Decolonizing the Architectural Archive in Morocco: Theory and Methodology of Reinterpretation

Architectural archives constitute important sources for understanding historical and spatial evolution of the built environment. They document the design, transformation, and uses of structures, offering access to the spatial logics, aesthetic choices, and political intentions that shaped architecture over time. Yet archives are never neutral: what is preserved, annotated, or omitted reflects specific power relations and ideological contexts, a dimension that becomes especially critical in colonial and postcolonial settings. This article pursues a double objective. First, it offers a theoretical reading of colonial architectural archives by examining how they function as instruments of knowledge and power, supporting political agendas, shaping representations of “indigenous” space, and legitimizing colonial intervention in the organization of territory. Second, it applies this critical framework to the Moroccan context, analyzing how the French protectorate produced, classified, and mobilized architectural archives to construct particular narratives of heritage, urban order, and cultural identity. Decolonizing the architectural archive therefore requires both preserving these documents and interrogating their silences, omissions, and biases. Such an approach enables a more nuanced and inclusive understanding of architectural history, one that reconsiders the role of archives in the production of colonial discourse and in the shaping of Morocco’s built environment.