reproduce itself but need human beings to last in time and to be
passed on to the next generation. Correlated with heritage as a daily object, we find the ontology of
habits that erode perception, favour routines and blur the qualities of things. Heritage as an object of
research belongs to the mode of existence of metamorphosis, of the invisible world, of non-human
things that may possess or penetrate human beings. Some informants didn't hide their passion for
heritage and many scholars link the birth and the awareness of heritage to a passionate nationalism,
to the passionate awareness of identities and to the creation of national identities. Heritage
metamorphosed in a national good and its protection, has inhabited and obnubilated many scholars
involved in a public administration or in private associations. Heritage as a definition and a category
relates to the mode of existence of reference, the mode of science, of knowledge, of criteria. Legal
heritage is inscribed in the ontology of law, while its use as a tool in development projects makes
him a being of technique with a punctual and short life and a huge capacity to change and to adapt
to situations in order to accurately and efficiently fulfil a function. Finally, heritage as a label
correlates to the political mode of existence concerned with unity-making.
However, I do push the comparison with Latour's (id.) modes of existence to the point of
asserting that the various forms of heritage are ontologically distinct. I rather consider the various
forms of heritage as concrete holds of the heritage fiction assorted with their own features and
criteria. In that sense, forms of heritage are closer to the models of cities and worlds developed by
Boltanski and Thévenot (1991). Nonetheless, I argue that, contrary to the separation involved by the
worlds and cities as well as by the modes of existence, the various forms of heritage share similar
features of the heritage fiction.
Finally, this fiction, as well as the idea that heritage results from a "plus of attention," invites
us to think of additional components surrounding heritage qualification. First of all, heritage
qualification depends on a particular conception of temporality as linear succession. Time is
irreversible and there is a rupture between the present and the vanishing past. As a consequence, it
293
is necessary to preserve objects from the past as they are supposed to disappear. An evolutionist and
biological conception of culture underlies the idea of disappearance – cultures were born and die,
and not all of them are able to preserve themselves – as well as by cultural relativism – cultures are
different from each other. Materialism is also an additional component of heritage qualification.
One has to foresee the possibilities of intervention (technical, temporal, economic) and to organize
them in order to implement an action of preservation. Idealism means that some people think they
are able to change the current state of things by their actions, ranging from a simple restoration to
an involvement in an association or institution. Linked to this idealism are expertise and pedagogy.
Expertise, because it is important to have knowledge about heritage, to have stabilised it in a kind of
knowledge. Pedagogy because when acting, one intends to show the way, to be an example for
others. Finally, in the case of experts more specifically, there is a certain self-perception of being
born at the wrong period and being alone against the world in the fight for preservation.
Throughout this dissertation, I intended to shed light and propose rather new empirical and
theoretical ways to approach, investigate and make sense of "heritage." Scholars too often take for
granted the heritage aspect of the element they study and content themselves with a list of problems
and conflicts between levels of reality or human actors (physical injures on people and/or elements
of heritage, conflicts around the definition of heritage, etc.). They also tend to oppose experts and
non-experts in their appraisal and their experience of heritage and to erase themselves from the
heritage stage. However, my approach sheds light on heritage dynamics poorly investigated up to
now in the field of heritage studies – such as heritage affects and knowledge or the expertise of
experts, non-experts and their intermediary categories. I assert that the researcher is fully integrated
in the heritage qualification and circulation and has to take it into account to better describe and
explain the heritage stage. Finally, I call for similar investigations in other World Heritage site for
this comparative method to be refined and improved upon the approach I sketched out in the
preceding pages.
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311
Living in a World Heritage Site: ethnography of the Fez medina
(Morocco)
Appendix
A dissertation by Manon Istasse submitted to the Department of Political
and Social Sciences of the Free University of Brussels for the degree of
Doctor in Anthropology
Members of the jury:
David Berliner (University of Brussels)
Mathieu Hilgers (University of Brussels)
Jean-Louis Genard (University of Brussels)
Christophe Brumann (Mack Planck Institute in Halle)
Lynn Meskell (University of Stanford)
September 2013
Glossary
'aïd el Kebir: Feast of the Sacrifice. Religious celebration to honour the willingness of the prophet
Ibrahim (Abraham) to sacrifice his young first-born son Ismail as an act of submission to God. It
takes places on the 10th day of Dhu al-Hijjah (last month of the Muslim calendar) and lasts for four
days.
'alim (pl. 'ulamā): scholar holding religious knowledge.
adul: Islamic traditional notary.
amel: cf. bacha.
amine: head of guilds.
āthar: historical monument.
bab: door or city gate.
babuch: Oriental shoes with flat soles and without stiffener.
bacha: City governor.
bejmat: ceramic rectangular tile.
bakchich: bribe.
baladiya: commune.
bartal: alcove opened on the patio.
bastila: hot puff pastry filled with pigeons, almonds, onions and raisins.
bejmat: enamelled half brick.
beldi: traditional, from the country (bled).
bīt-lma: bathroom.
borj: tower, fortified building.
bulfaf: liver brochette whose pieces of meat are rolled into a fat membrane and dipped into cumin
and salt.
bust d-dār: patio, central courtyard.
charīf (pl. churafā): descend from the Prophet Mohammed and his wife Fatima.
chemachech : decorative bay window above doors and rectangular windows through which light is
supposed to enter.
311
chikhat: in the past, mistress of a lord. Nowadays, chikhats are known as professional singers.
Nonetheless, singing is not recognised as a profession for women in Morocco, and is often
associated with prostitution.
dahir: since the Protectorate, legislative or administrative act through which the Sultan endows his
decisions with obligations and duties.
dār (pl. diour): house without garden.
daret: practices of families and neighbours to visit each other
derb: street, dead-end.
dessāssa: of 30 to 40 centimetres of rammed down earth resting on wooden plates to separate two
floors.
dhikr: evocation and repetition of the name of Allah.
fassi: from Fez.
fellah: peasant, rural.
foq: floor.
frach: low banquette.
funduk: storage buildings and hotel for merchants in cities of commercial importance.
gabbass (pl. gabbassa): plaster craftsman.
gabs: carved and/or painted plaster under the form of friezes and panels, with geometric, floral or
calligraphic designs.
gaïza: visible wood beam on a ceiling, supporting the warqa.
gaouri(ya): Westerner.
ghassoul: natural clay used in cosmetics to wash the hair or to clean the skin.
Habous: Institution: Ministry of Religious Endowments and Islamic Affairs. Goods: perpetual and
inalienable endowment of an immovable property whose revenue earnings are devoted to social
charity work (waqf khayri) or to specific beneficiaries (waqf ahli).
Hadīth: words of the Prophet Mohammed, and by extension, a book related to the behaviours and
sayings of the Prophet. They constitute a tool to understand the Koran.
Haïq: White veil or mask in lace covering the bottom of the face of women in North Africa.
Hanout: shop.
Halqa: literally ring. Architecture: open roof, square opening to the sky at the top of the house
312
above the central courtyard, surrounded by woodwork, letting air and light entering the house.
Hammam (pl. Hammamat): public bath. By extension: bathroom.
hawma: neighbourhood.
jabador: large pants and assorted shirt.
jellaba: long dress with short or long sleeves and a hat, worn by men and women in North Africa.
jief: lime.
jiha: main neighbourhood.
kaftan: women dress , usually cotton or silk ankle-length garment with long sleeves nowadays worn
for rituals and ceremonies.
kānūn: brazier, coal burner in clay.
khyata: solid brick.
Hchouma: shame.
kheddama:
lihoudi: Jewish.
litham: veil hiding the inferior part of the face.
m'allem (pl.m3almine): master craftsman.
madrasa: see medersa.
maghtoub: mortar of lime and sand.
makhzen: literally warehouse. Ancient feudalist state predating the French Protectorate. Nowadays:
government of the King. By extension: elite centred around the king and consisting of royal
notables, businessmen, wealthy landowners, tribal leaders, top-ranking military personnel, security
service bosses, and other well-connected members.
malhun: Melodic poem inspired from Andalus music, urban sung poetry performed by man of
craftsmen’s guilds.
masriya: small outhouse with two floors or isolated room on the rooftop terrace.
medersa (pl. madrasa): Koranic school providing an accommodation to foreign - that is to say alien
to the city- students.
medjless: communitarian council.
melk: private ownership.
313
mellaH: salt. Also, Jewish area in Moroccan cities.
menzeh: pavilion in a garden or isolated room on the rooftop.
mohtassib: commercial provost marshal.
mokhzani: cf. moqaddem.
moqaddem: representative of the Government in a neighbourhood.
mucharabieh: lattice wood. Wood, metal, stone or marble surface with an openwork design bringing
air and light.
muhandis: mediator between the owner and workers.
muqarnas: honeycomb.
nakch: painted drawing.
neijjārīn (sg. neijjār): carpenters.
niqab: integral veil.
nzaha: picnic outside the city walls.
oued: river.
qadi: Islamic law judge.
qaïd: Governor of a city or chief of a neighbourhood.
qaïda: literally, base, foundation. By extension, stable social rules.
qdim: old, ancient.
rtej: piece of decorated wood with a kiosk shape.
roumi: industrial, foreign, in opposition to beldi (traditional, from the country). It firstly designated
Romans before being applied, pejoratively, to Europeans and Christians.
roxa: authorization.
sahrij: pool, central fountain in the courtyard of a house or a mosque.
sefl: ground-floor.
serual: pants with a low crutch close to the knees worn by man.
setwan: corridor in elbow.
314
sqaya: mural fountain in the courtyard of a house or in the street
sūq (pl. suqūq): (open-air) market.
tadelakt: coating made of lime and water, shiny and waterproof.
tajine: Dish with stewed vegetables and meat.
taqāfa: culture (knowledge, know-how, practices).
taqālīd: traditions. By extension, way of life.
tarbuch: red hat in felt.
testir: geometric interlacing radiating from a central star.
turāth: civilizational elements of knowledge, culture, and intellect that are said to have been passed
down from the Arabs of the past to the Arabs of the present. It is a classical Arabic - and not
Moroccan Arabic – term used to speak of cultural heritage, be it tangible or intangible.
turiq : floral decoration pattern.
ryad (sg. rawda): house with an internal garden in the patio or behind.
warqa: layer of wood supporting earth and sand separating two floors.
warth: familial inheritance.
wilaya: regional district.
zawiya: Muslim religious building close to the tomb of a Saint.
zelij: tile mosaic following geometric designs and covering grounds and walls, enamelled small tile
of clay of various shapes and colours.
zerzaï: porter.
zuin: beautiful.
zwāq: painter.
315
Informants
NAME
NATIONALITY
OCCUPATION
INTERVIEWS
discussions)
Morocco-French
Moroccan
AGE
in
2010
~ 40
54
Abdelaziz
Abdelhaq
Own a guest house
Belt-maker
Adbelhay
Moroccan
36
Land owner, Ziyarates membre
Abderahim
Moroccan. Born in
the medina. Lives in
the New City
Moroccan
Moroccan
Moroccan
Moroccan
38
Manager in a restaurant
20/10/2010; 23/02/2011
28/04/2011;
03/05/2011;
15/05/2011; 22/05/2011
25/07/2010 ;
27/07/2010 ;
04/08/2010 ; 20/10/2010 ;
08/06/2011
53
39
41
37
French. Arrived in
Fez in 2002
Moroccan
46
Own a café and a guest house
Own a guest house
Employee in a guest house
Primary teacher, Ziyarates
landlady
Librarian, own a guest house
~ 40
Own a home-stay, squire
Antoine
French. Arrived in
Fez in 2005. Left in
2012
44
Retired (fighter pilot), manage
a restoration firm
Asmae
Aziz
Moroccan
Moroccan
24
34
Benoit
French. Arrived in
Fez in 2009
52
Employee in a guest house
Manage a guest house, degree
in hotel business
Retired (teacher in economics),
own a guest house
Catherine
Rochant
Christina
French
~ 50
American. Arrived
in Fez in 2006
French. Do not live
in Fez
French. Arrived in
Fez in 2007. Left in
2012
American. Arrived
in Fez in 1996
58
Architect hired for the
Millenium Corporation Project
English teacher
~ 55
Archaeologist
02/10/2010;
12/11/2010
14/06/2012
~ 40
Own a guest house
03/12/2009; 12/01/2010
56
Director of the American
Language Institute in Fez
Moroccan. Born in
Oujda
Australian
42
Unemployed
22/01/2010;
01/10/2010;
10/10/2010;
16/10/2010;
17/10/2010
12/12/2010; 15/12/2010
62
03/07/2010; 14/07/2010
Moroccan. Live in
the New City
Moroccan
Moroccan
61
Retired (nurse), own a tourist
accommodation
Architect, own a guest house
27
51
Unemployed
Linguist, craftsman, own a
guest house
Moroccan. Live in
the New City
Spanish. Arrived in
Fez in 2009. Left in
2011
~ 45
Architect, director
ADER
Employee in a NGO
18/03/2011
04/02/2010;
05/02/2010;
01/05/2010;
04/05/2010; 31/05/2011
17/05/2010
Abdu
Ahmed
Aïcha
Amal
Amélie
Amin
Christophe
Boulle
Cyril
David
Amster
Diya
Emma
Fatima
Fatimzohra
Fettah
Fouad
Serghini
Frederica
33
of
the
(formal
08/10/2010;
29/06/2010
11/02/2011
16/07/2010;
23/07/2010;
10/10/2010
10/01/2010;
25/06/2010;
29/06/2010; 12/07/2010;
25/07/2010;
27/07/2010;
04/08/2010; 20/10/2010
08/04/2011;
11/04/2011;
13/04/2011;
25/04/2011;
16/05/2011;
22/05/2011;
30/05/2011
09/02/2011
20/07/2010; 13/01/2010
08/07/2010;
27/07/2010;
03/08/2010;
10/08/2010;
30/09/2010;
16/10/2010;
18/10/210; 09/01/2010;
18/05/2011; 06/06/2011
12/10/2010;
02/02/2010; 26/10/2010
08/04/2011
316
Gigi
French. Arrived in
Fez in 2004
59
Beautician, own a guest house
Guy
French. Arrived in
Fez in 2003
Moroccan
Moroccan
56
~ 55
43
Retired,
own
a
accommodation
Shopkeeper
Own a guest house
Hannah
Irish. Arrived in Fez
in 2010
~ 50
Librarian, own a guest house
Hassan
Moroccan. Live in
the New City
42
Jawad
Jean-Marc
Moroccan
French. Arrived in
Fez in 2002
33
Archaeologist, work at the
Inspection
of
Historical
Monuments
Hair cutter
Physiotherapist, own a guest
house
Jean-Paul
Ichter
Jean-Pierre
French. Arrived in
Fez in 1960
French. Arrived in
Fez in 2009. Died in
2011
American. Arrived
in Fez in 2001
Moroccan
Moroccan. Born in
the medina. Lives in
Rabat
Moroccan. Lives in
the New City
French. Arrived in
Fez in 2010
Hamid
Hamza
Kate
Khadija
Laïla Skalli
Lamya
Loïc
Lotfi
Malek
Marc
and
Fançois
Moroccan. Lives in
the New City
Moroccan. Born in
Rabat. Live in the
New City
French. Arrived in
Fez in 2008
~ 55
75
Helen
Ranger
Mehdi
Mehdi Abadi
French. Arrived in
Fez in 2005
British. Arrived I
Fez in 2003
Moroccan. Live I the
New City
Moroccan. Lives in
Architect
20/04/2011
14/06/2010;
10/12/2010;
19/12/2010;
17/12/2009;
15/01/2010;
25/04/2010; 17/06/2010;
11/07/2010;
06/08/2010;
12/10/2010
30/09/2010;
01/10/2010;
16/11/2010;
24/01/2011;
30/03/2011
04/02/2010; 22/03/2011
08/01/2010;
03/05/2010;
27/10/2010;
12/01/2011;
16/03/2011; 17/06/2011
10/05/2010;
18/09/2010;
24/06/2011
01/08/2010
38
Retired (professional soldier),
own a guest house
38
17/09/2010
21
39
Training in cooking, own a
guest house
Student, Ziyarates landlady
Architect
~ 45
Technician at the ADER
15/12/2011
49
Civil servant, own a guest
house
34
Computer engineer
19/01/2010;
20/06/2010;
30/06/2010;
18/07/2010;
08/08/2010;
06/12/2010;
16/01/2011;
28/03/2011;
13/02/2011
42
Architect, employee at the
commune
28/10/2010; 06/06/2011
46
Retired (retail trader, and
educator),
own a tourist
accommodation
13/03/2011;
31/05/2011
Architect
27/09/2010
18/06/2010
29
Travel writer, manage a renting
agency
Employee in a guest house
39
Own two guest houses
03/02/2010
and
Marie
tourist
21/11/2009;
19/12/2009;
09/01/2010;
03/05/2010;
06/05/2010;
11/06/2010;
26/06/2010;
08/07/2010;
11/07/2010;
17/07/2010;
25/09/2010;
28/09/2010;
20/05/2011; 17/06/2011
13/11/2010; 01/02/2011
48
41
~ 60
11/12/2010
27/01/2010; 21/01/2011
15/06/2010;
23/06/2010;
13/07/2010;
05/08/2010;
24/09/2010;
13/12/2010;
16/03/2011;
27/04/2011;
14/06/2010; 24/06/2010
317
Meriem
Michel
Mohamed
the New City
Moroccan. Lives in
the New City
French. Arrived in
Fez in 2006. Mainly
lives in France
Moroccan
22
Architect
25/03/2011
56
Retired
18/05/2011
34
Unemployed, Ziyarates homestay
Expert
in
the
Culture
Programme for UNESCO in
Rabat
Own a guest house
14/12/2010
Mohamed
Ould Katthar
Mauritanian
~ 60
Nora
British. Arrived in
Fez in 2009. Married
to a Moroccan
Moroccan
Belgian. Arrived in
Fez in 2009
Moroccan. Lives in
the medina and the
New City
French. Arrived in
Fez in 2007
French. Arrived in
Fez in 2003
26
Pierre
Nordin
Olivier
16/12/2010
36
Employee in a guest house
Former
consultant
economics
Employee in a guest house
~ 40
Own a tourism agency
23/06/2010; 13/07/2010
43
Art historian, managed an
estate agency in Fez
13/08/2010;
25/09/2010
French. Born in
Casablanca. Arrived
in Fez in 2003
63
Retired (former soldier). Own
a tourist accommodation and a
restaurant in Fez.
