Architecture, History and Allure of Moorish Homes

The iconic elements that define the thousand-year-old city’s Moorish or Moroccan architecture—symmetrical geometric patterns, colorful ceramic tile mosaics, open courtyards with gardens and tiled fountains that serve as private spaces for relaxation and reflection—have a distinct Islamic feel.

But the city’s architectural influences are far more varied and complex, creating a style that’s eclectic and opulently intricate and distinct enough to be dubbed Moroccan.

The Moroccan style prominently features carved and sculpted stucco decoration on walls and ceilings in a variety of painted patterns, including florals, geometrics, calligraphy and muqarnas, the style’s signature three-dimensional honeycomb ornamentation.

Colorful mosaic tilework, called zellij, is used on lower sections of walls and on floors. The hand-cut tiles are fitted together like a jigsaw puzzle in a variety of prescribed shapes, with the most common design being that of a radiating star that makes a dynamic statement.

Metal embellishments, especially in bronze and copper, often decorate doors; their shiny surfaces typically display calligraphy and other intricate motifs.

The most iconic features of Marrakesh’s Moorish architecture are soaring arches in a variety of styles, notably the horseshoe shape.

The ornamentation is not mere decoration: It signifies the use of each structure. Mosques, for instance, feature a mihrab, a niche that delineates the qibla, the direction of the Kaaba in Mecca toward which Muslims face when praying. Typically, the mihrab is semicircular or arched.

Kasbahs, or fortified districts within the city, were designed to keep residents safe and sea and land invaders out. Generally, they included everything needed to survive: a mosque, a public bath, a school, a fountain and an oven for baking bread.

Madrasas, or religious boarding schools, typically were built with open courtyards in the center and featured utilitarian wooden dorms for students and large, ornate mosques.

The most prevalent housing option in Marrakesh is the riad, which is what most people associate with the city.

Centered around an open courtyard that is appointed with a fountain, a fruit tree or a garden, the riad is designed for the utmost seclusion of the owner. Some of the larger ones have been converted to hotels and restaurants.

“The riads, which are in the historic center of the city called Medina, are at least 100 years old,” said Alex Peto, a partner with Kensington Luxury Properties, adding that many of them have been extensively modernized or rebuilt to accommodate a 21^st-century luxury lifestyle.

Mr. Beguin noted that their arrangement around a patio garden “marks strongly the contrast between the noisy and agitated medina with the calm and the serenity that emerges immediately when one enters one of these houses.”

Villas with landscaped grounds, either in the traditional Moorish style or in more contemporary styles, are the main option outside the Medina. Most of them have been built in the last 30 years.

Mr. Beguin said that even if they are not traditional, they “use subtle touches of a very Marrakesh style that gives the whole a beautiful signature” so “one can almost never think that one is not in Marrakesh.”

_{Photo: Sotheby’s International Realty}