Urban heritage in action in the historic city of Fez: guest houses rehabilitation models

Abstract

In the urban agglomerate of Fez, the old medina is distinguished by its extended and vital historical space. Despite a long process of deterioration, the urban heritage of the old medina has conserved its authenticity especially in the historical part that hosts an array of touristic projects. Funded by the World Bank, an integrated project has been set off in order to end the isolation of this part of the city. The present article is an attempt to contribute to the goal of characterizing the problem related to urban heritage rehabilitation in the historical part of the city of Fez. We discuss and diagnose the process of activating the rehabilitation of urban heritage by studying the initiatives related to the construction of guest houses, which are traditional hotels that vary in terms of luxury. In this work, we consider that urban projects constitute an interactive and multidimensional result of the rehabilitation process and the built urban heritage practices within a supposed relationship with the neighboring environment i.e. what is locally referred to as the alley or "derb”. In this context, we try to detect the different compatibilities between private investors' initiatives and general public orientations. We expect that a deep analysis will either confirm or refute our main hypothesis in which we assume that there is a possibility of restructuring the internal fabric of "urbanization” in the historic medina. At the level of methodology, we adopt a qualitative approach based on extensive fieldwork in order to respond to the elements of the problematic, taking into account the complex and multidimensional character of the subject and its scientific projection. At the level of the general results of the study, the analysis of the representation and practices of urban heritage projects stresses the valorization of the process of significant positive practices.