sustainability Article Eco-Hammam: The Complexity of Accelerating the Ecological Transition of a Key Social Heritage Sector in Morocco Magda Sibley * , Camilla Pezzica * and Chris Tweed   Citation: Sibley, M.; Pezzica, C.; Tweed, C. Eco-Hammam: The Complexity of Accelerating the Ecological Transition of a Key Social Heritage Sector in Morocco. Sustainability 2021, 13, 9935. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su13179935 Academic Editor: Chiara Delmastro Received: 16 August 2021 Accepted: 1 September 2021 Published: 4 September 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). Welsh School of Architecture, Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3NB, UK; TweedAC@cardiff.ac.uk * Correspondence: sibleym@cardiff.ac.uk (M.S.); pezzicac@cardiff.ac.uk (C.P.) Abstract: Hammams are key providers of affordable hygiene and wellbeing services for the less wealthy in the Maghreb region. However, the UN climate change conference COP22, held in Marrakech in 2016, highlighted hammams are major contributors to air pollution, deforestation, loss of ecosystems, water overconsumption and wastage in Morocco. This paper analyses the complexity of advancing their energy transition from the viewpoint of key stakeholders engaged in two half-day virtual forums focusing on the water–energy nexus; organised as part of the AHRC funded project “Eco-Hammam: engaging key stakeholders with bespoke low-carbon technologies for lighting, heating, and water recycling to sustain a Moroccan heritage”. Results reveal that the Moroccan hammam sector could benefit greatly from stakeholders’ networking and collaboration to accelerate the uptake of low-carbon technologies and ecological practices. Key stakeholders’ priorities and barriers (economic, policy-induced or governance related) are presented and show that the lack of coordination between governmental and non-governmental organisations is perceived as contributing to the slow pace of the hammam energy transition. Although managers seem fully aware of available energy transition technologies for their furnaces, energy and water are treated independently and disconnected in their governance. Finally, Marrakech is identified as a potential hammam sustainability hub. Keywords: energy transition; climate design; sustainable urban development; stakeholders’ engage- ment; Moroccan hammams; living heritage; urban renewal; governance 1. Introduction Heritage hammams in the Maghreb historic cities continue to be an important living heritage in the 21st Century, as highlighted by past research on the surviving and still functioning historic public bathhouses (hammams) of the North African heritage cities of Marrakech, Algiers, Tunis, Tripoli and Cairo [1,2]. Morocco is where the largest number of functioning heritage hammams have been surveyed and where new hammams are part of the cluster of key urban facilities introduced in every new residential neighbourhoods in accordance with local planning regulations. Hammams contribute to social sustainability by providing a much-needed affordable facility for the hygiene and wellbeing of the economically disadvantaged population in the area [3]. Additionally, the multi-generation reproduction of the collective bathing perfor- mance, beyond the bathing and purification ritual, means that the spatial practice of the hammam can contribute to build and strengthen social and cultural capital and continue supporting the physical and mental health of women in post-traditional Morocco [3,4]. Nonetheless, hammams face an increasing number of challenges threatening their contin- ued viability as a public service, which might lead to their closure and disappearance after many centuries. Amongst these, there are the increased costs of fuel (wood or diesel) and water [5]. Further developments that have emerged from the UN climate change conference COP22, held in Marrakech in 2016, have questioned the environmental sustainability of Sustainability 2021, 13, 9935. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13179935 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability