Ideas of 'Identity' in Morocco: Thesis MArch Urban Design

Amanda Ellis History & Theory Tutor: Godofredo Pereira UD1:RC12 SN: 13072448

The ideas of ‘identity’ in Morocco and how it is implemented by architecture and urbanism through the time of the colonialism and post colonialism period

Amanda Ellis SN: 13072448 University College London Bartlett School of Architecture History & Theory 2013/2014 UD1 RC12 Tutor: Godofredo Pereira

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Amanda Ellis History & Theory Tutor: Godofredo Pereira UD1:RC12 SN: 13072448

TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

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NOTION OF MULTICULTURALISM

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THE PRE COLONIAL ERA

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THE COLONIAL ERA

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THE POST COLONIAL ERA

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CONCLUSION

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Amanda Ellis History & Theory Tutor: Godofredo Pereira UD1:RC12 SN: 13072448

Introduction The period of colonization by European countries in Morocco during the 1900’s has resulted in immense reform in society, culture, religion, politics and the urban form of the region. During and after the colonization period, the influence of modern European culture has infiltrated their existing cultural character, introducing new ideas of social interaction and new ways of living to the locals, creating a culture of hybrid mix. This is essay is an attempt to define the idea of ‘identities’ and social and cultural character of Morocco through forms of architecture and urbanism pre and post the empire of the French Protectorate by tracing its historical intervention through time.

First and foremost, I would like to elaborate on the broader notion of ‘colonialism’ and ‘modernity’ as these two terms of closely interrelated with one and another but they are distinct from one another. Colonialism is the act of one form of power being controlled by another form of power; in this case, the nation of Morocco was taken over and controlled by the French for a period of time.

Colonialism leads to the division of two distinct groups of society and culture within a nation, that is the dominant and the subordinate. In the case of Morocco in historical terms, the pre colonial era has one dominant group which is the Arab race. However, colonialism has lead to the introduction of another group of society which in turn replaces the beforehand dominant Arab race. The locals, Arabs, are now seen as the subordinate while the Europeans became the dominant. The suppression of the dominant culture into the subordinate culture is a result of modernity.

‘Modernity, in contrast to ‘colonialism’, is not an action of a form of power but rather a characteristic of a period which resulted from colonialism. ‘Modernity’ is what the colonial state wants to achieve and this is done by the construction of new typologies of architectural styles and urban planning. In context, modernity is a till which leads to the reconstruction of Arabs and Europeans social status within the society and the rethinking of social and cultural character of Morocco under the idea of ‘identity’.

Notion of Multiculturalism This is the point where the idea of a hybrid mix culture that is evident in Morocco during the French Protectorate comes in; it can be seen through the combination of different architectural/urban forms and elements from the traditional vernacular Arab housing, the shantytowns, to the introduction of the European style urban grid and worker housing schemes. Contrastingly, the hybrid culture that is seen in Morocco in the present is the result of racial segregation during the colonialism period. The concept of racial segregation was raised by the French with concerns with health and medical issues of the European citizens. Locals are seen as ‘a body of disease, threat to the colonial white population’ (Demisse,4) and therefore, its architectural and urbanism styles was shaped around this idea of reducing health threats for the colonial society. This process of segregation between the different races became the basis of the colonial state and will be discussed further along.

With the introduction of new social and cultural groups into a nation, values and characters of the pre colonial era are disregarded. Under the colonial rule, this lack of concern for the pre colonial values can be caused by factors including the loss of traditional practices, external interventions of development from the colonial empires, new implementation of state policies, migration both in and out, impact of new media and globalization (Escobar,60). These factors are an attempt to modernize the nation to an extent where colonialism unifies all the colonized land together into one single identity.

However, this attempt instead of resulting in a one identity society, has instead created ‘multiculturalism’ (Escobar, 208) asserting that ‘identity’ is an expression of ‘difference’ and can be seen as the term that is use to define the product of these hybrid mix of culture that colonialism has produced, the dominant and the subordinate, the Arabs and the European social group.

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Amanda Ellis History & Theory Tutor: Godofredo Pereira UD1:RC12 SN: 13072448 The discussion above leads to the argument of racial difference which is highly presented and clearly visible in Morocco during colonialism as discussed by Serhat Karakayali in “Colonialism and the Critique of Modernity”, the text assert that there are not one main dominant race as a result of colonialism but many different racial and ethnic cultures which altogether created this ‘identity’ of Morocco. Before elaborating further into this subject, I would like to shift the focus on the term ‘identity’ to ‘character’ as the term ‘identity’ is constantly changing and therefore cannot be concluded. To define the ‘character’ of Morocco, I attempt to trace down historically, architectural and urban character presented in Morocco using these three time periods: pre-colonialism, colonialism and post-colonialism and how these three time periods conveys the difference in the spatial characteristics of Morocco.

