Tadelakt

What it is

Tadelakt is a compacted, water-repellent and polished lime plaster that can protect walls in rooms with high humidity and heat.¹ In Morocco it is used for baths, washbasins, water containers, walls, ceilings, roofs and floors.² Because it is applied as a paste, seamless curves can be formed; pigments give it any colour, and a deep red is traditional.³

Its traditional place is in the hammams and baths of palaces and riads, the town houses with an inner courtyard.⁴ It also covers fountains, basins, courtyards and some façades.⁵ In the Kasbah of Taourirt in Ouarzazate, according to the conservation plan of the Getty Conservation Institute and CERKAS, the important rooms in which water was used, baths and kitchens, had such a lime plaster inside; a courtyard in the Stara quarter has entirely white tadelakt walls.⁶

Where it comes from

According to Bladi.net, the plaster originated in the Marrakesh area⁷; Aujourd'hui le Maroc likewise writes that its history is closely bound up with Marrakesh, and that raw material and skill alike belong to this city to the present day.⁸ The lime is burnt from particular limestones of the Marrakesh region.⁹ Bladi.net derives the name from the Arabic verb dalaka, which means to rub, massage and polish¹⁰; in Moroccan Arabic dlek means to rub or massage, as in the hammam.¹¹ Futura, on the other hand, translates the word as “to caress” in the Amazigh language.¹²

History

Originally tadelakt was used to seal cisterns¹³, and it protected the walls of hammams from damp and penetrating water; in Marrakesh it formerly lined the walls of the steam baths.¹⁴ Wolff, Diederichs and Ait el Caid studied two of the oldest steam baths in Morocco, the hammams of the Caid’s Kasbah in Tamnougalt and of the Kasbah of Taourirt, whose earthen walls are protected by such a lime plaster.¹⁵

What it is made of

The base material is lime, not Portland cement¹⁶; Futura names air lime with water and, if desired, natural pigments.¹⁷ The conservation plan for the Kasbah of Taourirt, by contrast, describes the tadelakt there as a mixture of lime, sand and egg white.¹⁸ Black soap or olive oil soap is used for sealing.¹⁹

How it is made

In a workshop in Marrakesh, the craftsman first slakes the limestones in water until they crumble into grains, sieves the powder finely, lets it swell in water for 24 hours and then mixes in a natural pigment; he applies the paste with his hands.²⁰ Smoothing is done with a wooden spatula, the fartasse, which has a rounded end for curved surfaces; the coat must stay the same thickness everywhere.²¹

According to Futura, the plaster is applied in a single thick coat, usually onto an existing lime mortar; while it is fresh, the maalem, the master, smooths it with a flat pebble, whose circular movement compacts the material.²² Bladi.net, by contrast, describes two thin coats of about two millimetres each.²³ In Taourirt the plaster was rubbed with smooth stones and cloth until it was glossy and sealed.²⁴

Last comes the pebble, no bigger than a child’s hand: with it the craftsman rubs the surface in all directions until it is smooth, then soaks it with black soap dissolved in water, which closes the fine cracks.²⁵ The fatty acids of the soap form water-insoluble lime soaps with the lime, which seal the surface.²⁶ As it dries, the lime hardens with the carbon dioxide in the air; the surface is maintained by treating it again and again with a soap solution.²⁷