12/05/2010; 15/052010
Rachid
Halaoui
Moroccan. Lives in
the New City
~ 40
Architect
03/06/2011
Ruth
German. Arrived in
Fez in 2005
52
Psychologist, own a
house
Saad
Moroccan
43
Architect,
work
a
UNESCO office in Rabat
Sarah
French. Arrived in
2010
38
Fired (trade)
24/03/2011
Simon
French. Arrived in
Fez in 2004
53
Own a guest house
01/02/2010
Steeve
American. Arrived
in Fez in 2002
48
Designer, own
accommodation
Talal
Moroccan
~55
Work at the CRT, own a guest
house
22/06/2010
Tayyibi
Moroccan. Born in
Rabat. Lives in the
New City
35
Architect, director of
National
School
Architecture in Fez
No formal interview
Valentin
French. Arrived in
Fez in 2005
44
Airline pilot,
restoration firm
Youssef
Moroccan
71
Own a guest house
Omar
Perrine
Philippe
29
~35
01/07/2010
a
in
03/03/2011; 04/03/2011
guest
the
tourist
manage
05/06/2011
07/05/2010; 11/05/2010
the
of
a
07/01/2010;
06/05/2010;
07/07/2010;
30/09/2010;
11/11/2010;
16/08/2010;
21/01/2010;
03/06/2010;
28/09/0210;
04/10/2010;
20/01/2011
19/01/2010; 30/01/2011
21/09/2010;
20/05/2010
318
Appendix
1. Pictures showed
1.
3.
5.
2.
4.
6.
319
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
320
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
321
2. Maps
Map 1
Map 2
322
3. The Campini/Boujloud/French gate
Campini gate before 1916. Postcard
Boujloud gate after 1916. Postcard
323
French gate in 2010. Credit : Manon Istasse
4. Déclaration de Sa Majesté le Roi Hassan II, fait au Palais Royal de Rabat, le 8 ramadan
1400 (21 juillet 1980)
Le rôle historique que le ville de Fès a assumé pour consolider la civilisation marocaine et répandre
les lumières de le foi et de la science, la valeur inestimable de son patrimoine artistique riche de tant
que chef d'oeuvre que le génie marocain a su produire, qu'il s'agisse de la conception architecturale
et urbanistique, de la décoration des mosquées et des médersas; des créations d'un merveilleux
artisanat et de la parfaite organisation des souks, objets de la fierté de la culture arabo-islamique,
nous fait une obligation de considérer que la restauration et la sauvegarde de la ville de Fès font
partie des missions que Nous devons accomplir avec l'aide et l'assistance d'Allah.
Nos ancêtres se sont préoccupés de l'édification et de la promotion de Fès. Dans le passé, Fès avait
atteint l'apogée de la civilisation et était devenue un haut lieu de rencontre de tous ceux qui étaient
en quête de savoir, un centre de rayonnement culturel et une source féconde de la création
artistique.
Si les années ont terni quelque peu sa splendeur et si des signes de vieillissement se manifestent
dans le corps de ses édifices et de ses monuments, Notre devoir aujourd'hui est de la faire revivre et
de la rénover afin qu'elle retrouve ses antiques traditions. Nous devons œuvrer pour que ses fissures
soient réparées et que sa vie reprenne son cours normal. Ainsi se dresseront de nouveau dans Fès les
piliers de la civilisation sur lesquels une aube nouvelle de science et de sagesse répande sa lumière.
Notre tâche devient agréable quand nous constatons que le monde entier s'associe à notre effort en
reconnaissant la cité de Fès comme un patrimoine universel. C'est ainsi que la Conférence générale
de l'Unesco, dans sa session de 1976 à Nairobi, a adopté une résolution faisant de la sauvegarde de
la ville de Fès un devoir qui incombe à toute l'humanité. Il s'en suivit l'Appel que le Directeur
général de l'Unesco, Monsieur Amadou-Mahtar M'BOW, a adressé à la communauté internationale
pour la restauration et le renouveau de Fès.
A ce propos, Nous rappelons à Notre peuple et à Nos amis qu'en aidant à rendre à Fès sa place dans
le concert des civilisations, ils participeront à la renaissance de la gloire éternelle de Notre Patrie et
324
au développement de la culture islamique sur cette terre d'honneur et de dignité.
Aussi devons-Nous donner à Notre Gouvernement des instructions pour qu'il considère le projet de
Fès comme une préoccupation primordiale et pour qu'il accorde une attention particulière dans le
cadre de ses responsabilités relatives:
1 aux programmes d'équipement et de l'habitat,
2 à la préservation du patrimoine culturel,
3 au développement de l'art, de la culture et de la pensée,
4 et à la diffusion des enseignements de l'Islam.
Le Maroc doit demeurer le pays de l'authenticité véritable, le vrai chemin qui mène à al réalisation
des ambitions de notre siècle de progrès et de prospérité.
Declaration of His Majesty the King Hassan II, in the Royal Palace of Rabat on the 8th ramadan
1400 (21st July 1980)
The city of Fes played an historical role to strengthen the Moroccan civilization and to spread the
lights of faith and science, to strengthen the priceless value of its artistic heritage in so many works
of art produced by the Moroccan genius, be it the architectural and urban design, the decoration in
mosques and Koranic schools, to strengthen the wonderful craft realisations and the perfect
organisation of souks. These sources of pride in the Arab-Islamic culture make compulsory to
regard the restoration and the safeguard of the city of Fez among the missions We have to fulfil with
the help and the support of Allah.
Our ancestors built and promoted Fez. In the past, Fez reached its civilisation apogee and had
become a mecca for those seeking for knowledge, a centre for cultural activity and a fertile source
of artistic creation.
If her splendour somewhat tarnished over time and if her buildings and monuments show ageing
signs in their bodies, it is Our duty today to bring her back to life and to renovate her for her to
retrieve her antique traditions. We have to strive for repairing her cracks and for bringing her back
to a normal way of life. As a consequence, the pillars of civilisation from which to diffuse the light
of a new dawn of science and wisdom will stand anew in Fez.
Our task is even more pleasant when we notice the entire world join our effort by recognizing the
city of Fez as a universal heritage. The UNESCO General Conference, in its 1976 session in
Nairobi, passed a resolution making of the safeguard of the city of Fez a duty lying with the entire
humanity. Followed a call the UNESCO General Director, Mister Amadou-Mahtar M'Bow, geared
toward the international community for the restoration and the renewal of Fez.
We remind to Our people and to Our friends that with helping in bringing Fez back in the concert of
civilisations, they will participate to the recognition of the eternal glory of Our Country and to the
development of Islamic culture on this earth of honour and dignity.
Consequently, We should give to Our Government instructions for him to consider the Fez project
as a priority and for him to give a specific importance to in the context of its relative responsibilities
to:
1. housing and facilities programs,
2. cultural heritage preservation,
3. the development of art, culture and though,
4. the spread of Islam teaching.
Morocco has to stay the country of genuine authenticity, the real way leading to the realisation of
ambitions in our century of progress and prosperity.
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5. Change and immutability
Medersa Bouanania, 1917
http://archnet.org/library/images/one-image.jsp?location_id=1410&image_id=12160
Medersa Bouanania, 2012. Credit : M. Istasse
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6. Ziyarates’ Charters
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333
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335
336
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341
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7. Master Plan (1997)
0PREAMBULE
LE REGLEMENT D’AMENAGEMENT accompagne le PLAN D’AMENAGEMENT, document
graphique dont il est indissociable.
Les dispositions de ce document s’appliquent aux actions de restauration, de réhabilitation, de
consolidation, aux constructions nouvelles et rénovation ou reconstruction ainsi qu’aux
modifications ou extensions des installations et constructions existantes. Les lotissements ne feront
d’aucune façon objet du présent règlement qu’exceptionnellement et suivant des restrictions
variables d'une zone à l'autre.
Toute autorisation de construire, de modifier ou de restaurer, délivrée avant la date d’approbation
du présent plan d’aménagement continue à être valide si elle n’est pas à l’encontre de ses
orientations.
LE REGLEMENT D’AMENAGEMENT est établi conformément :
•au Dahir N° 1-92-31 du 15 Hija 1412 (17 Juin 1992) portant promulgation de la loi N° 12-90
relative à l’urbanisme.
•au Dahir N° 1-92-7 du 15 Hija 1412 (17 Juin 1992) portant promulgation de la loi 25-90 relative
aux lotissements, groupes d’habitations et morcellements.
• à l’Arrêté Viziriel du 22 Joumada 1372 (9 Mars 1953) portant réglementation de la hauteur
sous plafond des locaux à usage d’habitation.
• au Décret N° 2-64-445 du 21 Chaabane 1384(26 décembre 1964) définissant les zones d’habitat
économique.
• au Dahir N°: 1-80-341 (17 Safar) portant promulgation de la loi 22-80 relative à la conservation
des monuments historiques, des sites, des inscriptions des objets d'art et d'antiquité.
•Il est complété par l’Arrêté Municipal Permanent (A.M.P.) qui définit les Règles de construction,
de Sécurité et d’Hygiène.
1. TITRE I : DISPOSITIONS GENERALES
ARTICLE 1. CHAMP D’APPLlCATlON
Le présent Règlement d’Aménagement s’applique à la totalité du territoire défini et délimité au Plan
d’Aménagement de la Médina.
Ce territoire intéresse les Communes de Fès-Médina et Méchouar-Fès Jdid. Les parties du territoire
de chacune de ces communes auxquelles s’applique le présent Règlement sont délimitées sur les
plans d’Aménagement généraux de ces communes.
ARTICLE 2. DIVISION DU TERRITOIRE EN ZONES ET SECTEURS
Le territoire couvert par le Plan d’Aménagement est divisé en zones urbanistiquement intégrées
dont les caractéristiques et les règles sont définies ci-après :
au TITRE II pour les zones urbaines :
Zone M1 - la zone de restauration urbaine,
Zone M2 - La zone de réhabilitation urbaine,
Zone M3 - La zone de rénovation urbaine,
Zone IM,
Zone E- la zone d’habitat continu individuel ou collectif,
Zones 10B- La zone de restructuration,
Zone AM- zone des grands équipements,
au TITRE III pour :
- Les actions ponctuelles
au TITRE IV pour :
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- la réorganisation des activités
au TITRE V pour :
- Les zones de protection de l’enceinte et du site de la Médina, repérées par les lettres RAM et
RBM.
ARTICLE 3. ZONES NON SOUMISES A REGLEMENTATION
Ne sont pas soumises à la réglementation du Plan d’Aménagement, les zones ci-après, simplement
délimitées au plan :
• La zone du PALAIS ROYAL
• Les zones d’installation militaire.
ARTICLE 4. VOIES ET PARCS DE STATIONNEMENT
Toutes les voies existantes sont représentées sur le Plan d’Aménagement, mais seules les voies à
aménager et les voies à créer pour la circulation motorisée sont répertoriées. L’indication portée sur
le P.A. est la suppression de la totalité des parcelles touchées par l’acquisition en vue de la
libération de l’emprise (sans précision de la dimension de l’emprise à réaliser effectivement).
Pour les voies existantes figurant sur le plan, mais non répertoriées, l’emprise actuelle est maintenue
et ne peut être modifiée, sinon ponctuellement et le long de voies indiquées au Plan
d’Aménagement pour être des « voies d’urgence » et dans le but de permettre le passage de
véhicules de service public spécialement adaptés.
Les parcs de stationnement publics existants et à créer sont figurés et la nomenclature indique leur
nature : parc en surface, parc souterrain sur un ou plusieurs niveaux, parc en étages (ou silo)...ainsi
que les conditions de leur intégration (plantations, mur de clôture...). La hauteur d’un parc en étages
ne peut excéder la hauteur maximale autorisée pour d’autres constructions dans le secteur dans
lequel se situe ce parc. Le stationnement en toiture non couverte est interdit.
ARTICLE 5. EQUIPEMENTS PUBLICS
Le Plan d’Aménagement affecte ou réserve des terrains pour des équipements publics de différentes
natures. Les nomenclatures en annexe précisent, qu’il s’agisse d’équipements existants ou
d’équipements à créer, leur nature et leur affectation.
Les règles de hauteur et d’implantation par rapport aux limites séparatives, qui sont fixées dans le
secteur où un équipement public est situé, s’appliquent à l’intérieur des remparts des quartiers
anciens de la Médina (Fès El Bali et Fès Jdid), la réalisation d’équipements publics nouveaux sur
terrains déjà construits est tenue, comme les autres occupations du sol, à s’inscrire dans les volumes
existants. A cette fin, des dérogations éventuelles aux règles et normes de réalisation de ces
équipements seront accordées.
ARTICLE 6. ESPACES VERTS PUBLICS
Les espaces verts publics : grands espaces plantés ou non, à usage récréatif ou simplement
paysagers, parcs et jardins publics, squares, places plantées,...etc., sont indiqués au Plan
d’Aménagement et à la nomenclature.
Sur les terrains affectées à ces espaces verts publics, toute construction est interdite, à l’exception
de petits édicules indispensables pour la gestion, l’hygiène et l’entretien, sous la réserve que leurs
hauteurs ne dépassent pas 3,50 m, que leurs superficies ne représentent pas plus de 5 % de la
surface totale du terrain (sans dépasser 40 m²), et que leur volume soit minimal pour la fonction à
remplir et que leur implantation et leur aspect s’intègrent à l’aménagement paysager de l’espace
considéré.
Les Communes de Fès-Médina et de Fès Jdid-Méchouar sont autorisées à exercer un droit de
préemption sur cession de parcelle non bâtie ou en ruine, dans le but de reconstruire l’édifice
abandonné, de créer un espace vert accessible au public ou, après enquête favorable, un équipement
collectif de quartier.
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ARTICLE 7. TYPES D’OCCUPATION OU D’UTILISATION INTERDITS
Sont interdits dans les limites du Plan d’Aménagement de la Médina de Fès, les types d’occupation
ou d’utilisation du sol ci-après, auxquelles s’ajoutent les interdictions complémentaires stipulées
dans les différentes zones:
• Les établissements industriels classés de l’ère et 2ème catégories, ainsi que les établissements
industriels classés ou non classés et les dépôts représentant un danger quelconque, que ceux-ci
soient liés ou non aux activités artisanales ou commercialisées dans le secteur, a fortiori toute
extension d’activités classées et de l’espèce existantes.
• Toute activité industrielle ou artisanale ou extension de telles activités, en dehors des secteurs
affectés à l’activité dans le Plan d’Aménagement, installée dans une construction inadaptée à sa
nature ou causant des nuisances de vibration ou de pollution sous toutes ses formes et incompatibles
avec l’occupation du secteur.
• L’ouverture de carrières, les affouillements et exhaussement de sol autres que ceux que prévoit le
Plan d’Aménagement.
• Les constructions précaires, à l’exclusion des abris temporaires de chantier, requis pour des
travaux importants et qui doivent être démolis en fin de chantier.
• Tous travaux confortatifs, tant intérieurs qu’extérieurs, sur des constructions dont la démolition est
prévue par le plan d’aménagement à des fins de salubrité, d’élargissement ou d’ouverture de voies.
Exception est faite des dispositions à prendre obligatoirement pour éviter le risque d’effondrement
sur la voie publique.
• Les terrains de stationnement de caravanes ou de campings.