The pre colonial era Starting from the pre colonialism era before the year 1912, looking at the traditional vernacular architectural typologies such as the courtyard houses in the Medina for comparison, the individual unit of a courtyard house, typically three to four stories high are for one single Arab family, which concerns an extended family typology unlike the European nuclear family scheme. The spatial configuration within the courtyard house with its rooms all opening up to the courtyard suggests the importance of family life and social gathering within the family in the Islamic religion. The courtyard acts as a semi public space for the family members. Furthermore, hierarchy is a very important aspect in designing the tradition courtyard house similar to the hierarchy of the social structure of the Arab community. Here, gender is the main emphasis where men are seen as more dominant than women however; women are given a lot of respect for their privacy. In the courtyard house, this is portrayed through the hierarchy of floor space as women dwelling areas, requiring more privacy, are usually situated on higher floors while men and family dwelling areas are on lower floors. Moreover, the notion of privacy is further emphasized in its exterior firstly, of the facades of the house where it is a solid wall and window punctures are limited as it provides the opportunity for the interior to be visible to outsiders. Secondly, through the study of the typical floor plans of the courtyard houses, the entrance to the house is usually very narrow and crooked so that the accrual courtyard are not visible to the visitors upon entering, one only see the walls and require to turn to be able to actually enter the courtyard premise.

Another aspect in designing the courtyard house is climatic conditions of the northern African region. The cool winters and hot summers require the house to adapt to these changes in extreme temperature and this is where the courtyard comes into play. The advantage of the courtyard to this climatic condition is that in the summer, the courtyard has the highest temperature while the individual rooms have the lowest temperature. In the winter, this natural temperature control system is reverse. The hierarchy of temperature also relate to the individual floor height where temperature drops as the floors are higher allowing family activities to be done on the rooftop in the summer.

Aside from the individual housing units of the pre colonial area where Arabs originally inhabited, the urban fabric of the ancient medina typology actually contains different racial groups within a single space. This asserts the idea of ‘multiculturalism’ in Morocco since the post colonial era.

The Medinas, traditionally occupied by the Muslims are considered the symbol of the Arab world in Morocco. However, within the medina itself, it also contains different social and racial groups, most visibly is the division of the Jewish quarter (Mellah). The Jewish quarter inside the medina has its own religious and trade system which allows for both interaction and segregation from the Muslim community of the medina. There are certain limitations in which Jews are not allowed such as the entrance to the Muslim area of the medina without permission, as Muslim are considered the dominant race here and Jews are the subordinate. Even though the social structure between the Jewish and the Muslim community inside the medina is significantly different, its physical spatial 4

Amanda Ellis History & Theory Tutor: Godofredo Pereira UD1:RC12 SN: 13072448 qualities retain itself to be common such as the scale of the streets, the narrow and winding street pattern and its comparison with the human scale which gives the medina its distinct character.

By just looking into the architectural and urban typologies of the pre colonial era in Morocco, we can clearly address that there are already signs of a hybrid culture that is presented, that is the occupying of space for the Moroccan population and the Jewish population. Additionally, we can also start to see the social aspect of the two cultures interacting with each other and the certain boundaries, both physically and socially.

The colonial era Progressively, in the colonial era between 1912 and 1956, the forms and functionality of this traditional architectural typology mentioned above is said to be one of the sources of inspiration for the design on various housing development and urbanism in Morocco during the French Protectorate. This period is seen as the period of political, social and cultural reconstruction, the moving of Moroccans from the urban centre to the suburbs and the centre being replaced by the European population as the power of the state now shift to the Europeans. Furthermore, it is also the time of economic change as Europeans set their businesses in the new centre and Moroccans became the employees for the European. All of this has resulted in the start of the opening of Morocco internationally and because of this, it is a must for European planners and architects to design numerous worker housing schemes to accommodate the demand of local labour force. Most importantly, this worker housing scheme has to be located farfrom the new centre which the Europeans resided in.

According to Marion Von Osten’s “In Colonial Modern World”, multiculturalism calls for the need of urbanism which is able to adapt to all characters. To satisfy the need for this adaptation, European architects and planners in Morocco during the protectorate developed the concept of standardize housing which caters to all races. Unspecific to the surrounding context, the standardize housing scheme can be seen as various architectural interventions in Morocco’s urban context which emphasizes the identity of Morocco as the country of various races rather than it trying to create a new identity for Morocco as a country of modern European cities.

