The Ait Bouguemez Mountains in Moroccan central High Atlas: A laboratory for vernacular architecture – synthesis essay
Jamal CHAHROU, Mohammed MAYOUSSI, Farid JAA
Abstract: This paper synthesizes our reflections, observations, conclusions, and results from our fieldwork in the Ait Bouguemez Valley and at the Landscape Dynamics, Risks and Heritage Laboratory (LDRHL) within the Faculty of Letters and Humanities Sciences in Béni Mellal, whose priority is the enhancement of built cultural heritage. Our team, composed of geography professors specializing in urban planning and heritage, conducted field trips to identify, study, understand, and safeguard vernacular architecture, which represents a unique heritage in Morocco. We have established a work program to inventory and present the architectural potential of the Ait Bouguemez Valley, selecting sites based on their heritage significance and degree of degradation. Additionally, this article proposes a quantitative method for the identification and assessment of granary collectives in the Ait Bouguemez Valley. This method proposes new criteria of evaluation relatively in conformity with the characteristics of the Moroccan mountain by referring to the various methods that were already carried out in the European countries. The objective is thus to reduce the subjectivity of the evaluator and to clarify deeply the criteria composing the assessment values (scientific value, additional values). Finally, the inventory we conducted in the valley enabled us to select six collective granaries.
Keywords
Ait Bouguemez, Landscape Dynamics, Risks and Heritage Laboratory, Vernacular Architecture, Inventory, Collective Granary, Kasbah House
Published online 1/10/2025, 12 pages
Copyright © 2025 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA
Citation: Jamal CHAHROU, Mohammed MAYOUSSI, Farid JAA, The Ait Bouguemez Mountains in Moroccan central High Atlas: A laboratory for vernacular architecture – synthesis essay, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 47, pp 36-47, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644903391-5
The article was published as article 5 of the book Vernacular Architecture
Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.
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