• Les ateliers ou garages d’entretien automobile, stations de distribution de carburant, sauf à
proximité immédiate des portes de la Médina et sous réserve d’une intégration parfaite justifiée à la
suite d’une étude d’impact détaillée.
ARTICLE 8. TYPES D’OCCUPATION SOUMIS A DES CONDITIONS SPECIALES
• L’installation ou l’extension limitée des activités commerciales, productives et artisanales
conformément au plan d’aménagement et aux plans sectoriels, sous condition de ne pas créer de
nuisance à leur environnement immédiat (bruit, vibrations, trépidation, poussières, odeurs,
émanations nuisibles ou dangereuses, vapeurs ou fumées, altération des eaux, danger d’incendie ou
d’explosion, action corrosive, en particulier).
• Les types d’activités autorisés sont précisés dans les articles relatifs aux activités.
• L’installation ou l’extension d’activités commerciales ou productives autorisées par le Plan
d’Aménagement restent néanmoins soumises à autorisation des autorités compétentes
conformément à la réglementation en vigueur . Cette autorisation peut être subordonnée à la
réalisation des travaux ou l’observance de dispositions de nature à éliminer les nuisances, phoniques
ou autres, créées par l’activité, ou encore la gêne causée au voisinage par les conditions
d’approvisionnement.
ARTICLE 9. OCCUPATION TEMPORAIRE DU DOMAINE PUBLIC
Toute occupation du domaine public est soumise à autorisation des municipalités concernées. Elle
est en tout état de cause assortie de l’obligation de libérer immédiatement l’emprise publique à
l’annonce d’une intervention d’urgence qu’elle soit (incendie, transport sanitaire, intervention de la
protection civile....).
ARTICLE 10. AMENAGEMENT DES ACCES
Les aménagements des accès, mentionnés dans le plan d’aménagement seront exécutés dans le
cadre des plans de détail les concernant. Il s’agit des accès suivants :
• L ’accès Ain Azliten avec ses deux branches Talaa Kbira et Derb Ameur,
• l’accès Oued Zhoun,
• l’accès Bin Lamdoun,
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• l’accès R’cif
• l’accès par les deux antennes dites Douh,
• l’éventuelle liaison entre les deux antennes Douh(liaison mise à l’étude)
• la trame des accès desservant les quartiers situés à l’Est de la Médina ( Bab Ftouh, Bab Khoukha
et Sidi Boujida)
ARTICLE 11. VOIES D’ACCES D’URGENCE
Le réseau de voirie d’urgence mentionné sur le plan d’aménagement nécessite certains
élargissements aux points d’étranglement. Ceci pour permettre le passage des engins de lutte contre
l’incendie et de la protection civile en particulier.
Les voies d’accès d’urgence ne pourraient en aucun cas comporter de marches ni d’obstacles
rendant difficile l’accès des engins de lutte contre l’incendie et ceux de la protection civile. Ils
feront l’objet d’un arrêté d’alignement conformément aux dispositions réglementaires en vigueur.
ARTICLE 12. RESEAUX DIVERS
a. Le réseau des sources et puits
Le réseau principal d’eau de source alimentant les équipements et fontaines publics et aboutissant
aux ouvrages de distribution aux maisons est à réhabiliter, avec l’ensemble des ouvrages
hydrauliques l’accompagnant, ceci tout en assurant :
• L’aménagement du captage de la source :
• Chambre de captage,
•Zone de protection d’un rayon de 30m, où aucune source de contamination ne doit se localiser,
avec possibilité de l’étendre s’il y a des sources de contamination ascendantes.
•La désinfection continue de l’eau dans le cas ou elle sera destinée à la consommation humaine.
Seule l'Autorité gouvernementale chargée de la santé publique est habilitée de décider de la
possibilité d’utilisation des eaux de source ou de puits pour la consommation humaine.
Les matériaux utilisés dans cette action sont, sauf exception, les matériaux traditionnels.
Les travaux de restauration ou d’entretien des réseaux d’eau de sources doivent être impérativement
supervisés par un Ma’alem compétent.
b. Le réseau traditionnel des oueds et le réseau d’assainissement
Le réseau traditionnel des oueds propres dérivés de l’oued Fès doit faire l’objet d’une restauration
en même temps que se développera le réseau séparatif d’eaux usées et ce selon les solutions
préconisées par le Schéma Directeur d’Assainissement de la Wilaya de Fès . Aucune construction
existante ou nouvelle ne peut réaliser un branchement nouveau de rejet des eaux usées sur ce réseau
d’oueds propres et les branchements existants doivent disparaître dès que le réseau séparatif d’eaux
usées est à même de desservir les constructions concernées.
Tout rejet d’ordures ménagères, de déchets artisanaux ou tous autres déchets dans le réseau d’eau
traditionnel est interdit.
Après rénovation dudit réseau, les propriétaires dont les terrains sont traversés par une section de ce
réseau sont responsables de son entretien normal au droit de leur propriété et sont tenus de signaler
tout incident au gestionnaire dudit réseau.
Le principe général est de séparer le réseau d’assainissement du réseau des oueds propres qui sera
utilisé comme eau propre.
L’écoulement des eaux superficielles doit être séparé des murs limitant la voirie d’une distance
minimale de 0,60m. Pour les voies inférieures à 1,20 , le caniveau sera situé dans l’axe de la voie.
c. Le réseau d’eau potable de la Régie
L’adduction de l’eau potable ne peut porter préjudice aux bâtisses historiques et aux V.R.D. de
caractère historique.
d. Réseaux d’électricité, de téléphone et éclairage public
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- Les consoles ou poteaux support d’alimentation électrique, ou de distribution téléphonique sont
interdits sur l’ensemble de la médina.
Exceptionnellement, l’implantation des poteaux téléphoniques ne sera admise que dans les zones ou
l’utilisation de la façade n’est pas permise.
- La pose des câbles sur autres supports les maintenant écartés de la façade est interdite.
- La traversée des rues par les câbles aériens est interdite.
- Les réseaux d’alimentation électriques dans les voies doivent être exécutés en réseaux souterrains
ou par les câbles torsadés fixés sur les façades et adaptés à leurs volumes et saillies.
Les câbles torsadés ne peuvent être installés sur les façades des monuments classés que dans le cas
d’une nécessité extrême.
Eclairage public: Selon leurs importances, les rues , artères principales et grandes portes urbaines
seront dotées de luminaires adaptés à l’environnement spécifique concerné.
Postes transformateurs et boîtes de distribution de lignes téléphoniques :
- Les postes transformateurs ne peuvent être implantés que dans les endroits prévus à cet effet. Dans
l’impossibilité extrême de les construire en souterrain, les postes transformateurs peuvent être
construits en surface à condition que leur édification ne porte aucun préjudice ni aux bâtisses
avoisinantes ni à l’aspect urbain du site.
- L’emplacement des boîtes de distribution de lignes téléphoniques doit se faire dans des conditions
similaires à l’implantation des postes transformateurs. Ces boîtes seront protégées dans des locaux
fermés.
- Le réaménagement des réseaux téléphoniques de la Médina dans le but de supprimer les lignes qui
traversent les terrasses avec la mise en place de sous répartiteurs pour lesquels il faut prévoir un
emplacement adéquat en vue de répondre au présent règlement.
ARTICLE 13. SERVITUDE SPECIALE LE LONG DU MUR D’ENCEINTE DE LA
MEDINA
Quelle que soient la zone ou le secteur dans lesquels elles se trouvent, les constructions adossées au
mur d’enceinte et celles qui, n’y étant pas adossées, longent celui-ci et en dépassent l’altitude, sont
interdites de surélévation et sont tenues de mettre les ouvertures de leur façade côté mur en
conformité avec les dispositions qui leur seront indiquées par l’instance chargée de la sauvegarde de
la Médina. Aucun percement nouveau dans cette façade n’est autorisé.
Toute modification demandée à l’état de ces constructions peut être subordonnée à l’abaissement de
leur hauteur au niveau du mur d’enceinte ou à la fermeture d’ouvertures au-dessus de ce niveau
défini ou celui du mur reconstitué, dans le cas où celui-ci serait effondré.
Une servitude non aedificandi est en outre imposée à tout terrain nu adossé au mur d’enceinte et ce
sur une profondeur de 5 mètres.
2. TITRE II : DISPOSITIONS APPLICABLES AUX ZONES URBAINES
Les zones urbaines de la Médina de Fès sont strictement limitées aux zones déjà construites, sauf
cas exceptionnel extensions périphériques marginales justifiées.
L'objectif étant la réduction de la population de la Médina, le développement des équipements
publics et collectifs vise à améliorer les conditions de vie de ses résidents et l'intérêt de celle-ci pour
le reste de la population de Fès ainsi que pour les visiteurs nationaux et étrangers, dans le strict
respect du patrimoine historique et des fonctions culturelles et cultuelles de la Médina.
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CHAPITRE I : DISPOSITIONS GENERALES APPLICABLES AUX ZONES M (M1, M2 et
M3)
ARTICLE 14. DEFINITION DES ZONES M
Les zones M contiennent l'ensemble de la Médina ancienne et néo-traditionnelle comprise à
l'intérieur du mur d'enceinte.
Les zones M sont Ml, M2 et M3 qui se différencient par leurs typologies respectives et les
restrictions correspondantes en matière d'occupation ou d'utilisation du sol.
La référence imposée en matière de conception architecturale est celle de la "construction
traditionnelle", construite autour d'un patio intérieur et s'éclairant sur celui-ci. Toute éventuelle
reconstruction devra s'y conformer et le retour à cette référence pourra être exigé à l'occasion de
toute opération de réhabilitation individuelle touchant à la structure d'une construction existante.
ARTICLE 15. UTILISATION GENERALE DU SOL ET DES CONSTRUCTIONS
La Municipalité peut mettre le (ou les) propriétaire(s) en demeure de consolider, restaurer,
réhabiliter ou reconstruire selon les cas toute construction menaçant ruine et, à défaut d'exécution et
passé un délai d'un an, la Municipalité ou un organisme agissant par son mandat peuvent en requérir
l'expropriation à des fins d'utilité collective en conformité avec le plan d'aménagement.
ARTICLE 16. HAUTEUR MAXIMALE DES CONSTRUCTIONS
Les édifices religieux et culturels feront l'objet de dérogations, tant pour la forme de la toiture que
pour la hauteur. Les projets de l'espèce seront soumis à l'appréciation de l'instance chargée de la
sauvegarde de la Médina de Fès.
ARTICLE 17. IMPLANTATION DES CONSTRUCTIONS PAR RAPPORT AUX LIMITES
SEPARATIVES OU MITOYENNES
Dans les zones M (M1, M2 et M3), toute reconstruction ou adjonction à une construction existante
peut être édifiée en mitoyenneté, surtout la périphérie de la parcelle, et sur toute la hauteur
construite, sous réserve des droits de voisinage établis et des autres règles de construction.
ARTICLE 18. IMPLANTATION DES CONSTRUCTIONS PAR RAPPORT AUX VOIES
ET EMPRISES PUBLIQUES
• Les constructions doivent être édifiées en respect de l’alignement.
Les constructions ne doivent pas dégager de pignons en limite séparative, ni de reculs sur
l’alignement, ceci afin d’améliorer les conditions d’éclairement, de renforcer la perception d’un
rythme de façade, et de mise en valeur d’éléments architectoniques.
ARTICLE 19. IMPLANTATION DES CONSTRUCTIONS SUR UNE MEME PROPRIETE
Dans les zones M, outre les dispositions relatives aux possibilités maximales d'utilisation du sol
spécifiées par rapport à chaque zone, (M1, M2 et M3), toute construction nouvelle ou adjonction à
une construction doit réserver un ou plusieurs patios de forme rectangulaire ou carrée d’une
superficie au moins égale à 25 % de la superficie de la parcelle hors les surfaces des gaines, des
puits d'éclairage et d'aération ou tout autre vide. La hauteur des façades donnant sur patio, est
déterminées par les dispositions relatives à chacune des zones M1, M2 et M3.
Pour les parcelles dont la superficie est supérieur ou égale à 100 m2, la largeur du patio doit être
supérieure ou égale à 5m. Pour les parcelles dont la superficie est inférieure à 100 m2, la largeur du
patio doit être supérieure ou égale à 3m.
La couverture du patio à la terrasse par toute structure légère, provisoire et translucide est autorisée
à condition que cette couverture soit séparée de la construction qu'elle surplombe par un espace
libre d'au moins 0,50 mètre ( sur tout le contour du patio), assurant une ventilation naturelle du
patio.
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ARTICLE 20. TRAITEMENT DES FACADES
La nature des matériaux mis en oeuvre et les teintes de parements des façades doivent contribuer au
maintien ou à la reconstitution de l'aspect originel de la Médina.
ARTICLE 21. ACCES ET STATIONNEMENT DES VEHICULES MOTORISES
Dans la zone M1, en dehors des voies ouvertes normalement à la circulation, l'accès de véhicules
motorisés est strictement interdit.
Dans les zones M2 et M3 l'accès de véhicules motorisés est autorisé là où l'emprise des voies est
supérieure ou égale à 5 mètres. Le long de ces voies, l'autorisation d'aménager un garage (dont
l'accès facile doit âtre assuré) pour véhicule motorisé est soumise au respect du caractère général de
la voie et notamment subordonnée à l'existence ou à la réalisation d'un volume abritant et cachant le
véhicule à la vue extérieure ainsi qu'à la réalisation d'une porte pleine en bois dans le style des
portes anciennes.
La création de parcs de stationnement collectifs privés, le long de ces mêmes sections de voies, est
autorisée, sous réserve de l'application des règles de hauteur et des règles de sécurité en vigueur
pour ce type d'installation.
La construction ou la reconstruction d'édifices d'intérêt général -à l'exclusion des édifices religieuxsur des parcelles accessibles par la voirie carrossable et de plus de 500 m2 est tenue, sauf
impossibilité technique, d'inclure au moins un niveau de stationnement souterrain sous toute la
superficie de la parcelle.
CHAPITRE II: DISPOSITIONS APPLICABLES A LA ZONE M1
ZONE DE RESTAURATION ET DE CONSERVATION URBAINE.
ARTICLE 22. DEFINITION DE LA ZONE :
La zone de restauration et de conservation urbaine représente le tissu urbain caractérisé par une
organisation urbaine originelle, un niveau d’équipements traditionnels important et une originalité
quant à la valeur architecturale des bâtisses . A savoir, la richesse du décor et la typologie
architecturale.
Dans les limites de la zone de restauration et de conservation urbaine, l’action ponctuelle
prépondérante est celle de la restauration totale ou partielle vue la nature de la zone. Ceci n’exclut
pas les autres types d’action qui s’imposent, à savoir, la réhabilitation, et la rénovation dans des cas
exceptionnels.
Délimitation de la zone :
La zone de restauration et de conservation urbaine est délimitée sur le document graphique du plan
d’aménagement. Elle comporte deux parties : l’une à Fès El Bali et l’autre à Fès-Jdid.
ARTICLE 23. TYPES D’OCCUPATION OU D’UTILISATION INTERDITS
Dans la zone M1 outre les occupations et activités énumérées à l'Article 7, sont interdits:
•tous commerces de nature à porter atteinte au caractère traditionnel de la zone par le volume ou la
nature des produits vendus ou par le bruit associé à la vente,
•toute activité de service (moderne) nécessitant ou s'accompagnant d'une transformation des lieux
incompatible avec le respect du tissu ancien,
•toute activité polluante (effluents, bruits, odeurs);
•toute activité ou occupation exigeant un accès motorisé immédiat fréquent sauf à proximité des
accès,
•tout dépôt de matière inflammable, en dehors des "pôles de rupture de charge" désignés par le Plan
d'Aménagement, sauf dérogation justifiée pour l'entreposage-vente de produits finis artisanaux.
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ARTICLE 24. LOTISSEMENT
Dans la zone M1, aucun lotissement n'est autorisé.
ARTICLE 25. CONSERVATION DE LA TRAME VIAIRE
La rue élément de définition urbain par excellence est à conserver avec toutes ses composantes : la
voie et les deux parois formées par les façades des bâtisses ainsi que les sabats (encorbellements).
Le gabarit de la voie ne peut donc faire l’objet de transformation.
En particulier :
•L’aspect, la forme de la voie, la largeur des rues, des places et des placettes sont à conserver, les
impasses ne peuvent être transformées en rues passantes sauf pour celles prévues par le plan
d’aménagement ou les plans sectoriels.
•La disposition des portes et des ouvertures ne peut être changée.
Dans le sens de la conservation de la rue, les exceptions qui pourraient avoir lieu sont attachées aux
actions d’urgence ou aux conditions particulières d’intervention dans des actions ponctuelles.
La pavage doit être réalisé avec de la pierre de ou les galets. Ce pavage doit permettre des
interventions aisées quant aux réparations éventuelles des réseaux souterrains.
Cependant toute bâtisse objet d’une action ponctuelle définie par le plan sectoriel doit retrouver son
gabarit extérieur originel.
