Moroccan arts emerged through a wide set of influences including not only North African, Mediterranean, and French colonial sources but also pan-African, Indian, contemporary Italian, and Swedish design to create a style of living at once global and distinctively local. Today, the emergence of a new approach to architecture blending craft, interior design, and cuisine has given birth to what we call "An Architectural Revolution" spearheaded by a growing community of local and international designers, hoteliers, and chefs de cuisine.

The influence of the Berbers represents the oldest cornerstone. Berbers have lived in the deserts and mountains since prehistoric times. Berber architecture includes the castles of red earth called kasbahs from which the ruling families controlled the caravan routes across the Sahara desert and through the Atlas Mountains. Berber crafts feature colorful carpets and carved doors with geometric patterns. The creators of the new Moroccan Arts also find inspiration in traditional Berber building materials, handmade bricks and rough wooden beams among them.

The Arab armies that swept North Africa in the seventh century AD and established Islam as the region's dominant cultural force laid the second cornerstone of the new Moroccan style. Along with a new religion and language, they also brought a new design vocabulary. Because Islam forbids the representation of animate forms, this language consisted of elaborate patterns of stars and other geometric shapes, abstracted plant forms, and the calligraphy known as arabesque. The Arabs also brought a Persian palette of blue and white with their ceramics.

After conquering North Africa, the Arabs pressed into Spain to establish the Islamic stronghold called el Andalus by the early eighth century. By doing so, they set in place the third cornerstone of the new Moroccan style: the Andalusian culture, which represents a marriage of Arab and Berber influences with the Hispano-Roman roots of southern Spain. Roman architectural forms featuring columns and loggia gained prominence combined with Arab-inspired decoration including zellij (intricate geometric mosaics of cut ceramic tile) and tagguebbast (filigree-like borders of plaster carved while damp).

The French placed the final cornerstone of the new Moroccan style during the protectorate (1912 to 1956), when they imported European building techniques and architects to construct buildings in the art deco style, often incorporating decorative flourishes borrowed from Morocco. With its pure geometric forms and strong colors, Andalusian decoration proved a perfect complement to the European art deco style, as demonstrated most famously at Marrakech's La Mamounia Hotel, which opened its doors to an international clientele in 1923.

During the last few decades, King Hassan II and his son, King Mohammed VI, protected and preserved Morocco's architectural heritage and fostered the continued practice of its age-old crafts. They encouraged the purchase of architecturally significant palaces and private homes by local entrepreneurs and westerners with the resources to restore and transform them into guesthouses, hotels, and restaurants catering to the country's growing international tourist trade. By so doing, these monarchs set the stage for Morocco's contemporary style revolution.

A visit to Morocco today, whether to the cosmopolitan realms of Marrakech, Rabat, and Casablanca, the ancient walled city of Fez, the wind-swept coastal town of Essaouira, or the mysterious Routes des Kasbahs in the Atlas mountains, allows travelers to discover the living legacy of these historic influences. Grand hotels dating from the time of the French protectorate blend early twentieth century art deco stylishness with Moroccan decorative elegance. Intimate riads, as the guesthouses operated in former grand urban homes are called, reveal a blend of traditional domestic architecture, with rooms arranged around colonnaded courtyards, and the chic tastes of contemporary interior designers. The highpoint, both literary and figuratively, of a visit to a riad may be the traditional breakfast of freshly squeezed orange juice, homemade breads, and local honey served on a rooftop terrace overlooking the mazelike streets of Fez or the distant peaks of the Atlas outside Marrakesh.