In the first attempt to study and translate traditional housing units into Ecochard’s “Housing Grid” in Morocco, he has constructed a series of grid modules; each is 8 by 8 metres in dimension and consists of two interior spaces and one exterior space which a in a form of a patio.

In each of Ecochard’s one story height unit, the exterior patio resembles the traditional courtyard where its walls are as high as the floor to ceiling height in order to provide privacy to the individual families. The vertically staggered patio provides both shade and natural light to the individual units, similar to the traditional housing but disregards the local climate conditions of the region as the courtyard is now the exterior and is no longer the tool to regulate temperature in the housing unit.

Furthermore, the aspect that Ecochard has neglected is the hierarchy of a male dominant society, as the units are designed to be only one floor, the traditional male and female relationship is disregarded and the European notion of equality and unity is instead implemented.

The Ecochard model was then translated into many urban housing schemes in Morocco such as the ATBAT AFRIQUE housing project and “Habitat Marocain” at Sidi Othman in 1955. Both if which retrain the aesthetic quality of Ecochard’s module. However, I would like to elaborate on the “ATBAT AFRIQUE” module for housing devised by Candilis and Woods, the scheme recognizes the multicultural aspect of Morocco and therefore, it has devise different housing modules for four types of population, Muslim, Europeans, Jewish and mixed races. The typology for Muslims for example, draws again on the Arab housing typology creating a semi enclosed outdoor terrace for each apartment unit whereas the European typology refers to a terrace rather than a courtyard and is more public in terms of spatial configuration. ATBAT AFRIQUE is an attempt to define the identity of the colonized Morocco as Candilis explained in ‘Bauen ist Leben: Architteckten Report’, 5

Amanda Ellis History & Theory Tutor: Godofredo Pereira UD1:RC12 SN: 13072448 Stuggart,1978 “…because you live in different conditions from the French, I am trying to find your identity…”. The scheme acknowledges the fact that Morocco has now become the land of multi culture, multi social and multi identity but on the other hand, respecting the needs and culture of each.

Alongside the implementation of the worker housing devised by the Europeans, the colonial era has constructed two new urban fabrics, the modernized European new town and the so called ‘Shanty Town’ where the local population moved to. The modernized new town which the colony state has created, practically adjacent to and surrounding the traditional medina, has a completely different street pattern devised from the Parisian style of large boulevards, large public squares and modern planning regulations such as set back laws in order to ‘regroup [the traditional villages] in a checkerboard pattern’ (Von Osten,79) and also aim to modernize the nation, uniting the multi culture together. Just by looking at a recent map of a city, one could immediately notice the starting point and ending point of the new town and the medina. The width of the streets become larger, the density of the urban fabric is looser; the individual buildings claim more space.

One example of this colonial planning is the “Ifrane”, a town constructed in 1929 for the purpose of a ski resort town for the European population as “Ifrane” is located at a high point and experience snow in winter. The town was planned and designed according to the “garden city” model which placed emphasis on a gated community with a balance of green public spaces and spaces for agriculture.

Unlike the gridded urban fabric of capital cities such as Tangier, Marrakech or Casablanca which was suppose to convey the economic and political stability of the colonial empire, Ifrane was planned to reflect the country life of European suburbia and was established solely to cater to the European population and therefore, producing urban fabrics with curved street patterns along tree lines, repetitive housing blocks with chalet style architecture and neatly trimmed plots of green spaces.

The architectural style within Ifrane has its influence from the architecture of the European Alpines houses with elements such as high pitched gable roofing, stone walls and small wooden window openings-contrary to the traditional vernacular housing of the medina-. Furthermore, the planners and designers of Ifrane had even imported trees from France to be planted along Ifrane’s streets. Ifrane became a reminder for Europeans of their hometown and is a representation of a multicultural intervention by using extensively different styles of architecture and urbanism.

In contrast, the ‘Shanty Towns’ or ‘bidonvilles’, mentioned earlier was the product of the French in attempt to protect itself from the health hazards and safety issues from the locals Arab population was first established in 1920 in Casablanca and later was also set up near Ifrane as housing for Moroccan workers and maids of houses of Europeans in Ifrane.

This urban settlement was scattered far from the European urban fabric and is initially a fenced off space by the colonial state, it has a completely different spatial organization as it is later constructed on the basis of non regulatory and spontaneous housing development by the Moroccan workers with whatever materials they are able to find. This is usually wood, bricks and aluminum sheets.