ARTICLE 26. POSSIBILITES MAXIMALES D’UTILISATION DU SOL
26.1. Dans la zone M1, le coefficient d’occupation du sol, l’emprise au sol ainsi que la hauteur des
constructions à restaurer ou à conserver sont déterminés par référence à leur état originel et par leur
typologie et ses variations possibles.
Aucune construction privée nouvelle sur un terrain non bâti n’est autorisée à l’exception des ruines.
En cas ou le terrain objet de projet porte encore les traces d’une ancienne construction, une
autorisation de reconstruction / rénovation peut être délivrée sous condition de maintenir, la
distribution architecturale, le volume et le nombre de niveaux antécédents. En cas d’impossibilité
d’identifier ces derniers, la hauteur de la construction ne pourra dépasser la hauteur moyenne des
bâtiments riverains de même nature sur un rayon de 50 m (pris au centre de la parcelle). Cependant
la hauteur de la construction ne pourra dépasser 14 m ( comprenant le soubassement, les hauteur
sous plafonds, les épaisseurs des dalles et le mur d’acrotère d'une hauteur de 1,70 m), le nombre de
niveaux ne pourra dépasser trois niveaux( deux niveaux sur Rez-de-Chaussée et la hauteur sous
plafond ne pourra être inférieure à 3.5 m exception faite pour les pièces non habitables dont la
hauteur sous plafonds ne devra être inférieure à 2.20m (par référence aux demi-niveaux).
26.2. Les aspects suivants sont à conserver :
•Les relations de mitoyenneté et de voisinage concrétisées par des éléments physiques.
•Le type des ouvertures et des portes et leur emplacement.
• Les encorbellements avec leurs éléments structurels.
•Les matériaux traditionnels utilisés ou similaires, que ce soit au niveau des structures porteuses
apparentes ou au niveau de l’enduit et du revêtement.
Quand il s’agit d’une construction nouvelle ou une rénovation, des possibilités maximales
d’utilisation de sol sont précisées ci-dessus dans le présent règlement.
ARTICLE 27. OUVERTURES ET PERCEMENTS DE FACADES SUR VOIE ET SUR
EMPRISES PUBLIQUES
Dans la zone M1, les règles suivantes sont à respecter quant aux ouvertures et percements de façade
sur emprises publiques:
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•aucune modification aux ouvertures et percements de façades sur voie ou emprise publique n'est
admise.
• Le percement de nouvelles ouvertures dans les constructions est interdit sauf exception.
• toutefois, le percement de nouvelles ouvertures justifié par les nécessités d'éclairage et d'aération
dues aux travaux de réaménagement et de réhabilitation ne peut être autorisé qu'exceptionnellement
sous les conditions suivantes:
- ne pas porter préjudice de quelque nature que ce soit aux règles et moeurs du bon voisinage
- ne pas nuire à la composition et l’ordonnancement architectural ainsi qu’à l’harmonie de la
composition urbaine.
-se conformer aux dimensions de H=2xL, H ne pouvant dépasser 0.4 m, la hauteur d'appui ne peut
être inférieur à 1.7m
•Les fenêtres anciennes restaurées ou remplacées doivent être semblables à celles d’origine et
s’intégrer avec l’ensemble des éléments de façades et des constructions voisines.
•En cas d'autorisation de démolition et de reconstruction, la façade sur voie ou emprise publique
doit être reconstituée à l'identique.
•En cas où une autorisation de reconstruction est délivrée sans possibilité de recours aux traces de
l'état originel des ouvertures de la façade, la surface totale des ouvertures ne peut dépasser 7% de la
surface de la façade, les dimensions et hauteur d'appui ci-haut cités sont à respecter.
•L'Autorité pourra exiger, le cas échéant, à l'occasion de travaux de confortement ou de
reconstruction, la réduction ou la modification d'ouverture ou de percements de façade exécutés ou
modifiés contrairement aux éléments de façade originels de la Médina et dont l'importance, la forme
ou l'aspect sont de nature à porter atteinte à l'homogénéité des lieux.
ARTICLE 28. ASPECT EXTERIEUR :
28.1.Règle générale :
Dans la zone M1, tout ce qui participe à l’aménagement de l’espace : les sols, le mobilier urbain, les
constructions, l’éclairage public et privé,... etc., doit s’intégrer à l’environnement urbain spécifique.
28.2.Servitude d’architecture concernant les constructions existantes :
•Tous les éléments de qualité architecturale, artistique ou urbanistique feront l’objet de classement
ou d’inscription sur la liste de patrimoine national avec les conséquences qui s’imposent au niveau
de leur conservation.
•Les façades à restaurer devront être débarrassées des éléments parasites, tels que bandeaux,
balcons rajoutés, enduits ciments, tuyauterie sanitaire, panneaux de signalisation ou de publicité.
•Les descentes d’eau apparentes sur façade sont interdites.
•Les bâtiments doivent être restaurés par leur matériaux de mise en oeuvre d’origine ou des
matériaux similaires.
28.3 Traitement de maçonnerie :
•Lors du ravalement de la façade, toute partie de construction et tout détail d’architecture doit être
conservé et mis en valeur.
•Les parements des façades doivent être en matériaux traditionnels( brique cuite, pierre , enduit de
chaux et sable) ou des matériaux similaires .
•Dans le cas de matériaux détériorés, il sera procédé à leur remplacement, par les matériaux
originels.
•Les motifs sur enduit sont permis après accord de la commission de voirie.
•La réfection des joints de la maçonnerie en pierre ou de briques cuites traditionnelles doit être
effectuée avec un mortier de couleur voisine des matériaux de construction utilisés.
•Les façades doivent être traitées en enduit de chaux et sable ou un enduit équivalent.
•Si lors du décapage d’une façade, des détails architecturaux d’époque ancienne sont découverts, ils
doivent être conservés et mis en valeur.
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28.4 Encorbellements et sabats :
Tout encorbellement ou sabat est à conserver.
28.5 Toitures et terrasses accessibles :
Tout projet de modification ou de réfection de toiture ou de terrasse devra permettre l’accessibilité
des terrasses sans nuisance au voisinage.
CHAPITRE III: DISPOSITIONS APPLICABLES A LA ZONE M2, ZONE DE
REHABILITATION URBAINE
ARTICLE 29. DEFINITION DE LA ZONE
La zone de réhabilitation urbaine, dite zone M2, est formée par un tissu dont les bâtisses ont une
valeur architecturale du type néo-traditionnel.
Les conditions de formation et d’évolution de ce tissu, ne lui ont pas permis d’aboutir à un aspect
urbain achevé et cohérent tel qu’on le trouve dans la zone M1. En effet, le niveau d’équipement
dans cette zone n’est pas satisfaisant, ainsi que la structure urbaine composée de réseaux viaires
hiérarchisés et de centres de quartiers n’a pas pu se former au cours de l’extension de ce tissu
urbain.
ARTICLE 30. TYPES D'OCCUPATlON OU D'UTILISATION INTERDITS
Dans la zone M2 outre les occupations et activités énumérées à l'Article 7 , sont interdits:
• Toute activité polluante (effluents, bruits, odeurs);
• Tout dépôt, atelier ou entrepôt de plus de 200 m2.
ARTICLE 31. LOTISSEMENT
Dans la zone M2, les lotissements ne sont autorisés qu'exceptionnellement sous les conditions
suivantes:
•sont exclus de l'objet du lotissement les jardins, Riads, Jnans et bâtisses dont les structures ou
leurs traces sont encore identifiables.
•le terrain objet du lotissement/morcellement ne présente aucun intérêt paysager,
•la non occupation dudit terrain engendre des problèmes pour son environnement immédiat,
•le lotissement ne pourra en aucun cas donner lieu à des parcelles inférieures à 300m2.
ARTICLE 32. DELIMITATION DE LA ZONE
La zone de réhabilitation urbaine est définie comme il est précisé sur le document graphique du plan
d’aménagement est formé de 2 sous-zones en ce qui concerne la commune urbaine Fès-Médina (
Fès El Bali):
1 : Batha,Douh, Ziat, Bab Jdid,
2 : Hbiyel, Sidi Boujida, Blida, Zenjfour,Bab Guissa, Derb Ameur / Foudouk Lihoudi.
ARTICLE 33. VOIRIE
Dans cette zone, la rue peut être objet de transformation : Elargissement de la voie, création de
place, placette, parking,... etc.
Les deux parois de la rue (façades) ne sont pas forcement à conserver. Elles peuvent subir des
transformations émanant des actions ponctuelles de réhabi, de création d’ouvertures et de portes.
Le pavage des voies peut être réalisé avec de la pierre ou des galets dans les rues et impasses.
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ARTICLE 34. POSSIBILITES MAXIMALES D’UTILISATION DU SOL ET
HAUTEUR DE CONSTRUCTION
Dans la zone M2, le coefficient d’occupation du sol, l’emprise au sol ainsi que la hauteur des
constructions à restaurer ou à réhabiliter sont déterminés par référence à leur état originel et par
leur typologie et ses variations possibles.
En cas ou le terrain objet de projet porte encore les traces d’une ancienne construction, une
autorisation de reconstruction / rénovation peut être délivrée sous condition de maintenir, la
distribution architecturale, le volume et le nombre de niveaux antécédents. En cas d’impossibilité
d’identifier ces derniers, la hauteur de la construction ne pourra dépasser la hauteur moyenne des
bâtiments riverains de même nature sur un rayon de 50 m (pris au centre de la parcelle). Cependant
la hauteur de la construction ne pourra dépasser 13 m ( comprenant le soubassement, les hauteur
sous plafonds, les épaisseurs des dalles et le mur d’acrotère d'une hauteur de 1,70 m), le nombre de
niveaux ne pourra dépasser trois niveaux( deux niveaux sur rez-de-chaussée et la hauteur sous
plafond ne pourra être inférieure à 3.2 m exception faite pour les pièces non habitables dont la
hauteur sous plafonds ne devra être inférieure à 2.20m (par référence aux demi-niveaux).
ARTICLE 35. OUVERTURES ET PERCEMENTS DE FACADES SUR VOIE ET SUR
EMPRISES PUBLIQUES
Dans la zone M2, les règles suivantes sont à respecter quant aux ouvertures et percements de façade
sur emprises publiques:
• Le percement de nouvelles ouvertures dans les constructions est autorisé par nécessité d'éclairage
et d'aération dues aux travaux de réaménagement et de réhabilitation sous les conditions suivantes:
- ne pas porter préjudice de quelque nature que ce soit aux règles et moeurs du bon voisinages
- ne pas nuire à la composition et l’ordonnancement architectural ainsi qu’à l’harmonie de la
composition urbaine.
-se conformer aux dimensions de H=2xL, H ne pouvant dépasser 0.8 m, la hauteur d'appui ne peut
être inférieur à 1.7 m
•Les fenêtres anciennes restaurées ou remplacées doivent être semblables à celles d’origine et
s’intégrer avec l’ensemble des éléments de façades et des constructions voisines.
•En cas où une autorisation de reconstruction est délivrée, la surface totale des ouvertures ne peut
dépasser 15% de la surface de la façade, les dimensions et hauteur d'appui ci-haut cités sont à
respecter.
•L'Autorité pourra exiger, le cas échéant, à l'occasion de travaux de confortement ou de
reconstruction, la réduction ou la modification d'ouverture ou de percements de façade exécutés ou
modifiés contrairement aux éléments de façade spécifiques à la zone M2 et dont l'importance, la
forme ou l'aspect sont de nature à porter atteinte à l'homogénéité des lieux.
ARTICLE 36. ASPECT EXTERIEUR
36.1. Règle générale :
Dans la zone M2, tout ce qui participe à l’aménagement de l’espace ; les sols, le mobilier urbain, les
constructions, l’éclairage public et privé,... etc., doit s’intégrer au site urbain.
36.2. Servitudes d’architecture concernant les constructions existantes :
Traitement des façades :
•Tous les éléments de qualité architecturale, artistique ou urbanistique seront classés ou inscrit sur
la liste du patrimoine national.
•Les façades devront être débarrassées des éléments parasites, tels que bandeaux, balcons rajoutés,
auvents des portes et fenêtres non intégrés à l’environnement urbain.
Les enduits :
•Les motifs d’imitation en enduit se rapportant aux motifs existants dans la médina sont permis
après accord de la commission de voirie.
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•L’enduit pourrait être appliqué avec chaux et sable ou ciment selon la nature des matériaux de la
bâtisse. Dans les deux cas, la couleur jaune ocre doit être recherchée.
CHAPITRE IV: DISPOSITIONS APPLICABLES A LA ZONE M3, ZONE DE
RENOVATION URBAINE
ARTICLE 37. DEFINITION DE LA ZONE
La zone de rénovation urbaine est caractérisée par un tissu urbain qui ne s’est pas formé et
développé dans des conditions normales d’urbanisation. Elle est constituée d’un bâti en grande
partie dégradé et sans valeur architecturale particulière. Les bâtisses ayant une valeur considérable
sont en général des équipements à préserver et à restaurer. Cette zone est constituée de deux souszones à la commune urbaine de Fès Médina: Kasbat Filala ( connue aussi par le nom de kasbat
Nouar) et Kasbat Boujloud et de deux autres sous-zones à la commune urbaine Méchouar Fès El
Jadid : Fès Jdid Bab Jiaf (Nouaouel Lkbar) et Moulay Abdellah.
ARTICLE 38. TYPES D'OCCUPATlON OU D'UTILISATION INTERDITS
Dans la zone M3 outre les occupations et activités énumérées à l'Article 7, sont interdits:
•Toute activité polluante (effluents, bruits, odeurs);
•Tout dépôt, atelier ou entrepôt de plus de 200 m2.
ARTICLE 39. LOTISSEMENT
Dans la zone M3, les lotissements ne sont autorisés qu'exceptionnellement sous les conditions
suivantes:
•sont exclus de l'objet du lotissement les jardins, Riads, Jnans et bâtisses dont les structures ou
leurs traces sont encore identifiables.
•le terrain objet du lotissement ne présente aucun intérêt paysager,
•la non occupation dudit terrain engendre des problèmes pour son environnement immédiat,
•le lotissement ne pourra en aucun cas donner lieu à des parcelles inférieures à 100m2.
ARTICLE 40. VOIRIE
40.1. Conservation de la trame viaire :
La structure de la trame viaire actuelle est à conserver. Ceci n’exclut pas l’élargissement et
l’ouverture de certaines voies ou impasses.
40.2. Pavage des voies :
Le pavage sera exécuté en pierre, ou par un matériau similaire.
Les trottoirs ne sont autorisés que, dans le cas où la différence de niveau est importante entre les
deux rives de la voie.
40.3. Ecoulement des eaux pluviales :
L’écoulement des eaux pluviales ou des eaux de ruissellement devra être séparé des murs
d’alignement d’un minimum de 0,60m. Dans le cas ou les rues sont inférieures à 1,20m, le caniveau
est situé dans l’axe de la voie.
ARTICLE 41. POSSIBILITES MAXIMALES D’UTILISATION DU SOL ET
HAUTEUR DES CONSTRUCTIONS
Dans la zone M3, le coefficient d’occupation du sol, l’emprise au sol ainsi que la hauteur des
constructions ayant une valeur et qui sont à restaurer ou à réhabiliter sont déterminés par référence
à leur état originel et par leur typologie et ses variations possibles.
Les constructions n'ayant pas de valeur ou ayant été remarquablement transformées (celles ci
constituent une importante proportion dans la zone M3), une autorisation de reconstruction /
rénovation peut être délivrée. La hauteur de la construction est limitée à 9 m (comprenant le mur
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d’acrotère de 1.7 m), le nombre de niveaux ne pourra dépasser deux niveaux (un étage sur rez-dechaussée et la hauteur sous plafond ne pourra être inférieure à 3.0 m.
ARTICLE 42. OUVERTURES ET PERCEMENTS DE FACADES SUR VOIE ET SUR
EMPRISES PUBLIQUES
Dans la zone M3, les règles suivantes sont à respecter quant aux ouvertures et percements de façade
sur emprises publiques:
•Le percement de nouvelles ouvertures dans les constructions est autorisé par nécessité d'éclairage
et d'aération dues aux travaux de réaménagement et de réhabilitation sous les conditions suivantes:
- ne pas porter préjudice de quelque nature que ce soit aux règles et moeurs du bon voisinage
- ne pas nuire à la composition et l’ordonnancement architectural ainsi qu’à l’harmonie de la
composition urbaine.
-se conformer aux dimensions de H=2xL, H ne pouvant dépasser 0.8 m, la hauteur d'appui ne peut
être inférieur à 1.7m
•Les fenêtres anciennes restaurées ou remplacées doivent être semblables à celles d’origine et
s’intégrer avec l’ensemble des éléments de façades et des constructions voisines.
•En cas où une autorisation de reconstruction est délivrée, la surface totale des ouvertures ne peut
dépasser 10 % de la surface de la façade, les dimensions et hauteur d'appui ci-haut citées sont à
respecter.
