ABSTRACT
The first studies on southern Moroccan architecture date from the 1930s and the works of Montagne, Laoust y Terrasse, followed by the researches of Jacques Meunié. In the last decades of the twentieth Century and the early decades of the twentieth-first, researches have focused on the analysis of the building techniques and the constructive use of earth, with the works by Hensens, Karim, Mimó, Rauzier, Naji and Soriano. A recent study by Díaz del Pino, García Alcántara and Natoli Rojo showed the evolution of earth dwellings in the Mgoun Valley. Research focused on the traditional fortified house, called tighremt in the Amazigh language of the region, and analyzed its evolution up to the definition of the contemporary model (Fig. 1). Through the replacement of traditional materials and formal changes, the process of abstraction that took place has done away with many of the monumental references and has produced important alterations in significance. The original tighremt presents a characteristic square plan and is several floors in height, with a terraced roof. It has four slender corner towers richly decorated with geometric and symbolic motifs that also have a structural function (Fig. 2). The evolution of this architectural type limits the importance of towers and gives way to a functional program adapted to new residential needs. In the final phases of this evolution towers are totally done away with,
1 INTRODUCTION
The architecture of Southern Morocco is undergoing interesting evolutionary processes linked to local tradition. This is manifest both in the construction of new dwellings and in the architecture of tourism. The present study acknowledges that architecture is conditioned by social change as well as by tradition. This is a complex field that swings between the search for the presumed authenticity of traditional architecture and the need to generate images of progress.