This spatial organization is very much similar to the traditional Medina, it is consisted of dense and narrow streets and footpaths. In fact, it has been said that ‘Horia Serhane, an urban theorist from Morocco, has stated in an interview published in this publication that people in the hut settlements learned about their building practices in the medina’ (Von Osten,27), this is evident in the concept of the medina housing typology as a ‘growing house’ with additional parts can be added to its existing structure through time which is also true for the Shanty Town development as the housing are non regulated and as the families grows bigger, the inhabitant added more space to their houses.

Furthermore, the construction of public and business opportunities are also very similar to that of the medina as individual families set up shops on the ground floor and outside of their homes and small footpaths serve as public spaces for smaller neighborhoods.

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Amanda Ellis History & Theory Tutor: Godofredo Pereira UD1:RC12 SN: 13072448 Interestingly and in paradox, the Shanty Towns built by the Moroccans for the Moroccans has close relationships with Ecochard’s worker housing module and Sidi Othman housing development in Casablanca. This relationship can be seen both physically and socially. Through the masterplan of Casablanca created by Ecochard in the 1950’s, one can notice that the worker housing scheme of ‘Sidi Othman’ and ‘Carrieres Centrales’ is purposely located so that the existing Shanty Town is in the middle of these developments. Ecochard has positioned these worker housing projects to the largest Shanty Town with up to 650,000 inhabitants in 1950 (Von Osten,157) in an attempt to relocate the population of the Shanty Town to the new housing development and therefore, attempt to develop the city.

This attempt is somewhat unsuccessful as the attempt to remove the Shanty Town has instead created more fenced developments in response to social and race segregation, it became more of ‘a supplement and not a substitute’ (Von Osten,136). The Ecochard model development has turned into one of the fenced self built housing where its inhabitants changed and added structures to create walls and public spaces so that they could segregate themselves from less wealthy inhabitants of the Shanty Town beside them.

The combination and the contrast of the European influence and the Moroccan subordinate is clearly visible here through this example the architectural typology and urban fabric of the Shanty Town, Ifrane ski resort town and the worker housing development built by the European. The Ecochard module based on a grid block system and built vertically reflecting the European urban planning and the sense of order and control imposed by the colonial state sits adjacent to the Shanty Town, a non planned, low rise development created by Moroccan individuals with no clear zoning system reflecting the traditional Arab housing of the medina.

Within the period of the French colonial, the idea of a hybrid cultural character is emphasized by the French by attempting to unite all existing cultures into a space, which is not to say that they are attempting to create one culture out of many in any way. This period sees great importance in urban planning regime which tries to solve the problem of the local workforce and poverty through spatial reorganization resulting in the mix of social character throughout the state.

The post colonial era As a result of all mentioned above, the post colonial era (the year 1956-present) has made Moroccan cities to be ‘spaces for negotiation and agreement where new organization and services, freedom and autonomous spaces are emerging (Demisse,6). After the return of the colony back to Morocco, there is still a great emphasis on the contrast between the city and the countryside and alongside it, the influence of the European urban planning regime continue to tackle the problem of the lack of housing, ‘new town halls, administration buildings and housing districts were planned in the same modernistic fashion with was adhered to by the leaders of the protectorate’ (Von Osten,148) More importantly, the colonial era has introduced Morocco to international business and trade opportunities which have set standards and influence in its upcoming architectural and urban design depicting Morocco as a modernized, forward thinking and an international country.

An example of this spatial development is the planning of the “Ch’Rafate New town”, an upcoming new city between Tangier and Tetouan which announces its construction in the year 2002.

The plan of the construction of an entirely new city based on the principle of European urban planning vision, it is to accommodate the growing and modernized city which caters primarily to provide residence for the greatest number of people in the industrial workforce of the industrial zone nearby- hence the relation to the Ecochard’s and Candilis’s scheme for worker housing-. The project is divided into different zones catering to different social status, low income housing, middle range housing and upscale housing, all producing clusters of large public spaces for its residents. The

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Amanda Ellis History & Theory Tutor: Godofredo Pereira UD1:RC12 SN: 13072448 apartment blocks are arranged inwards in a way that provides the residents with its own courtyard space reflecting the functions of the traditional Arab housing.

Ch’Rafate New town has combine elements of all social and cultural characters which we have traced back from the pre colonial era and the colonial era by using influence from the European urban planning grid/zoning and Ecochard’s translation of the traditional vernacular housing.

In the social and cultural aspect, the distinction between the medina of Tangier and the new town is much distinct as it is in its physical form, the diversification of race and culture can be seen clearly upon entering the new colonial town. Here, men and women are not strict to wearing their traditional clothing and tend especially younger generation tend to wear modernized clothing, the introduction of western cultures overrides Muslim culture as seen in cinemas, advertisements etc and the intervention of foreign businesses.

