McLaren...
ary. Even though these projects were directed by the most respected
scholars in the field, their preservation emphasized the impact of Eu-
ropean building sources and craft traditions on the Islamic heritage
— an emphasis that was a subtle validation of the French and Italian
colonial mission in the region.What is similarly interesting about the tourist system in North Africa
during the colonial period is that its architecture and urbanism quite
often followed a preservationist approach in an effort to reference the
existing environment and indigenous building traditions. Projects
such as the Hotel de la Mamounia in Marrakech, Morocco and the
Hotel Ain el-Fras in Ghadames, Libya, exhibit a contemporary archi-
tectural language that is deeply indebted to the Islamic heritage. In this
case, however, this approach created a tourist environment that obscured the distinction between the historic architec-
ture and the contemporary colonial presence. The blurring of boundaries between the existing building traditions and
the European colonial impact confuses any real sense of the local
cultural identity in its own time. In addition, these tourist projects
and the related enhancements of the urban and physical landscape
gave an ambivalent status to the historic traditions of these newly
independent nations during the postcolonial period and continue
to shape the tourist understanding of the local culture today. As a
result of the French and Italian preservation efforts — which were
conducted for the purposes of providing an authentic tourist expe-
rience — the Islamic cultural heritage of North Africa continues to
be read through the lens of European colonial domination.
Figure 5 View of Hotel de la Mamounia, Marrakech,
Morocco (1923, Henri Prost and A. Marchisio). [Henri
Descamps, L’Architecture moderne au Maroc, II – Con-
structions particulières (Paris: Librairie de la Construc-
tion Moderne, 1931), Plate 15B].
Figure 6: Postcard view of courtyard, Hotel Ain el-Fras,
Ghadames, Libya (1935, Florestano Di Fausto and Ste-
fano Gatti Casazza). [Author’s collection].