ARTICLE 43. SERVITUDE D’ARCHITECTURE :
43.1. Toitures :
Seules les toitures terrasses accessibles sont exigés à l’exclusion des bâtiments administratifs,
cultuels ou culturels qui pourront comporter partiellement des toitures accessibles.
Les toitures en pente sont autorisées partiellement pour les demeures de grandes surfaces.
Les terrasses étant généralement accessibles la hauteur de l’acrotère est de 1,70m. Dans le cas d’une
possibilité de vue panoramique ne représentant pas de nuisance pour les voisins, la hauteur de
l’acrotère pourrait être de 1,20m.
43.2. Aspect architectural des façades :
Tous les éléments d’ordonnancement architectural extérieur doivent être intégrés à l’architecture
locale.
CHAPITRE V: DISPOSITIONS APPLICABLES A LA ZONE IM
ARTICLE 44. DEFINITION DE LA ZONE
La zone IM est caractérisée par le proximité du réseau de grande voirie, la faible ancienneté, le
moindre intérêt architectural des constructions et la présence de nombreuses activités d’entreposage
et de redistribution, de production ou de transformation traditionnelles et modernes, dont certaines
polluantes ou très gênantes pour le voisinage.
La zone IM, telle que délimitée au Plan, s’étend aux abords des portes Bab Ftouh / Bab Khokha.
L’objectif est de conforter le rôle économique et d’améliorer le fonctionnement des différentes
parties de cette zone, de favoriser leur modernisation tout en excluant les activités excessivement
polluantes ou absolument incompatibles avec la vie résidentielle et en respectant le voisinage de la
médina historique et la protection du site, en particulier des remparts.
L’intervention publique relève de l’amélioration continue des infrastructures d’accès ou de desserte
et des équipements, spécialement des équipements de services aux activités économiques.
ARTICLE 45. UTILISATION GENERALE DU SOL ET DES CONSTRUCTIONS
Dans la zone IM, les locaux peuvent indifféremment recevoir une affectation à usage d’habitation
dans les étages et à usage d’activités commerciales dans le rez-de-chaussée ou d’artisanat manuel
non polluant et n ’ exigeant pas un matériel ou un équipement lourd .
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En cas d’usage d’un même immeuble pour l’habitation aux étages et pour des activités au rez-dechaussée, l’accès aux habitations devra être indépendant de l’accès aux ateliers ou entrepôts.
La démolition partielle ou totale d’immeubles existants n’ayant pas de valeur, en vue de les
aménager ou de les remplacer par des constructions adaptées à l’activité économique du propriétaire
ou de l’acquéreur, est en principe autorisée. L’autorisation de démolition devra être obtenue avant
tout commencement de démolition et l’instance en charge de la sauvegarde la Médina pourra exiger
la conservation de parties d’immeuble en raison de leur caractère ou de leur contribution au
caractère de la voie les desservant.
ARTICLE 46. TYPES D’OCCUPATION INTERDITS
Sont interdits dans la zone IM, outre les installations et activités stipulées à l'Article 7 du TITRE 1 :
•Les activités polluantes par leurs déchets solides ou liquides non traitables avant rejet dans le
domaine ou les réseaux publics, ainsi que celles induisant un trafic motorisé supérieur à 3 tonnes
par jour par portion de 100 m2 de plancher hors oeuvre .
•Les ateliers, dépôts et entrepôts de plus de 500 m2 d’un seul tenant, sur un ou plusieurs niveaux.
ARTICLE 47. POSSIBILITES MAXIMALES D’UTlLlSATION DU SOL
Pour la zone IM, il n’est fixé ni coefficient d’occupation du sol, ni emprise maximale au sol, ni
minimum de surface parcellaire. Est toutefois interdit le lotissement de parcelle qui donnerait
naissance à des parcelles nouvelles de superficie inférieure à 200 m2 ou de moins de 10 mètres de
façade sur voie d’accès.
Les possibilités d’utilisation du sol sont limitées par l’application des règles de prospect ci-après
définis.
ARTICLE 48. HAUTEUR MAXIMALE DES CONSTRUCTIONS
Toute construction, à l’exception des édifices religieux et culturels, doit se terminer par un toit en
terrasse accessible. Les constructions ne peuvent dépasser, acrotère compris, 11,50 mètres, mesurés
à partir du nivellement de la voie bordant la parcelle, et 2 niveaux sur rez-de-chaussée. Une
construction nouvelle ne pourra cependant avoir, par rapport au niveau de la voie qui la dessert, une
hauteur supérieure à la hauteur moyenne des constructions existant sur les parcelles du même
alignement de voie dans les 50 mètres de part et d’autre. Si une parcelle est desservie par deux
voies, la présente règle de hauteur s’appliquera sur chaque voie et pour la moitié de parcelle entre
les deux voies.
Les édifices religieux et culturels feront l’objet de dérogations, tant pour la forme de la toiture que
pour la hauteur. Les projets de l’espèce seront soumis à l’avis de l’instance en charge de la
sauvegarde de la Médina de Fès.
ARTICLE 49. IMPLANTATION ET HAUTEUR DES CONSTRUCTIONS PAR
RAPPORT AUX VOIES ET EMPRISES PUBLIQUES
Toute construction nouvelle doit être implantée à l’alignement sur au moins les trois quarts de la
façade sur voie. Le quart restant devra être délimité, le cas échéant, par un mur de 3 mètres de haut
sur l’alignement. En cas de démolition et reconstruction, la hauteur sur voie de la nouvelle
construction sera identique de mitoyen à mitoyen, à celle de la construction démolie et sur une
profondeur - de 5 mètres au moins par rapport à la voie.
ARTICLE 50. IMPLANTATION DES CONSTRUCTIONS PAR RAPPORT AUX LIMITES
SEPARATIVES OU MITOYENNES
La reconstruction à l’identique d’un immeuble détruit autorise le maintien des mitoyennetés existant
avant démolition. Une construction nouvelle, totale ou partielle, qui ne constitue pas une
reconstruction à l’identique ainsi que toute adjonction à une construction existante peuvent être
édifiées en mitoyenneté :
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•En limites séparatives latérales (perpendiculaires à la voie de desserte), dans une bande de 15
mètres mesurée à partir de l’alignement de la rue. Au delà de cette bande, jusqu’à 6 mètres du fond
de parcelle, les constructions doivent respecter un recul minimum de 4 mètres par rapport à la limite
mitoyenne, quelle que soit leur hauteur ;
ARTICLE 51. IMPLANTATION DES CONSTRUCTIONS SUR UNE MEME
PROPRIETE
Les constructions implantées en vis à vis sur une même propriété seront séparées par une distance
égale ou supérieure à la hauteur de la construction la plus élevée L ≥ H, avec un minimum de 3 m.
ARTICLE 52. OUVERTURES ET PERCEMENTS DE FACADES SUR VOIE ET SUR
EMPRISES PUBLIQUES
Sans préjudice des dispositions qui seraient exigées localement par l’instance en charge de la
sauvegarde de la Médina au voisinage immédiat d’un bâtiment classé :
•L’ouverture de portes et baies de devantures au rez-de-chaussée, dans des façades existantes ou
nouvelle, est autorisée sans limite de dimension et aucune prescription de matériau n’est imposée.
•Les ouvertures de baies aux étages, dans des façades sur voie conservées ou nouvelles, ne
pourront dépasser 2 m2 par 10 m2 de façade (surface de façade de rez-de-chaussée déduite) ; la
proportion de ces ouvertures sera de 1/1,5 (hauteur égale à 1,5 fois la largeur) ; les ouvertures seront
doublées de volets extérieurs obligatoirement en bois.
ARTICLE 53. TRAITEMENT DES FACADES
La nature des matériaux mis en oeuvre et les teintes de parements des façades doivent contribuer au
maintien de l’aspect général de la Médina. Aucun matériau ni mode de construction n’est interdit, à
condition que l’aspect fini extérieur ou un revêtement assurent la conformité de matière et de
couleur avec les techniques et matériaux traditionnels. Toute apparence de structure porteuse, de
poutre ou de linteaux en béton armé, est notamment proscrite.
ARTICLE 54. ACCES ET STATIONNEMENT DES VEHICULES MOTORISES
L’accès de véhicules motorisés de tourisme et de camionnettes de livraison à l’intérieur des
parcelles privées est strictement interdit en dehors des voies ouvertes normalement à la circulation
et d’une emprise supérieure ou égale à 5 mètres. Le long de ces voies, l’autorisation d’aménager un
garage ( dont l'accès facile doit être assuré) pour véhicules motorisés de tourisme ou camionnettes
est subordonnée à l’existence ou à la réalisation d’un volume abritant et cachant le véhicule à la vue
extérieure ainsi qu’à la réalisation d’une porte pleine.
L’accès de véhicules de plus de 500 Kg de charge utile à l’intérieur des parcelles n’est autorisé que
sur les voies normalement ouvertes à la circulation d’au moins 10 mètres d’emprise. Les mêmes
dispositions qu’à l’alinéa précédent s’appliquaient à l’aménagement de garages pour ce type de
véhicule.
La création de parcs de stationnement collectifs privés le long de ces mêmes voies, est autorisée,
sous réserve de l’application de ces règles de sécurité en vigueur - pour ce type d’installation.
Les dispositions du présent article ne peuvent être opposées à la réglementation de la circulation
que les autorités ont mises ou mettraient en place.
CHAPITRE VI: DISPOSITIONS APPLICABLES A LA ZONE E
ARTICLE 55. DEFINITION DE LA ZONE
La zone E est une zone urbaine d ’ « habitat continu, individuel ou collectif».
L’implantation à l’alignement sur voie est obligatoire et la construction sur limites parcellaires
encouragée, pour créer un habitat sur cour-patio, de caractère traditionnel.
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Cette zone comprend, dans les limites du Plan d’Aménagement de la Médina et de ses abords, un
seul secteur E2, couvrant le lotissement de Bab Khokha et les quartiers de Douar Ben Chérif et
Douar Bou Taa.
Le rez-de-chaussée des bâtiments peut accueillir des commerces ou de l’artisanat, sous réserves des
interdictions fixées à l’Article 56 ci-après.
ARTICLE 56. TYPES D’OCCUPATION OU D’UTILISATION INTERDITS
Sont interdits :
- Les établissements industriels de 1ère et 2ème catégories
- Les dépôts de plus de 120 m²
- L'extension limitée ou la modification des installations industrielles classées existantes, peut être
autorisée, à condition qu'il n'en résulte pas pour le voisinage une aggravation du danger et des
nuisances, que leur volume et leur aspect extérieur soient compatibles avec le milieu environnant, et
ne modifient pas le caractère de la zone
- Les constructions à caractère provisoire, les campings et les caravanings
- L'ouverture et l'exploitation de carrières
ARTICLE 57. POSSIBILITES MAXIMALES D’UTILISATION DU SOL
Le coefficient d'occupation du sol maximum pour la parcelle privative après morcellement ou
lotissement (COS) est fixé à 2,2.
La surface constructible au sol par rapport à la superficie de la parcelle privative (CES) ne peut
dépasser 75 %.
Le minimum parcellaire de la parcelle privative est fixé à 80 m² et 8 m de large.
ARTICLE 58. HAUTEUR MAXIMALE DES CONSTRUCTIONS
Les constructions, acrotère compris, ne peuvent dépasser les hauteurs et le nombre de niveaux
suivants :
11 m (R+2)
Au-dessus de ces hauteurs, sont autorisés les parapets de terrasses accessibles dont la hauteur
maximale est de 1,20 m, et les cages d'escaliers d'une hauteur maximale de 2,50 m.
ARTICLE 59. IMPLANTATION ET HAUTEUR DES CONSTRUCTIONS PAR
RAPPORT AUX VOIES ET EMPRISES PUBLIQUES
Sauf volonté exprimée au plan d'aménagement, toute construction nouvelle doit être implantées à
l'alignement sur voie, sur au moins les 2/3 de la largeur de la parcelle.
- Toutefois, une marge de recul sur voie de 3 m de largeur peut être prévue sur toute la largeur de la
parcelle sous réserve que la surface minimale de celle-ci soit de 100 m².
ARTICLE 60. IMPLANTATION DES CONSTRUCTIONS PAR RAPPORT AUX LIMITES
OU MITOYENNES
Les constructions peuvent être implantées en limites séparatives.
La cour aura une superficie minimale de 20 m², et une largeur minimale de 4 m.
ARTICLE 61. IMPLANTATION DES CONSTRUCTIONS SUR UNE MEME
PROPRIETE
Les constructions implantées en vis à vis sur une même propriété, seront séparées par une distance
égale ou supérieure à la hauteur de la construction la plus élevée L ≥ H, avec un minimum de 3 m.
ARTICLE 62. ACCES ET STATIONNEMENT DES VEHICULES MOTORISES
Le stationnement des véhicules, qui doit être assuré en dehors des chaussées réservées à la
circulation, doit être prévu soit sur la parcelle privative, soit dans le cadre du lotissement.
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Sont à prévoir :
Une place de stationnement pour 300 m² de surface hors-oeuvre de logement.
Une place pour 100 m² de surface hors-oeuvre d'activité commerciale ou artisanale.
N.B. : Dimensions minimales des places de stationnement :
- En surface: 2.30 m x 5.00 m
- En sous-sol ou en élévation: 2.50 m x 5.00 m
ARTICLE 63. PLANTATIONS
Une partie de la superficie des lotissements sera réservée pour des aménagements publics divers :
mails, jeux, jardins...
Ces réservations représenteront 7 % de la superficie du lotissement après déduction des surfaces
prévues pour les équipements publics et le stationnement des véhicules.
Les aires de stationnement seront plantées à raison d'un arbre haute tige pour deux places.
CHAPITRE VII: DISPOSITIONS APPLICABLES A LA ZONE DE RESTRUCTURATION
URBAINE (S 10 B)
ARTICLE 64. DEFINITION DU SECTEUR
La zone S 10 B recouvre la partie du quartier Jnane Chami et des abords de Bab El Khokha qui
assure la principale jonction entre Fès El Bali et les quartiers des Jnanates. Cette zone a été
construite dans de très mauvaises conditions et de façon extrêmement dense. Cette densité et la
valeur foncière de cette localisation dans la ville sont telles qu’une rénovation publique est difficile
à programmer, mais qu’il y a possibilité d’envisager une rénovation spontanée progressive.
Le classement en zone S 10 B ne portera effet qu’en cas de reconstruction, qu’il doit. Il peut
néanmoins s’imposer Pour des aménagements de détail ou des adjonctions.
ARTICLE 65. UTILISATION GENERALE DU SOL ET DES CONSTRUCTIONS
La Zone S 10 B est prévue pour recevoir l’habitat, les bureaux, le commerce, l’artisanat et les
équipements administratifs ou hôteliers.
ARTICLE 66. TYPES D’OCCUPATION OU D’UTILISATION INTERDITS
Outre les installations et activités stipulées à l’Article 7 du Titre I du présent Règlement, sont
interdites les occupations ou utilisations du sol suivantes :
•Toutes utilisations à usage industriel, quel qu’en soit le type ou la
catégorie,
•Les dépôts de plus de 200 m2
ARTICLE 67. VOIRIE
Toute la trame viaire dans le secteur 10B est à réorganiser :
•Réfection et aménagement de voies à maintenir,
•Elargissement,
•Création de nouvelles voies.
•Aucune intervention sur la voirie ne pourra avoir lieu avant la réalisation ou la réfection des
réseaux divers et notamment le réseau d’assainissement.
•Les équipements : Il est impératif d’assurer les équipements et services nécessaires pour la zone :
- équipement socio-éducatif,
- équipement culturel et cultuel,
- équipement sanitaire,
- Zone de protection des installations de traitement,
- services divers.
•Embellissement de façade :
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L’embellissement et l’ordonnancement de façade sont imposés dans cette zone. Un cahier de charge
spécifique est exigé à cet effet.
ARTICLE 68. AUTORISATIONS
Aucune autorisation de lotir ou de construire ne sera délivrée avant l’élaboration et l’approbation
d’un plan sectoriel de restructuration.
L’autorisation ne sera délivrée que dans le sens de l’achèvement et de l’amélioration de la zone.
ARTICLE 69. POSSIBILITES MAXIMALES D’UTILISATION DU SOL
Le coefficient d'occupation du sol maximum pour la parcelle privative après morcellement ou
lotissement (COS) est fixé à 2,2.
La surface constructible au sol par rapport à la superficie de la parcelle privative (CES) ne peut
dépasser 75 %.
Le minimum parcellaire de la parcelle privative est fixé à 80 m² et 8 m de large.
ARTICLE 70. HAUTEUR MAXIMALE DES CONSTRUCTIONS
Les constructions, acrotère compris, ne peuvent dépasser les hauteurs et le nombre de niveaux
suivants :
11 m (R+2)
Au-dessus de ces hauteurs, sont autorisés les parapets de terrasses accessibles dont la hauteur
maximale est de 1,20 m, et les cages d'escaliers d'une hauteur maximale de 2,50 m.