Whereas inside the medina, the social character of it is still oriented towards the basics of the Arab culture: the respect for women in society and importance of privacy through clothing and architecture.

Looking into more recent examples, the assertion of Morocco being a country of multi race and multi culture can be seen through the building of contemporary “monumental” architecture such as the “Biblioteque Nationale du Royaume du Maroc” (The National Library), 1924, in Rabat which combines together traditional architectural styles and modernist architecture. The designing and building of this kind of architecture is seen to be an attempt to reunite history, as a land of Arab culture and the colonized state. This is clearly seen in the design of the conservation book tower of the National library which translate the form and symbolical reference of the traditional Moroccan mosque and ‘madersa’ (religious schools) emphasizing the power of religion and knowledge.

Furthermore, the architects (AMW, Casablanca) made important the connection between indoor/ outdoor spaces and public/private spaces as seen historically in the traditional courtyard house of the medina. Indoor courtyard spaces are created along a horizontally running axis which continues to the public garden outside of the library building allowing both symbolic references and the practicality of Morocco’s climatic conditions.

Despite the references to historical architecture and vernacular practices, the use of materials, shapes and colour to construct the building is clearly referencing modern architecture as seen in the white washed walls with glass facades and the open plan special configuration of the lobby and reading rooms. The combination of traditional Muslim and European influenced architecture and space planning in this case emphasizes the mediation between the two cultures and society and likewise convey the multiculturalism between the races present in Morocco historically and contemporary.

Conclusion Reflecting upon the discussion above, it can be said that the history of racial difference and the idea of the ‘identity’ of Morocco as a mix of different race and cultures in Morocco has indeed been recognized and conveyed through the architecture and urbanism before, during and post colonialism. The fact that the history of Morocco suggests that it has always been a country of multi race even before the colonization period, as it has not always been an Arab country, but it has varied from the settlements of the Romans, Byzantines, Ottoman, to the conquering by Southern European countries and eventually reaching to the French before the handing back to the Arabs, further asserts the claim.

The pre colonialism era is architecturally characterized by the winding and narrow pattern of the urban fabric and the hierarchy system of importance of family and gender through their housing typologies. In contrast, during the French colonial era, the introduction of a new form of architectural and urban character has completely changed to a strict urban repetitive grid system and the introduction of pure and non elaborate forms in architecture conveying the power of the 8

Amanda Ellis History & Theory Tutor: Godofredo Pereira UD1:RC12 SN: 13072448 colonial state and the change in economy. Lastly, the architecture and urbanism of Moroccan cities post colonialism goes back and forth between attempting to define the traditional vernacular architecture and attempting to bring in the influence of the colonized power at the same time.

To conclude, the ideas of ‘identity’ present here as a country of racial difference and varies in social and cultural character, is constantly changing through time and therefore, ‘identity’ cannot be defined but only can be traced back through different ideas that was implemented in the past.

However, we can say that ‘identity’, emphasized excessively by the process of colonialism, has developed architectural and urban styles, types, visions and methods which respond and acknowledge this historical and social difference.

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Amanda Ellis History & Theory Tutor: Godofredo Pereira UD1:RC12 SN: 13072448

References Avermaete, Tom, Serhat Karakayali, and Marion Von Osten. Colonial Modern: Aesthetics of the Past-rebellions for the Future. London: Black Dog, 2010. Print.

Demissie, Fassil. Postcolonial African Cities: Imperial Legacies and Postcolonial Predicaments. London: Routledge, 2007. Print

Escobar, Arturo. Territories of Difference: Place, Movements, Life, Redes. Durham: Duke UP, 2008. Print.

Kadiri, F.“National library of the Kingdom of Morocco.� Projects and Achievements. Web. 1 Mar. 2014. http://www.awmountassir.ma/detailprojet.php?id_module=297&idp=48#

Karakayali, Serhat, and Kahina Amal Dijar. "Negotiating Modenity." Colonial Modern. By Marion Von Osten. London: Black Dog, 2010. 16-58. Print.

Osten, Marion Von. "Architecture without Architects- Another Anarchist Approach." E-flux Hournal 6 (2009): n. pag. Www.e-flux.com. May 2009. Web. 25 Feb. 2014. <http://www.eflux.com/journal/architecture-without-architects%E2%80%94another-anarchist-approach/>.

Osten, Marion Von. "The Housing Grid by Michel Ecochard." Transculturalmodernism. N.p., 5 Mar. 2012.

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Ross, Eric. "Ifrane, Imperial Garden City of the Middle Atlas." Web log post. Eric Ross, Academic. N.p., n.d.

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