A Balanced renovation, a factor contributing to the preservation of originality in Moroccan Medinas

One of the basic principles in the rehabilitation and renovation of old or precious textures is maintaining the attention to the flow of life and socialization of citizens while the physical and structural restoration of the texture is being carried out. The rehabilitation principle behind Medinas of Morocco has succeeded to maintain the integrity of the textures in its true sense. It also has turned the Medinas into tourist destinations which are popular with tourists from all over the world. The Medinas, the core of each city and its old textures, have been distinguished from other parts of the city for their building’s physical renovations. The physical structures of the residential and commercial buildings have been in the Medinas over the years. What has made the renovation of the textures a successful experience is not only the measurement for building’s physical renovations but also the particular management strategies adopted for preserving the citizenship life in the textures. Such strategies have established a balance between the economic, cultural and livelihood-associated aspect of the physical structure of the city and the lifestyle of residents. This balance is all about preserving the cultural and economic status of the inhabitants of the tissues. This experience has been a success because the citizens’ needs for the livelihoods have been fairly served in the context and the residents’ relative satisfaction has been fulfilled. Moroccan Medinas can serve as a model of the recent theory of “balanced renovation.” This theory argues that status of being worn-out could be caused by the imbalance in the dimensions of life while modernization can re-establish and maintain this balance.”The solution for preventing the imbalance is to maintain the flow of life of the residents in the textures. In Morocco, all the measurements in this regards have been carried out in accordance with the limitations imposed by the physical structures of the cities in the historical texture. In so doing, Morocco has been able to preserve the historical textures in the spatial organization of the cities and appreciate the associated values of the physical structure of the cities.