ARTICLE 71. IMPLANTATION ET HAUTEUR DES CONSTRUCTIONS PAR
RAPPORT AUX VOIES ET EMPRISES PUBLIQUES
Sauf volonté exprimée au plan d'aménagement, toute construction nouvelle doit être implantées à
l'alignement sur voie, sur au moins les 2/3 de la largeur de la parcelle.
- Toutefois, une marge de recul sur voie de 3 m de largeur peut être prévue sur toute la largeur de la
parcelle sous réserve que la surface minimale de celle-ci soit de 100 m².
ARTICLE 72. IMPLANTATION DES CONSTRUCTIONS PAR RAPPORT AUX LIMITES
SEPARATIVES OU MITOYENNES
Les constructions peuvent être implantées en limites séparatives.
La cour aura une superficie minimale de 20 m², et une largeur minimale de 4 m.
ARTICLE 73. IMPLANTATION DES CONSTRUCTIONS SUR UNE MEME
PROPRIETE
Les constructions implantées en vis à vis sur une même propriété, seront séparées par une distance
égale ou supérieure à la hauteur de la construction la plus élevée L ≥ H, avec un minimum de 3 m.
ARTICLE 74. ACCES ET STATIONNEMENT DES VEHICULES MOTORISES
Le stationnement des véhicules, qui doit être assuré en dehors des chaussées réservées à la
circulation, doit être prévu soit sur la parcelle privative, soit dans le cadre du lotissement.
Sont à prévoir :
Une place de stationnement pour 300 m² de surface hors-oeuvre de logement.
Une place pour 100 m² de surface hors-oeuvre d'activité commerciale ou artisanale.
N.B. : Dimensions minimales des places de stationnement :
- En surface: 2.30 m x 5.00 m
- En sous-sol ou en élévation: 2.50 m x 5.00 m
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ARTICLE 75. PLANTATIONS
Une partie de la superficie des lotissements sera réservée pour des aménagements publics divers :
mails, jeux, jardins...
Ces réservations représenteront 7 % de la superficie du lotissement après déduction des surfaces
prévues pour les équipements publics et le stationnement des véhicules.
Les aires de stationnement seront plantées à raison d'un arbre haute tige pour deux places.
CHAPITRE VIII: DISPOSITIONS APPLICABLES A LA ZONE DES GRANDS
EQUIPEMENTS (AM)
ARTICLE 76. DEFINITION DE LA ZONE
La zone AM, dite des grands équipements publics, telle que délimitée au plan d’aménagement,
englobe les espaces entre les remparts originels de Fès El Bali à l’est (place Batha) et Fès Jdid à
l’ouest , du Boulevard Allal El Fassi au sud à l’Avenue des Mérinides au nord.
Cette zone est caractérisée par la présence quasi exclusive de palais (Baida, Batha), de grands
équipements publics (hôpitaux, collèges ....), de parcs et jardins (Bab Boujloud) et par une voirie de
normes « modernes », assurant en particulier une traversée automobile nord-sud aisée de
l’ensemble des deux médinas (avenue des Nations - Unies).
L’objectif global est de conforter les caractéristiques fonctionnelles et urbanistiques du tissu
existant, la place prépondérante des plantations, la perméabilité aux déplacements motorisés, tout
en autorisant l’implantation de quelques équipements publics ou d’intérêt général de haut niveau, en
relation avec le rôle de la Médina dans l’ensemble urbain de Fès.
Un objectif complémentaire à améliorer la liaison piétonnière entre les deux parties de la Médina
(et plus largement d’est en ouest de l’agglomération fassie, de la rive andalous au centre de la ville
Nouvelle), tant à travers le jardin Boujloud que de part et d’autre de celui-ci.
L’intervention publique n’a d’autres spécificité que l’élévation de la qualité des espaces et de
l’architecture, ainsi que de la circulation.
ARTICLE 77. TYPES D’OCCUPATION OU D’UTILISATION INTERDITS
Sont interdites dans la zone AM :
•Toutes les activités de production et de transformation ;
•Les dépôts et entrepôts de toute nature, en dehors de ceux requis par le bon fonctionnement des
édifices et des équipements publics ;
•Toute construction de locaux à usage d’habitation, à l’exception de logements de fonction exigés
par le gardiennage ou le bon fonctionnement des équipements publics ou d’intérêt général.
ARTICLES 78. POSSIBILITES MAXIMALES D’UTILISATION DU SOL
Le coefficient d’occupation du sol est limité à 1.
La surface constructible au sol est limitée à 33% de la surface parcellaire.
La superficie minimale d’une parcelle pour être constructible est fixée à 500 m2. Cette restriction ne
s’applique pas aux parcelles créées avant la mise en application du présent plan d’aménagement.
ARTICLES 79. HAUTEURS MAXIMALES DES CONSTRUCTIONS
Les constructions peuvent se terminer par une toiture terrasse, accessible ou nom, ou par un toit
traditionnel à quatre pans, revêtu de tuiles vertes, éventuellement par une coupole.
La hauteur des constructions ne peut pas dépasser, à l’égout du toit, la hauteur totale de : 14,50
mètres et trois niveaux sur rez-de-chaussée (R +3).
L’étage situé immédiatement au dessus du rez-de-chaussée est compté pour un étage normal et ne
peut, en aucun cas, être considéré comme un « entresol » en plus de 3 niveaux au-dessus du rez-dechaussée fixés ci-dessus.
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Au dessus de la hauteur de 14,50 sont autorisés, outre les toitures en pente et les coupoles, les
sorties de cages d’escalier et les machineries d’ascenseurs d’une hauteur maximale de 2,50 mètres.
ARTICLE 80. IMPLANTATION DES CONSTRUCTIONS PAR RAPPORT AUX
EMPRISES PUBLIQUES
Les constructions peuvent être édifiés, à l’alignement ou en retrait de 3 mètres au moins de
l’alignement.
Une construction ne peut dépasser en aucun point une hauteur égale à la distance qui la sépare de
l’alignement opposé de la voie qui dessert le terrain.
En face d’un débouché de voie, l’alignement manquant est remplacé par une ligne joignant les deux
angles du domaine public formés par cette voie avec la voie qui dessert le terrain.
A l’angle de deux voies de largeurs inégales, un « droit de retour » est accordé en fonction des
règles de l’A.M.P.
ARTICLE 81. IMPLANTATION DES CONSTRUCTIONS PAR RAPPORT AUX LIMITES
SEPARATIVES OU MITOYENNES
Dans une bande de 20 mètres, mesurée à partir de l’alignement sur voie, les constructions peuvent
être édifiées en mitoyenneté.
Au delà de cette bande, les constructions ne peuvent pas être édifiées en mitoyenneté et la distance
entre tout point d’une construction et limite séparative, latérale ou de fond de parcelle, doit être
égale ou supérieure à la moitié de la hauteur de la construction en ce point, avec un minimum de 6
mètres.
ARTICLE 82. IMPLANTATION DES CONSTRUCTIONS SUR UNE MEME
PROPRIETE
La distance séparant les façades en vis-à-vis de constructions édifiées sur une même propriété ne
peut être inférieur aux deux tiers (2/3) de la hauteur du bâtiment le plus élevé, avec un minimum de
6 mètres.
ARTICLE 83. ACCES ET STATIONNEMENT DES VEHICULES MOTORISES
Le stationnement des véhicules devra être à l’intérieur de la parcelle, en dehors des emprises
publiques, en sous sol ou dans les cours et marges de reculs, à raison de :
•Logements de fonctions : une place par logement.
•Bureaux : une place pour 80 m2 de surface construite hors-oeuvre.
•Hôtels : une place pour quatre chambres et une place pour 20 m2 de salle de restauration.
ARTICLE 84. PLANTATIONS
Les surfaces libres de constructions doivent être engazonnées, plantées d’arbustes et d’arbres de
haute tige à raison d’un arbre au moins pour 100 m2 de surface libre et plantée.
Les aires de stationnement à l’air libre seront plantées d’arbres de haute tige à raison d’un arbre au
moins pour 2 places de stationnement.
CHAPITRE IV : DISPOSITION APPLICABLES A LA ZONE IN
ARTICLE 85 : DESTINATION DE LA ZONE
La zone IN est destinée aux activités artisanales et commerciales, dans laquelle peuvent également
trouver place le logement des artisans, à raison d'un logement au maximum par parcelle.
ARTICLE 86 : TYPES D'OCCUPATION OU D'UTILISATION INTERDITS
- L'ouverture et l'exploitation des carrières
- L'habitat à RDC
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ARTICLE 87 : POSSIBILITES MAXIMALES D'OCCUPATION DU SOL
Le coefficient d'occupation du sol (COS) pour la parcelle privative est au maximum de 1,6.
La surface maximale construite au sol (CES), par rapport à la surface de la parcelle privative n'est
pas limitée dans la mesure où l'article relatif à l'implantation des constructions sur une même
propriété soit respecté.
Pour être constructible, les parcelles doivent avoir une surface et une largeur minimale de 120 m², et
8 m de large.
Les lotissements étant strictement interdits
ARTICLE 88 : HAUTEURS MAXIMALES DES CONSTRUCTIONS
Les hauteurs des constructions ne peuvent pas dépasser 8m (R+1).
Au-dessus se ces hauteurs, sont autorisés les parapets de terrasses accessibles dont la hauteur
maximale est de 1,20 m, et les cages d'escaliers ou les machineries d'ascenseurs d'une hauteur
maximale de 2,50 m.
ARTICLE 89 : IMPLANTATION DES CONSTRUCTIONS PAR RAPPORT AUX VOIES
ET EMPRISES PUBLIQUES.
Les constructions seront implantées à l'alignement sur voie, sauf indication contraire portée au plan
d'aménagement.
ARTICLE 90 : IMPLANTATION DES CONSTRUCTIONS PAR RAPPORT AUX LIMITES
SEPARATIVES.
Les constructions sont implantées sur les limites séparatives latérales. Elles peuvent également être
implantées sur la limite de fond de parcelle pour le rez-de-chaussée, l'étage observant un recul
minimum de 4 m.
ARTICLE 91 : IMPLANTATION DES CONSTRUCTIONS SUR MEME PROPRIETE
Les constructions ne peuvent pas être séparées par une distance inférieure à la hauteur du bâtiment
le plus élevé : L>H, avec un minimum de 4 m.
TITRE III DISPOSITIONS APPLICABLES AUX ACTIONS PONCTUELLES
CHAPITRE I: ACTION DE RESTAURATION
ARTICLE 92. CARACTERISTIQUES DE LA CONSTRUCTION A RESTAURER
Est à restaurer totalement ou partiellement, toute construction classée ou inscrite sur la liste du
patrimoine national ou jugée par l'Autorité gouvernementale chargée des affaires culturelles et
l'instance chargée de la sauvegarde de la Médina de Fès comme ayant une certaine valeur.
ARTICLE 93. CHAMPS D'APPLICATION
L'action de restauration peut être exigée ou imposée dans les zones M1, M2 et M3.
ARTICLE 94. PRESCRIPTIONS DE L’ACTION DE RESTAURATION
94.1 Au niveau architectural et artistique il est impératif de préserver :
•La volumétrie extérieure du bâti, et son gabarit formel,
•Les relations formelles existantes entre la construction objet de restauration et celles qui lui sont
mitoyennes ou en vis-à-vis de façon à garder l’intégration de la construction dans son
environnement,
•La typologie architecturale et ceci en application des prescriptions suivantes :
-Il est interdit de construire, couvrir ou subdiviser partiellement ou totalement le patio de la maison,
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-le vis-à-vis des chambres est à préserver tout en conservant l’emplacement des chambres et leurs
portes d’entrée ainsi que leurs fenêtres,
-la hauteur sous plafond des chambres est à conserver en interdisant toute action de rajout ou de
subdivision horizontale,
-préservation des éléments d’ornementation ou d’organisation spatiale tels que : fontaine, sebniya,...
etc.,
-maintien de l’emplacement et des dimensions des fenêtres existantes.
94.2 Préservation du décor :
Il est interdit d’enlever les décors originaux (plâtre, zellij, bois sculpté) pour les remplacer par
d’autres types de décors. Tout motif et tout élément est à restaurer et à reconstituer avec grand soin.
Seuls les éléments disparus peuvent être substitués par leurs semblables ou identiques.
94.3. Au niveau technique :
•Réseau d’assainissement, eau de source :
Dans toute bâtisse objet de restauration et traversée par un réseau quelconque (eau de source,
canalisation d’eau de rivière) on ne peut commencer les travaux qu’après curage, consolidation et
restauration des dits réseaux.
•Matériaux :
Ne sont autorisés que les matériaux traditionnels ou similaires :
- Les murs doivent être reconstruits ou restaurés, selon les cas, avec moellons, brique cuite
traditionnelle, ...etc.
- Les mortiers et enduits composés de chaux et sable ou similaires.
- Les planchers en solives et poutre en bois.
- La menuiserie en bois.
•Etanchéité des terrasses :
L’étanchéité des terrasses doit être assurée avec les matériaux traditionnels (sable + chaux) ou
similaires et selon les techniques reconnues et pratiquées par les Maâlems.
•Branchements et installations diverses : (électricité, eau potable, téléphone).
Le branchement et l’installation de ces différents réseaux doivent être prévus au cours des travaux
du gros oeuvre. Ils doivent être établis en conformité avec les prescriptions des services compétents
(RADEEF/I.A.M).
Les mesures essentielles suivantes doivent être prises :
- Electricité :
. Une niche en bois doit être établie pour l’emplacement du (ou des) compteur(s) et disjoncteur(s).
. L’installation doit être exécutée avant l’application de l’enduit.
- Eau potable :
. Nécessité de mettre un coffret étanche (prescriptions RADEEF) pour abriter le compteur et
éventuellement la nourrisse.
. Interdiction d’installer tout appareil (robinet, lavabo, tuyauterie...) sur un pilier, une structure
porteuse ou près de leur environnement immédiat sans isolation appropriée.
. Les endroits réservés à cet effet ne peuvent être que les services sanitaires les cuisines ou les
fontaines en assurant techniquement les meilleures conditions d’alimentation, d’étanchéité et
d’évacuation.
. La plomberie ne peut en aucun cas être encastrée dans les murs ou les piliers. Elle sera installée
apparente fixée sur les murs.
- Réseau de télécommunication : Les lignes téléphoniques ne peuvent être encastrées dans les murs
et piliers.
- Descentes d'évacuation:
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Les descentes d’évacuation ne peuvent en aucun cas être encastrées dans les murs ou piliers en cas
de restauration.
A part les locaux de service et sanitaires, les descentes d’eau ne pourrait être installées ni dans les
pièces principales ou secondaires, ni dans le patio, ni sur les façades extérieures.
Les raccords des tubes ne peuvent en aucun cas être au niveau du plancher.
CHAPITRE II: ACTION DE REHABILITATION
ARTICLE 95. CARACTERISTIQUES DE LA CONSTRUCTION A
REHABILITER
Toute construction traditionnelle nécessitant des aménagements et l'insertion d'équipements et de
services pour assurer le bien être de ses occupants.
ARTICLE 96. PRESCRIPTIONS DEFINIES POUR L’ACTION DE
REHABILITATION :
96.1. Espace et aspect architectural :
•Il est interdit :
- de changer la typologie de la bâtisse,
- de transformer ou de modifier la halqa (façades intérieures),
- de subdiviser ou de couvrir le patio. La couverture pourrait être permise avec un matériau léger,
aéré, et mobile,
- de subdiviser horizontalement les volumes des pièces principales.
- de perturber de vis-à-vis des pièces principales.
•Dans le cas de réhabilitation pour deux ménages et plus,
Il est impératif :
- de créer une entrée indépendante pour les différents logements ; celles ci se trouvant sur la façade,
elles ne peuvent être en face à face d’une autre porte de maison ou d’une activité dans le cas des
ruelles inférieures à 3m.
- d’assurer une cage d’escalier pour le logement à l’étage. L’espace qui sera réservé à la création de
la cage d’escalier ne peut être soustrait d’une pièce principale que si :
celle ci offre au moins 2,20 de la fenêtre de la pièce au mur transversal ;
La maison ne dispose pas de local secondaire pouvant servir de cage d'escalier ;
- d’exécuter des séparations - en matériaux légers - permettant d’assurer l’indépendance et l’intimité
entre les ménages ;
- de garder le garde corps existant « Darbouz » (s’il présente une valeur) et de le surélever à une
hauteur au moins de 1,70. Les matériaux recommandés seraient le Moucharabieh ou la ferronnerie
traditionnelle avec un vitrage translucide ou un maillage serré ou toute séparation similaire.
