Casablanca Carrières Centrales -Ecochard
Subject: IC Advanced Architectural Design Workshop Topic: UNLOCKING the Commons
Casablanca Carrières Centrales
Professors: Avermaete Tom Lodewijk Pieter, Ivica Covic Students: Sanja Gogic, Sara Kocevska
CASABLANCA CITY economic locomotive of Morocco city of trade and commerce
URBAN HISTORICAL FRAMING 3 u-rban peri-
“architect’s terrain is not a tabula rasa.” -Écochard
AIM
• to supply workers and rural migrants with affordable housing options • in order to take care of two concerns: public health and security • with the hope to evolve organically into a community over time
SIGNIFICANCE
• l’habitat économique, or ‘economical dwelling’ • ethnological surveys of the living conditions and building techniques • architects positioned themselves to correspond the needs of the people
GAMMA
Group of Modern Moroccan Architects
BACKGROUND Architectural
Political
Social Locus of protest and action against colonial power
Bidonvilles
The focal point of riots against foreign control.
“habitants are èvolués who negotiate between rural and urban ways of living.” - ecochard
PROJECT bidonville cité horizontale cité verticale structured and hygenic low-rise district high-rise district Proposal for new dwellings in 5 parts: • • • • •
“Introduction et bidonville” - Pierre Mas “Planification et urbanisme” - Ecochard “L’ordre sans construction” - Georges Godefroy, Mas “La concentration horizontale” - Claude Beraud, Godefroy “La concentration verticale” - Vladimir Bodiansky, Georges Candilis, Bernard Kennedy, Henry Piot, Shadrach Woods
8x8 GRID La trame
Each dwelling: 64 m2 Height of wall: 2.8m Rooms in total: 2-3 Open air patio 5x5m Inhabitants: 9000 Concept of the cité: • 5 district vicinal units Lowest level: 1800 + everyday collective services (mill, oven, playground, shops • Provided various amenities: markets, farouks (commerce), mosques, Koranic school for religion. • Network of alleys connecting small plazas (placettes) each with a min. 24x16m. Trees. To encourage communal atmosphere. • schoolchildren not to walk more than 500 meters or cross major roadways
CITÉ HORIZONTALES low-rise housing blocks
almost immediately after its intial construction, people added floor transforming into a middle-rise urban fabric.
elements kept during the whole period 1952-2014
Changes between years 1952 and 2014
The buildings have been transformed and appropriated by the inhabitants in such ways that nowadays the neighbourhood is not recognisable anymore.
CITÉ VERTICALES 3 BUILDINGS Nid d’abeille Sémiramis La tour
Project by the ATBAT-Afrique
High-rise housing blocks + shops, workshops, public space Social spaces designed as concrete extensions believed to invite collective selling, working, meeting, praying, story telling... In middle of each unit --> centre, hub Aims: to function as a spatial & social beacon to turn the city into poly-centric
CRITIQUE: NOT FLEXIBLE ENOUGH
ULTIMATE SYMBOL OF CENTRALITY OF PLACE
CHANGES
Mosque added later by the people. Types of transformations: • balconies to living space • relocation of rooms • modified use of public space • vertical and horizontal extensions Adaption of buildings according to: • culture • needs • visions • norms and values
BARRIERS Applying the image of barriers, the question how the inhabitants of the modernist neighbourhood transform and appropriate their built environment.
UNFROZEN IN TIME consequences for spatial and social construct of the neighbourhood
TYPES OF BARRIERS Architectural
Economical
Political-institutional
Changes during the years of CITÉ VERTICALES
Virtually every dwelling looks different in colour, size, extension, decoration, and form. Architecture is not permanent or timeless; dwellings change along with their inhabitants.
“What did they add? Their needs. They created distinctions.” - Richard Milgram
“We don’t have anywhere to move to. Everyone would like to change for the better. But we don’t have the money.”- Dounia
“One person started. The ground floors really needed to be extended. Everyone followed. There is a Moroccan proverb that says ‘Do as your neighbour does’ (laughs), so everyone followed!” -Youssef
Interviewer: “What if someone proposed you a new dwelling in another neighbourhood?” Chaïma: “Our origins are here, we can’t go. Impossible. It’s pretty, it’s popular, any place here reminds you of something. Everything is close. If someone comes to tell me: ‘leave this place and I will give you another’, I couldn’t. Because in my soul, psychologically, I feel at ease here. I can’t change.” “we are all brothers”
Quinta Monroy, Social housing Chile Architect: Alejandro Aravena Year: 2004 Place: Iquique, Chile Reason: Earthquake 8.8 Destroying 80% of the buildings Need: Building individual houses would cost too much physical space for the ‘extensive family’ collective space for 20 families the building had to be porous enough, to expand built with flexibility and generosity
“ This is how we contribute using architecture tools to non-architectural questions, in this case, how to overcome poverty.” - Aravena
2003
2013
WALLS of the closed part of the household set by the architect
AGENCY OF ARCHITECTURE vs. AGENCY OF PEOPLE
+coverings
COURTYARDS as the part of the ARCHITECTURAL PROJECT had to deal with certain changes made by PEOPLE
services+night zones
SURFACES under open sky being changed by some factors
connecting separated toilet/kitchen with the rest of the house
ARCHITECTURAL QUESTION
land. infrastructure. architecture. DONE BY ARCHITECT kitcen.bathrooms.stairs.dividing walls.
