Dwira: a small house (the diminutive of dar), often with only one salon downstairs and one upstairs and a small courtyard and usually no pillars. Dar Bennis is an example of a dwira.
Riad: a house with a garden in the center, usually with orange and lemon trees (the Arabic word riad means garden). The garden is sometimes in the center of the house, and sometimes the house is U-shaped with the garden on the fourth side. Many riads have salons only on one level, to provide more light for the garden.
Massreiya: a guest house, often very ornate, attached to a larger house. On the ground floor there would usually be a stable or shop, above which are storage rooms, and then the massreiya on the top floors. The massreiya was for male guests, who would not normally be allowed to sleep in the main house, or sometimes for the eldest son and his friends, and later for his family. The term "massreiya" means "Egyptian", probably because the Moroccan idea of an Egyptian house was that the main rooms were on the top floors, as opposed to a normal Moroccan house, which is centered around a courtyard on the ground floor.
Kasr: a palace or very large house. Good examples in Fez are the Batha Museum (the sultan's palace in the late-19th century), Kasr Mnebbi on Talaa Sghira near Dar Bennis, Palais Mokri, and the Glaoui Palace in Ziat and more.
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