Il est aussi permis de créer un patio différentiel à l’étage supérieur de la bâtisse de surface au moins
égale à 9m2 à condition que l’intervention n’affecte pas les pièces principales de la bâtisse.
96.2 Relations de mitoyenneté, voisinage, encorbellement et sabat :
•le droit de pose de la « gaïsa » solive reste toujours valable,
•le droit aux sabats et encorbellements existant demeure inchangé,
•toute sabat ou encorbellement projeté ou repris doit avoir les caractéristiques suivantes :
-Hauteur minimale 2,50.
-Plancher apparent en bois
-Ecartement par rapport aux sabats et encorbellement existants au moins de 1,50m dans un même
linéaire de voie
-Largeur maximale de l’encorbellement de 0,60 m.
-La surface de l’encorbellement et (ou) sabat ne peut dépasser le 1/5 de la façade.
-Hauteur minimale des consoles 1,70m.
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-Tout encorbellement ou sabat jugé par la commission de voirie préjudiciable à la rue ou aux
voisins ne sera pas autorisé
96.3 Matériaux :
Dans la zone de restauration urbaine, ne peuvent être utilisés que les matériaux traditionnels ou
similaires.
Dans la zone de réhabilitation urbaine, les murs extérieurs doivent être en matériaux traditionnels
ou similaires.
96.4 Réseaux divers :
Eau potable, électricité, téléphone, assainissement, eau de source (se référer à l'Article 12 du présent
règlement).
96.5- Décor :
(Se référer à l'Article 87 du présent règlement)
CHAPITRE III: ACTION DE RENOVATION
ARTICLE 97
Le présent chapitre est relatif à l’action de rénovation dans les zones M1, M2 et M3. L’action de
rénovation est autorisée pour une construction qui n’a pas de valeur ou une ruine a reconstruire.
ARTICLE 98. DEFINITION DE L’ACTION
L’action de rénovation est une reconstruction partielle ou globale d’une construction.
ARTICLE 99. ASPECT ARCHITECTURAL ET SPATIAL
99.1 .Le patio central ou latéral est la principale source d’éclairage et d’aération. Ses dimensions
dont définies à l'Article 19 du présent règlement.
99.2. Dans la zone M1 ; l’action de rénovation d’une construction traditionnelle en ruine doit
respecter les structures existantes de la bâtisse (Murs, porteurs, piliers, halqas) sur la base des
traces existantes. Dans le cas de rénovation d’une construction sans valeur, les points 1,3 et 4 de cet
Article sont appliqués.
99.3. La nouvelle construction doit s’intégrer parfaitement à son site : aspect volumétrique de
façade, types d’ouverture et de portes et éléments architectoniques.
99.4. Le sous-sol n’est autorisé que dans les parcelles à forte pente.
ARTICLE 100. MATERIAUX ET TECHNIQUES DE MISE EN OEUVRE
•Pour tout travaux de fondation ou de déblayage ; le maître d’ouvrage est obligé d’assurer
l’étaiement des murs mitoyens traditionnels afin d’éliminer tout risque ou danger.
•Le béton armé ou tout autre matériau de substitution pourrait être utilisé.
•Si l’action est dans la zone M1, le mur extérieur doit être revêtu avec un parement traditionnel de
brique cuite traditionnelle (enduit de chaux + sable) ou un traitement similaire .
•Si l’action de rénovation est partielle, une indépendance doit être assurée entre les matériaux
nouveaux notamment le béton armé et les structures traditionnelles.
4Il n’est pas autorisé d’utiliser le mur mitoyen pour la transmission de toute charge ; un joint doit
être assuré.
TITRE IV DISPOSITIONS APPLICABLES A LA REORGANISATION DES ACTIVITES
(Se conformer aux dispositions de l'A.M.P. de la ville de Fès)
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8. The ADER’s Geographic Information System
Source: ADER
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9. Guide to apply for permits at the baladiya
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10. Charter of Guest Houses
NORMES DE CLASSEMENTS MAISONS D'HOTES 1ère ET 2ème Catégorie
Maisons d'hôtes « Première catégorie »
A) Conditions générales :
La maison d’hôtes classée «Première catégorie » est un établissement caractérisé par son
architecture marocaine traditionnelle, sa décoration et son ameublement de style typique marocain.
Les prestations et le confort doivent être de qualité. Le service du petit déjeuner est obligatoire.
Les chambres, suites et les locaux communs doivent dénoter un aspect luxueux sur le plan de
l’aménagement et de l’équipement.
La maison d’hôtes « première catégorie » doit également présenter les caractéristiques
suivantes :
- avoir une situation bien sélectionnée ;
- avoir une entrée accueillante, bien éclairée la nuit et signalée par un panonceau portant le nom et
la catégorie de l’établissement ;
- disposer d’un parking gardé jour et nuit. Le parking peut être substitué par des lieux d’arrêts à
proximité ou aux environs de la maison d’hôtes spécialement réservés pour les clients.
B) Salons, hall de réception :
La réception doit être luxueusement décorée et marquée du cachet traditionnel marocain et
comprendre les services suivants :
- bureau ou comptoir d’accueil ;
- conciergerie ayant à sa disposition portier, chasseur ;
- cabines téléphoniques insonorisées ;
- téléphone, fax ;
- salon marocain doté d’un ameublement d’excellente qualité ;
- patio ou cour intérieure ;
- décoration typique marocaine composée de : Pièces d’art, tableaux sur le Maroc, lustres,
sculptures de style traditionnel…etc ;
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- ameublement typique composé de : Banquettes, sièges, tapis marocains, mobilier en bois sculpté
ou peint…etc.
L'établissement doit disposer d’un service de restauration. Si l’établissement dispose de plus de dix
(10) chambres.
Les sanitaires dans les locaux communs :
Des toilettes communes séparées pour hommes et femmes doivent être prévues dans les locaux
communs. Ces locaux doivent être dotés des équipements nécessaires suivants:
Cabinets de toilette avec abattant et balayettes au niveau des cuvettes, urinoirs en nombre suffisant,
lavabos avec eau courante chaude et froide (robinets mélangeurs ou des mitigeurs), sèche mains
électriques, boîtes à rebuts et distributeurs de savon liquide, désodorisants et aération suffisante
(fenêtres ou gaines dotées de ventilateurs).
C) Habitabilité :
La maison d’hôtes classée «première catégorie » doit disposer d’un minimum de (05) chambres
et/ou suites et d’un maximum de trente (30) chambres et/ou suites.
C - 1) Les chambres:
Les chambres doivent avoir une superficie minimale de 14 m² et être dotées :
- d’un éclairage naturel et artificiel suffisant ;
- de rideaux d’occultation opaques de bonne qualité ;
- d’un système de climatisation chaud et froid ;
- d’une literie de qualité supérieure et de dimension confortable (Grand lit deux personnes
King size, ou lits jumeaux de 1,40 m X 2,00 m) ;
- d’un mobilier raffiné, comprenant au minimum :
- une penderie ou armoire ;
- deux tables et deux lampes de chevet, un commutateur tête de lit ;
- tapis ou descentes de lit ;
- une écritoire avec le nécessaire pour écrire ;
- une coiffeuse avec tabouret ;
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- un appareil téléphonique ;
- un fauteuil par personne et une table basse ;
- un Porte-bagages ;
- un téléviseur relié par satellite;
- un mini bar ;
- un coffre fort individuel.
C - 2) Les Suites :
Les suites doivent avoir une superficie de 25 m² (salle de bain et penderie non-inclues). Elles
doivent être luxueusement aménagées, et décorées et comprendre , outre les commodités et
l’ameublement requis pour les chambres :
- un salon privé avec un mobilier de grande qualité ;
- un appareil téléphonique supplémentaire ;
- un téléviseur supplémentaire ;
- un tapis de qualité supérieure.
C - 3) Les sanitaires :
Les chambres et/ou les suites doivent être équipées de salles de bain complètes d’une superficie au
moins de 08 m² comprenant : baignoire avec système antidérapant, poignée de sécurité, lavabo avec
mitigeur, W.C isolé et bidet (facultatif).
La salle de bain doit être luxueuse, dotée d’une aération naturelle ou artificielle par gaine avec
ventilateur et dotée :
- d’un revêtement de sol et de mur de haute qualité ;
- d’eau chaude en permanence ;
- d’un linge de toilette de qualité supérieure muni de patères ;
- de produits d’accueil de 1ère qualité.
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D) Dépendances et installations de service :
D-1) Salon (s) - bar:
La superficie du(de)(s) salon(s) doit être supérieure ou égale à 10% de la surface totale des
chambres, et peut être limitée, en cas de problèmes techniques dûment justifiés, à 40 m². Ce local
doit être luxueusement aménagé, particulièrement confortable et en parfait état d’entretien.
D-2) Room- Service :
Un Room - service doit être prévu si l’infrastructure le permet pour assurer le service dans les
chambres 24 h/24h (chariots, cloches à assiettes, cartes de mets,…).
D-3) Cafétéria :
Une cafétéria dûment équipée doit être aménagée dans un local indépendant offrant, exclusivement
à la carte, le petit déjeuner pour la clientèle. Ce local doit être suffisamment aéré et comprendre :
- un matériel d’exploitation en nombre suffisant (couverts, assiettes en porcelaine, verrerie de haute
qualité, …etc) ;
- un matériel de fonctionnement (machine à café, moulin à café…etc.).
D-4) Patio ou cour intérieure :
Cet espace doit être ombragé et peut être agrémenté, éventuellement, d’une fontaine ou planté
d’arbres. Il peut servir également de salon - cour pour servir le petit déjeuner.
D-5) Cuisine :
Si l’établissement assure à la clientèle des prestations complémentaires telles que le déjeuner ou le
dîner, une cuisine doit être prévue à cet effet. Celle-ci doit être étudiée et équipée de façon à assurer
un service rapide et de qualité. Sa superficie doit être proportionnelle au nombre de clients traités
par l’établissement.
Le personnel de cuisine doit porter la tenue réglementaire et respecter les règles d'hygiène
corporelle et vestimentaire.
La cuisine doit être aménagée et équipée de la manière suivante :
- un sas de séparation doit être prévu entre la cuisine et la salle de restauration de manière que ni les
odeurs ni le bruit émanant de la cuisine ne puissent constituer une gêne pour la clientèle ;
- le sol de la cuisine doit être doté d’un carrelage antidérapant étanche ;
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- les murs de la cuisine doivent être carrelés à une hauteur de 1.60 m, de couleur claire et facilement
lessivable ;
- les locaux doivent être aérés et ventilés, les filtres du système de ventilation de la hotte
d'extraction doivent être régulièrement nettoyés ou changés ;
- toutes les fenêtres ou ouvertures doivent être munies de moustiquaires ;
- une aire de cuisson constituée de matériel de fonctionnement nécessaire qui doit comprendre au
moins quatre feux vifs, des plaques chauffantes et des fourneaux, tables de travail en inox, un passe
de service, fours, friteuses…. ;
- une aire pour la préparation de la cuisine froide ;
- une aire pour la préparation du poisson ;
- une aire pour la préparation des viandes ;
- un local pâtisserie dûment équipé et aéré ;
- la chambre froide, les réfrigérateurs et les congélateurs doivent être en nombre suffisant,
équipés de thermostats et voyants lumineux. La chambre froide doit être équipée
également d'une sonnette d'alarme. L'utilisation d'étagères et de cageots en bois est strictement
interdite. Un gilet anti - froid est obligatoire ;
- un local ou une aire isolée réservée aux plonges (vaisselle /légumes/fruits). Elle peut – être séparée
des autres plans de travail par une distance suffisante ou par une séparation physique à l'aide d'une
cloison en verre ou d'un mur carrelé à une hauteur de 2m ;
- une cave du jour dans un endroit aéré et accessible ;
- un économat réglementaire composé de deux locaux distincts bien aérés, réservés respectivement
au stockage des denrées alimentaires et aux produits d'entretien. En aucun cas, les produits
d'entretien ou de désinfection ne doivent être stockés dans le même endroit où sont stockées les
denrées alimentaires (risque de pollution et de confusion) ;
- les bacs à ordures doivent être dotés d'un système de commande à pied facilement lessivable,
munis de sacs de poubelle en plastique étanche à usage unique et placés à proximité des plans de
travail;
- des lave- mains doivent être dotés d'un système de commande à pied et installés à proximité des
postes de travail. Ceux ci devront être équipés de robinets mélangeurs d’eau chaude et froide, de
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distributeurs de savon liquide antiseptique, de brosses à ongle, de sèche - mains électriques ou
d'essuie - mains à usage unique.
E) Les locaux du personnel:
Les locaux du personnel doivent être en parfait état de propreté munis d’un système de ventilation
adéquat, bien équipés et comprendre un réfectoire, une salle de repos, des vestiaires séparés pour
hommes et femmes ( à raison d’une douche, d’un lavabo et d’un W-C pour 20 personnes), des
armoires individuelles et éventuellement des dortoirs ou chambres individuelles.
Ces locaux doivent être équipés de toilettes munies de cuvettes et balayettes. Les lavabos doivent
être situés à proximité des toilettes et munis de robinets mélangeurs d’eau chaude et froide, de
distributeurs de savon liquide antiseptique toujours en état de fonctionnement, de brosses à ongle et
d’essuie-mains à usage unique ou de sèche mains électriques.
F) Prestations de service - Personnel :
La maison d’hôtes 1ère catégorie doit disposer de (0,9) employé par chambre.
Tout le personnel de l’établissement doit être issu d’une école hôtelière ou d’un centre de formation
spécialisé ou bien, justifier d’une formation ou d’un apprentissage adéquat.
L’ensemble doit être affilié à la C.N.S.S conformément à la réglementation en vigueur.
F-1) La direction :
Le directeur de l’établissement doit être de bonne moralité, titulaire d’un diplôme en tourisme ou
avoir bénéficié d'une formation en hôtellerie ou justifier d’une expérience en matière de gestion
d’unités touristiques ;
F-2) Réception - Restaurant:
Le personnel de la réception et celui du restaurant doivent être constamment en tenue traditionnelle
marocaine et parler, au moins, outre la langue arabe, deux langues étrangères dont le français.
F-3) Etages - Chambres :
L’entretien des chambres doit être assuré par une gouvernante qualifiée, assistée de femmes de
chambres et/ou de valets de chambres.
F-4) Service de nuit :
Une permanence de nuit doit être assurée au niveau des services : réception, étages et entretien.
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G) lingerie - Buanderie :
La maison d’hôtes classée «première catégorie » doit assurer un service de lingerie -buanderie pour
la clientèle résidente (*1). La lingerie doit comprendre : une machine à laver, une essoreuse, une
calandreuse, un séchoir. La lingerie doit être séparée de la buanderie et doit disposer d’étagères de
rangement et d’un stock de linge à raison de trois jeux par chambre au minimum.
(*1) Prestation facultative, si celle-ci est sous traitée
H) Animation :
La maison d’hôtes «Première catégorie » doit proposer à sa clientèle diverses activités selon la
région d'implantation :
- ski nautique, canoë, équitation, golf, pêche, chasse, randonnées pédestres ou autres, tennis, V.T.T,
proposition de circuits en 4x4 ;
- salles de jeux de société ;
- piscine (si l’infrastructure le permet) ;
- l'établissement doit disposer de documentation sur le Maroc et procéder à l'organisation
d'expositions d’oeuvres d’art marocain…etc..
I) Divers :
L’affichage des prix est obligatoire au niveau de la réception et des chambres.
Un livre de réclamations doit être mis à la disposition de la clientèle dans un endroit visible au
niveau de la réception.
D’une salle polyvalente disposant d’un équipement complet pour conférences, banquets,
séminaires…. etc., (si l’infrastructure le permet).
D’un système de climatisation chaud et froid installé au niveau de tous les locaux communs
(restaurant, Bar, Salons, Réception, Hall,...).
D'un local pour la garderie d'enfants.
Disposer d'un service d’assistance médicale dirigé par un médecin de garde conventionné. Ce
service comprend une infirmerie dirigée par une infirmière attitrée pour dispenser aux clients en cas
d’urgence les soins de première nécessité et assurer aux employés une assistance médicale adéquate
et permanente.
Disposer de brochures en plusieurs langues dont l’arabe contenant des informations sur
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l’établissement, son emplacement et sur sa localité d’implantation et qui doivent être mises à la
disposition de la clientèle au niveau de la réception.
D'un service d’entretien, pour assurer en permanence le bon fonctionnement de toutes les
installations et de tous les équipements.
L’utilisation de sommiers à ressorts est strictement interdite.
J) Sécurité :
Le personnel de l'établissement doit être initié à l’utilisation des moyens de lutte contre l’incendie et
aux opérations de secourisme.
