HISTORY OF RIAD BAYTI

Riad Bayti made its opening the 1st of November 2002 but its history started long ago….
The Riad belonged to a big Jewish Moroccan family, the « Hazan « family. Jacob Hazan born in 1836 settled in Marrakech in the actual Riad Bayti. He was a brilliant businessman and he became a first class figure in Marrakech. He received the father of Foucauld ( disguised as Jew) when he stayed in Marrakech ( 1883- 1884). He also received the commander Magin and certainly other famous guests. Under the French protectorate ( 1923- 1956) the Riad became the French post office of the neighbourhood ( the Jewish neighbourhood- the mellah).the Marshal Lyauty who stayed at the Bahia palace ( near the Riad) when he was in Marrakech visited so often the post office of the Jewish neighbourhood. After the French protectorate the French post of the Jewish neighbourhood was gone and Mr Hazan who was the owner of the Riad decided to change the ground floor and used the cave to become a wine merchant. The Hazan family lived in the first floor and the terrace. The ground floor was concerted to the wine business. At the late sixties the Hazan family was split around the world ( Israel , France , United states , Mexico). And the Riad was sold to a Moroccan who never stayed at the Riad and choose to rent each room of the Riad for a different poor family coming from the country side and no maintenance ever done in the Riad for 40 years and when we visited the Riad the first time in august 2001 the riad was so neglected which lead to think of the future of this beautiful residence. We thank our Forman Abdellatif Lamselli who succeeded after a year of hard work to bring it back to life and to renovated while conserving what was genuine and could be saved and by respecting the spirit of such type of constructions.
Why call it Bayti? Simply because Bayti means my house in Arabic and that is that Riad Bayti is your home for the period of your stay!

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Morocco have certainly the most remarkable, rich and urban architectural patrimony in the maghreb . To verify this all you have to do is to walk in the narrow alleys with its blind high walls of the medina of Marrakech. To enter its superb Riads. The decorative splendour of the patios with its walls covered with hand made tiles, plaster and wood, tell us even today about the rich past of the residences in Moroccan imperial cities. The rooms are spread around a patio or an inner garden, central area of the Riad. Their frontage on the patio is the main frontage of the house which does not have any opening toward the outside alley. From the outside we see only a high blind wall with decorated gates. In general the patio is surrounded from all four corners by living rooms ( Bayt) and each one of them occupy an entire side of the patio. The patio is of regular square or rectangular form. Notice that in a traditional Moroccan house there is no connection between the rooms and that you have to cross the patio to go from one another. Which make the use and significance of the patio very important. The service area – kitchen, hammam and washing section are normally on the entrance side near the alley. The main room and the biggest that is normally the most decorated is far from the entrance and the public area.
Decoration
The decorative coatings are essential in a Moroccan house. From the inside, walls are covered with rich and shining materials: mosaic tiles, sculptured plaster and painted wood. The floor of the patio is covered with white or grey marble with the lower wall joints of polychrome mosaics. The room’s floors are covered with mosaic squares. The patio and the rooms walls are covered with a decorative vertical register always identical: in the lower part squares of mosaic (zellige) in the upper part an engraved plaster cornice (tagguebbast). The sculptured plaster is used mainly around the doors and windows. On the higher side of the door you find 2 or 3 curved confined (the chamachat) which allow the ventilation in the room. They are made from curved plaster. We shouldn’t forget to mention the wrought iron used to protect the indoor windows and the balustrades of the floor gantry. The artisan’s techniques are very old transmitted and improved from generation to generation. For the zellige , the crafts man use peaces of broken ceramic according to a specific geometric design with evocative names: soldier , olive core , fig leaf, snail etc… at the end we can’t describe a traditional Moroccan house without mentioning the importance of water. In the beautiful residences there is either a wall fountain in the patio, richly decorated with zellige and carved plaster or a marble basin fountain in the middle of the patio with marvellous ceramic floor with geometric design.
Historical transformations
This domestic universe, close and protected until the end of the last century was disturbed by the arrival of the French at the beginning of this century. the proliferation of the new European cities, the importation of unknown cultural models up till now, Western architectural typologies and ways of life presented like higher than those of the Moroccan traditional culture, supported the decline and the relative disaffection of the Arab city and its buildings and in spite of the significant and respectful policy of marshal Louis Hubert Lyautey,general resident from 1912 till 1925 ;which consist on supporting the new urban development beside the existing Arab cities in order to protect those cities from the pangs of modernity. The creation of new cities condemned the old ones to become the poorest neighbourhood of the contemporary modern Moroccan city. The massive abandonment of the medinas by the Moroccan families who chose to reside in apartments or new villas in new neighbourhoods does not mean the total abandonment of the Moroccan architectural style, on the contrary, the royal directives and recent publication of the monumental book of André Paccard on Moroccan art craft helped renewing the traditional and decorative techniques in a positive way that made the Moroccan art crafts and specialists are the most competent and demanded in the Islamic art all over the world.
The Return to the traditional residences
This return to the decorative source marked the Moroccan traditional architecture realised since a long time by the upper middle class clients, mainly Europeans which chose to live in beautiful traditional Moroccan residences. Subtle amateurs of the art of living and fascinated by the luxury and refinement, and some of them tried to reproduce in their homes the interior spaces that they amazingly discovered in the Arab residence of the maghreb. On the other hand, some European celebrities and artists renovated some residence in marrakesh and tangier the most two appreciated cities by this international society. By investing a lot of money in this renovation and construction of those residences and by the demand of the talented decorators and architects, the owners of those residences are inspired by the Moroccan tradition which finds its value getting higher. If the residence is old the rooms and there decorations are renovated carefully. The swimming pool is always added and become an essential part of the new in-house comfort. In the most beautiful Moroccan residences its considered as a simple water level fitting perfectly in the house and the Arabic Moroccan garden. The interior decoration is totally depending on the ability and know how of the craftsmen of the zellige and curved plaster, carpenters and iron workers. The tadellakt, this traditional lime coating mixed with pigments of colours and smoothed with rollers with the soft black soap is largely used on the rooms and bathrooms walls. The interior design combines up to the max the oriental furniture and the classical European furniture and makes a challenge to the decorators who can satisfy the eclectic’s taste of their clients. The international interior design magazines focused since a long time on the quality of those creations inspired by the live tradition of the Moroccan art of living, and also by the architecture of the medinas and rural agglomerations which is threatened to disappear because of negligence and lack of maintenance. The medinas are threatened: soon will only remain few prestigious monuments, mosques and medersa. But will remain also those beautiful residences occupied by cultured and refine men and women who try to maintain the oriental art of living in an architectural frame combining tradition and contemporary comfort.