ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the fraught geopolitical dynamics at the heart of the riad’s reception, revitalization, and resurgence. It examines the potential neocolonial implications of preservation and rehabilitation practices of Moroccan riads, as well as the colonial imaginaries that the structures evoke, in order to understand the riad’s position within this problematic symbolic landscape. The imagined paradisiacal quality of the riad — replete with trickling fountains, cool pools of water, lush trees and fragrant flowers, enveloped by the ceramic bouquets of zellij tilework — permeates both contemporary literature and official political discourse on the subject. The colonial-era representations resonate and live on in the spatial and cultural imaginaries of foreign purchasers of riads. In other realms of material heritage as well, colonial discourse on indigenous Moroccan crafts continues to inform textile and carpet-making industries in the country. Tourism development is inextricably connected to the rise in riad property investment in Morocco.