L'établissement doit être doté :
- d’une liaison téléphonique directe avec les services de la protection civile ;
- d’un éclairage sécurité qui doit être installé au niveau de tous les locaux communs, les couloirs et
les circulations ;
- de plans d’évacuation clairs et visibles avec consignes de sécurité incendie en arabe et en langues
étrangères qui doivent être affichés dans les chambres, les couloirs et les locaux communs ;
- d’escaliers et d’issues de secours signalisés en arabe et en langues étrangères ;
- de moyens suffisants de lutte contre l’incendie qui doivent être signalisés et installés dans tous les
locaux communs, les étages et les services techniques (extincteurs dont ceux à déclenchement
automatique au niveau de la chaufferie, détecteurs de fumée…etc.. (Pour les établissements situés
hors des médinas, ces moyens doivent être renforcés par des R.I.A et des bouches d’incendie).
Tous les équipements techniques de l’établissement doivent être conformes aux normes de sécurité
en vigueur.
K) Hygiène et environnement :
L'établissement doit respecter les normes d'hygiène et environnementales en vigueur et doit
être doté :
- d’un système pour le traitement régulier sur place des eaux de la piscine qui doivent être analysées
périodiquement par un laboratoire officiel autorisé ;
- l'établissement doit procéder régulièrement à la désinsectisation et à la dératisation de tous ses
locaux par un organisme agréé, les contrôles doivent être enregistrés sur un registre spécial et remis
en cas de besoin aux organismes de contrôle ;
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- l'établissement doit être doté d'une chambre de conditionnement des ordures (lorsque
l’infrastructure le permet) dûment carrelée, réfrigérée avec porte ajourée située à proximité de
l’entrée du service. Ce local doit être géré de manière à être propre en permanence et prévenir la
contamination des denrées alimentaires, de l’eau potable, des équipements et des locaux. A défaut,
un espace réservé à cet effet.
La maison d'hôtes est dite «maison de charme» lorsqu'elle dispose, en sus des caractéristiques
exigées pour la première catégorie, des critères suivants :
- être située dans un site de haute valeur touristique, distinguée par son architecture traditionnelle
marocaine exceptionnelle et par la présence de : grands patios et jardins fleuris et arborés, parcs,
piscine, hammam et jacuzzi ;
- avoir une décoration soignée et raffinée par des objets rares et antiques ;
- présenter une gastronomie de luxe marocaine et internationale ;
- être dotée d'un minimum de moyens d’hébergement, sous forme de chambres et de suites, dont le
nombre varie de 20 à 40 chambres. Les chambres et les suites doivent avoir respectivement une
superficie minimale allant de 20 à 30 m² ;
- être dotée d'un centre de remise en forme (sauna, hammam, jacuzzi, hydrothérapie, massages,
soins du corps et du visage…).
Maisons d'hôtes «deuxième catégorie»
A) Dispositions générales :
La maison d’hôtes classée «deuxième catégorie » est un établissement caractérisé par son
architecture typiquement marocaine, par sa décoration et son ameublement de style traditionnel
marocain.
Les prestations et le confort doivent être de qualité. Le service du petit déjeuner est obligatoire.
La maison d’hôtes «deuxième catégorie » doit:
- Etre facile d’accès ;
- Avoir une entrée bien éclairée la nuit et signalée par un panonceau apparent portant le nom et la
catégorie de l’établissement ;
- Disposer d’un parking gardé jour et nuit (à proximité de l’établissement ou plus loin). Le parking
peut être substitué par des lieux d’arrêts à proximité ou aux environs de la maison d’hôtes
spécialement réservés pour les clients.
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B) Salon, Hall de réception :
B-1) La réception doit être décorée et marquée du cachet traditionnel marocain et doit
comprendre les services suivants :
- Bureau ou comptoir d’accueil ;
- Coffre fort général ;
- Conciergerie ;
- Téléphone et fax, cabines téléphoniques insonorisées.
La maison d'hôtes «deuxième catégorie» doit comprendre également :
- Un salon marocain ;
- Un patio ou une cour intérieure ;
- Une décoration typique marocaine composée de : Pièces d’art, tableaux sur le Maroc, lustres,
sculptures de style traditionnel…etc ;
- Un ameublement typique composé de : Banquettes, sièges, tapis marocain, mobilier en bois
sculpté ou peint.
L'établissement doit offrir un service de restauration s’il dispose de plus de dix (10) chambres.
Les sanitaires des locaux communs :
Des toilettes communes séparées pour hommes et dames doivent être prévues dans les locaux
communs. Ces locaux doivent être dotés des équipements nécessaires suivants: Cabinets de toilette
avec abattante et balayettes au niveau des cuvettes, urinoirs en nombre suffisant, lavabos avec eau
courante chaude et froide (robinets mélangeurs ou des mitigeurs), sèche mains électriques, boîtes à
rebuts et distributeurs de savon liquide, désodorisants et aération suffisante (fenêtres ou gaines
dotées de ventilateur).
C) L’habitabilité:
La maison d’hôtes classée « Deuxième catégorie » doit disposer d’un minimum de cinq (04)
chambres et/ou suites et d’un maximum de vingt (20) chambres et /ou suites.
C - 1) Les chambres:
Les chambres doivent avoir une superficie minimale de 12 m² et dotées:
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- D’un éclairage naturel et artificiel suffisant ;
- De rideaux d’occultation opaques ;
- D’un système de climatisation chaud et froid ;
- D’une literie de qualité (grand lit deux personnes : 1,90 m X 2,00 m ou deux Lits individuels :
1,40 X 1,80 m) ;
- D’un mobilier comprenant au minimum :
- Une penderie ou armoire;
- deux tables et deux lampes de chevet ;
- un commutateur tête de lit ;
- tapis marocain ou descentes de lit ;
- un fauteuil par occupant et une table basse ;
- un porte bagages ;
- une coiffeuse /écritoire ;
- un appareil téléphonique.
C - 2) Les Suites :
Les suites doivent avoir une superficie de 20 m² (parties mansardées non inclues : salle de bain,
penderie). Elles doivent être bien aménagées et décorées et comprendre , outre, les commodités et
l’ameublement requis pour les chambres :
- Un salon privé avec mobilier de qualité ;
- une table basse ;
- un mini-bar ;
- un téléviseur.
C-3) Les sanitaires :
Les chambres et/ou les suites doivent être équipées de salles de bain complètes d’une superficie de
03m² au moins comprenant : baignoire avec système antidérapant, poignée de sécurité, lavabos avec
robinets mitigeurs, W.C isolé, et bidet (facultatif).
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La salle de bain doit disposer également d’une aération naturelle ou artificielle avec gaine munie de
ventilateur et dotée :
-D’un revêtement de sol et de mur de qualité ;
-D’eau chaude en permanence ;
-D’un linge de toilette de qualité muni de patères ;
-De produits d’accueil.
D) Dépendances et installations de service :
D-1) Salon (s) - bar:
La superficie du (des) salon (s) doit être supérieure ou égale à 10 % de la superficie totale des
chambres. Il doit être bien aménagé, confortable et en parfait état d’entretien.
D-2) Room- Service :
Un Room - service doit être prévu (Si l’infrastructure le permet) pour assurer le service dans les
chambres 24 h/24h (chariots, cloches à assiettes, cartes de mets,…).
D - 3) Cafétéria :
Une cafétéria dûment équipée doit être aménagée, dans un local indépendant, pour la préparation du
petit déjeuner. Ce local doit être suffisamment aéré et comprendre :
5 Un matériel d’exploitation en nombre suffisant (couverts, assiettes, verrerie…etc.).
11.
Un matériel de fonctionnement (machine à café, moulin à café…etc.).
D- 4) Patio ou cour intérieure :
Cet espace peut servir, éventuellement, de salon - cour pour le service du petit déjeuner.
D-5) Cuisine :
Si l’établissement assure à la clientèle des prestations complémentaires telles que le déjeuner ou le
dîner, une cuisine doit être prévue à cet effet. Celle-ci doit être étudiée et équipée de permettre
l'application des principes élémentaires d'hygiène et de sécurité alimentaire et d'assurer un service
rapide et de qualité. Sa superficie doit être proportionnelle au nombre de clients traités par
l’établissement.
La cuisine doit être agencée et équipée de la manière suivante :
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- Un sas de séparation doit être prévu entre la cuisine et la salle de restauration de manière à ce que
ni les odeurs ni le bruit émanant de la cuisine ne puisse constituer une gêne pour la clientèle ;
- Le sol de la cuisine doit être doté d’un carrelage antidérapant étanche ;
- La cuisine doit être carrelée à une hauteur de 1.60 m, de couleur claire et facilement lessivable ;
- Les locaux doivent être aérés et ventilés, les filtres du système de ventilation de la hotte
d'extraction doivent être régulièrement nettoyées ou changées ;
- Toutes les fenêtres ou ouvertures doivent être munies de moustiquaires ;
- Une aire de cuisson constituée du matériel de fonctionnement nécessaire doit comprendre au
moins quatre feux vifs, plaques chauffantes et fourneaux, tables de travail en inox, un passe de
service, fours, friteuses… ;
- Une aire pour la préparation de la cuisine froide ;
- Une aire pour la préparation du poisson ;
- Une aire pour la préparation des viandes ;
- La chambre froide, le réfrigérateur et le congélateur doivent être équipés de thermostats et voyants
lumineux. La chambre froide doit être équipée également d’une sonnette d’alarme. L'utilisation de
cageots et d'étagères en bois est strictement interdite. Un gilet anti - froid est obligatoire ;
- Un local ou une aire isolée réservée à la plonge vaisselle. Elle peut être séparée des autres plans de
travail par une distance suffisante ou par une séparation physique à l'aide d'une cloison en verre ou
d'un mur carrelé à une hauteur de 2m ;
- Une cave du jour dans un endroit aéré et accessible ;
- Un économat réglementaire composé de deux locaux distincts bien aérés, réservés respectivement
au stockage des denrées alimentaires et aux produits d'entretien. En aucun cas, les produits
d'entretien ou de désinfection ne doivent être stockés dans le même endroit où sont stockées les
denrées alimentaires (risque de pollution et de confusion) ;
- Les bacs à ordures doivent être dotés d'un système de commande à pied facilement lessivable,
munis de sacs de poubelle en plastique étanche à usage unique et placés à proximité des plans de
travail;
- Des lave- mains doivent être dotés d'un système de commande à pied et installés à proximité des
postes de travail. Ceux ci devront être équipés de robinets mélangeurs d’eau chaude et froide, de
distributeurs de savon liquide antiseptique, de brosses à ongle, de sèche - mains électriques ou
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d'essuie - mains à usage unique.
E) Les locaux du personnel:
Les locaux du personnel doivent être en parfait état de propreté munis d’un système de ventilation
adéquat, bien équipés et comprendre un réfectoire, une salle de repos, des sanitaires séparés pour
hommes et femmes (à raison d’une douche alimentée en eau chaude, un lavabo et un W-C pour 20
personnes) de même que des vestiaires séparés hommes/femmes dotés d'armoires individuelles. Ces
locaux peuvent comporter éventuellement des dortoirs ou des chambres individuelles.
Ils doivent être équipés de toilettes munies de cuvettes et balayettes. Les lavabos doivent être situés
à proximité des toilettes et munis de robinets mélangeurs d’eau chaude et froide, de distributeurs de
savon liquide antiseptique toujours en état de fonctionnement, de brosses à ongle et d’essuie-mains
à usage unique ou de sèche mains électriques.
F) Prestations de service - personnel :
La maison d’hôtes « 2ème catégorie » doit disposer de 0,7 employé par chambre.
Tout le personnel de l’établissement doit être issu d’une école hôtelière ou d’un centre de formation
spécialisé ou bien, justifier d’une formation ou d’un apprentissage complet.
L’ensemble doit être affilié à la C.N.S.S conformément à la réglementation en vigueur.
F-1) La direction :
Le directeur de l’établissement doit être titulaire d’un diplôme en tourisme ou avoir bénéficié d'une
formation en hôtellerie ou justifié d’une expérience en matière de gestion d’unités touristiques ;
F-2) Réception - Restaurant:
Le personnel de la réception et celui du restaurant doivent être constamment en tenue traditionnelle
et parler, au moins, outre la langue arabe, deux langues étrangères dont le français.
F-3) Etages - Chambres :
L’entretien des chambres doit être assuré par une gouvernante qualifiée, assistée de femmes de
chambres et/ou de valets de chambres.
F-4) Service de nuit :
Une permanence de nuit doit être assurée au niveau des services : réception, étages et entretien.
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J) Animation :
La maison d’hôtes « deuxième catégorie » doit proposer diverses activités selon la région
d'implantation :
- Ski nautique, canoé, équitation, golf, pêche, chasse, randonnées pédestres ou autres, tennis, V.T.T,
proposition de circuits 4x4, etc ;
- L'établissement doit disposer de documentation sur le Maroc et procéder à l'organisation
d'expositions d’oeuvres d’art marocain ;
- Salle de jeux de société ;
- Piscine (si l’infrastructure le permet).
H) Divers :
L'établissement doit disposer :
- D'une infirmerie dirigée par une infirmière attitrée pour dispenser aux clients en cas d’urgence les
soins de première nécessité et assurer aux employés une assistance médicale adéquate et
permanente ;
- De brochures en arabe et en langues étrangères contenant des informations sur l’établissement, son
emplacement et sur sa localité d’implantation et qui doivent être mises à la disposition de la
clientèle au niveau de la réception ;
- D'un service d’entretien pour assurer en permanence le bon fonctionnement de toutes les
installations et de tous les équipements ;
- De tableaux des prix affichés obligatoirement au niveau de la réception et des chambres ;
- D’un livre de réclamations qui doit être mis à la disposition de la clientèle dans un endroit visible
au niveau de la réception ;
- D’un système de climatisation chaud et froid ;
L’utilisation de sommiers à ressorts est strictement interdite.
I) Sécurité :
Le personnel de l'établissement doit être initié à l’utilisation des moyens de lutte contre l’incendie et
aux opérations de secourisme.
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L'établissement doit être doté :
- D’une liaison téléphonique directe avec les services de la protection civile ;
- D’un éclairage sécurité qui doit être installé au niveau de tous les locaux communs, les couloirs et
les circulations ;
- De plans d’évacuation clairs et visibles avec consignes de sécurité incendie en arabe et en langues
étrangères qui doivent être affichés dans les chambres, les couloirs et les locaux communs ;
- D’escaliers et d’issues de secours signalisés en arabe et en langues étrangères ;
- De moyens suffisants de lutte contre l’incendie qui doivent être signalisés et installés dans tous les
locaux communs, les étages et les services techniques (extincteurs dont ceux à déclenchement
automatique au niveau de la chaufferie, détecteurs de fumée…etc.. ). Dans le cas où l’établissement
est situé hors médina, ces moyens doivent être renforcés par des R.I.A et des bouches d’incendie) ;
Tous les équipements techniques de l’établissement doivent être conformes aux normes de sécurité
en vigueur.
J) Hygiène et environnement:
L'établissement doit respecter les normes d'hygiène et environnementales en vigueur et doit être
doté :
- D’un système pour le traitement régulier sur place des eaux de piscine qui doivent être analysées
périodiquement par un laboratoire officiel autorisé ;
- L'établissement doit procéder régulièrement à la désinsectisation et à la dératisation de tous ses
locaux par un organisme agréé, les contrôles doivent être enregistrés sur un registre spécial et remis
en cas de besoin aux organismes de contrôle ;
- D'une chambre de conditionnement des ordures dûment carrelée, réfrigérée avec porte ajourée
située à proximité de l’entrée de service. Ce local doit être géré de manière à être propre en
permanence et à prévenir la contamination des denrées alimentaires, de l’eau potable, des
équipements et des locaux. A défaut, une aire réservée à cet effet.
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11. Heritage day organised by two students
http://networkedblogs.com/wBphf
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12. Visit of Gigi’s patio
This report mix two visits I attended to at Gigi's house. I do not take account of the tourists’
comments, except when they clearly orientate the discussion.
In the patio, Gigi gathers a group of 7 tourists around her. Two of them are clients in the house and
already had a short presentation. Tourists sit on the seats and an employee comes to serve them
water. Gigi starts.
"This house is the richest in all respects, in the view of its oldness, its architectural decoration
originality, and its mystery. […] So, this house is original for several reasons. Firstly, it is the
oldest house we have visited in the guest house tour. Other houses date back to the early 20th
century, but this one is 260 years old. It is from the 18th century. So, it is a first characteristic of its
originality. Its second originality: it is the only one on the Andalus bank we have visited. Other
houses in this neighbourhood also have the same colours [of carved plaster]. It is typical of this
neighbourhood. The Andalus bank is the bank of scientists, because when Muslims and Jews
quibbled a bit, the latter decided to cross the oued [river] and to settle there, beyond the city walls
that have been pushed later, as now they include the entire medina. We call it the Andalus bank,
because it was inhabited by those fleeing Spain and Christians. […] So, this city is stepped in
history, and this house also by the same token. I told you about the neighbourhood. But for the
house, it is more difficult [to have information] because everything is written in old Arabic. And
until now, nobody has succeeded in translating it. So, another particularity of this house is that
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