ROBUST CONCRETE BLOCK STRUCTURES
+level
adding more coverings while connecting separated toilet/kitchen with the rest of the house in the other parts
high increasement of open spaces while remaining ones are in the shadow of new floors of nearby houses
switching from the importance of horizontal elements to the vertical growth and dynamical changes in facades
-planned planted surfaces
uneven process of building because of different financial statuses of households
when ARCHITECTURAL PROJECT changes identity
voids as potential 50 percent of each unit’s volume will be self-built
framework support provided
initial dwellings DOUBLE HEIGHT
influence on the level of THE NEIGHBOUHOOD/
common
Aravena
From these 2 examples we can conclude that linear positioning of dwellings provides extensions without loosing open space (A (Aravena) which is showed in this 52-old project
Ecochard
URBAN QUESTION
AGENCY OF PEOPLE
AGENCY OF ARCHITECTS
change of urban image
foundations
material closing
no horizontal expansion
modular structure
frame with voids no vertical expansion
+ windows +balconies painting walls by neighbours
NO
FOUNDATION as limit set by the architect
YES
_even if the society living in the neighbourhood have further need or wish to grow the building more than 2-3 added levels, this barrier stops building more
3D CARDS
CITE HORIZONTALES
CITE VERTICALES
CASABLANCA
It was meant to be replaced at a later stage through more permanent constructions, horizontal or vertical, offering several possibilities for transformation, as soon as the occupants wo would have the necessary resources.
Nid D'Abeille (a) Honeycomb- rhythmically repeats a pattern of rectangular shapes jutting from its surface (b) suspended patios with high walls shields the owners from outside views) and
Decolonisation forsed the French to make Casablanca test site for a new approach 1952-1960 population of Casablanca went up 41% by 1952 rural immigrants constituted 75% of the city’s population Problems that occured: -overcrowding -lack of infrastructure -poor sanitation Shanties and sheds as integral part of North African cities, result of migration from rural areas to rapidly modernizing urban areas.
Semiramis were the first attempts by the French protectorate , orto build new housing for the colonized rather than the colonizer. LA TOUR ‘the tower’, complements the other buildings and is undoubtedly the least innovative of the trio.
BIDONVILLES Directly translated “city out of canisters”, or slum. The term bidonville has first been applied in this case of the sprawling slums. It was an effect of the urban problems in Casablanca. the principal cause was the enormous growth of the population. Most poor Moroccans coming from rural areas survived at the edge of the city in the bidonvilles.
ECONOMICAL BARRIER
POLITICAL-INSTITUTIONAL BARRIERS
What has become increasingly frequent is the phenomenon that family members from abroad send money in order to let the dwelling being improved...summer holidays ‘back home’.
With the establishment of the Urban Planning Department, the situation changed and controls on prefecture and neighbourhood level got imposed.
The constructor builds a shop on ground level and an apartment on the first floor; both are property of the constructor. The second floor with terrace is given to the family, which has the possibility to extend even further when they have the financial means (the maximum is ground floor plus four storeys). Moroccan constructors figured out creative ways to raise enough money ou for constructions and at the same time respecting the law in the Koran which states that taking interest is prohibited. Morocco went through a turbulent time after independence, finding its own identity and political course. Especially in the period from 1956-1984 regulations concerning housing transformation were either not existent or then somewhat ignored by the inhabitants
SOCIAL BACKGROUND
POLITICAL BACKGROUND
There is a “kind of neighbourhood spirit” which keeps the inhabitants from pointing the finger at each other, for example when someone is doing constructions during the night.
Morocco gained independence on March 2, 1956 and became a constitutional monarchy with an elected parliament, assigning vast executive power to the king.
It is like a village, everyone knows everyone. There are unwritten rules that people follow.
Cultural aspects, such as the wish for intimacy or having two living rooms, trigger the evolution of a building. During constructions, family members, and sometimes friends and neighbours, lend a hand; together they try to keep the monetary costs as low as possible. Since the late 1990’s there is a growing inflow of rural Moroccan migrants, which bring a new social composition into the neighbourhood. ‘’if the neighbourhood is clean, it’s because people have agreed upon that the neighbourhood is clean. It’s all about the willpower of the inhabitants.’’
While the construction site of the project was active, military realised some actions In order to quite down riots connected to fight against colonialism in order to realise mentiones independance which came afterwards.
Every single modification on the dwelling requires authorisation, and one needs to know how, where, and when to obtain them. The procedure to obtain permission takes long time and is somewhat arbitrary, as the inhabitants told us. The approval from the municipality is, as one young guy said, “sometimes also ‘buyable’” Corruption is responsible for lots of neighbourhood ttransformation and also degradation; there is a loss in quality and safety of the building when inspection is buyable. Those who do not get a building permission do the constructions overnight.
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ARCHITECTURAL BACKGROUND
1984
The Athens Charter’s ideas were embraced, having developed a close relationship with Le Corbusier and initiated plans to radically transform the city of Casablanca’s design.
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CASABLANCA Decolonisation forsed the French to make Casablanca test site for a new approach 1952-1960 population of Casablanca went up 41% by 1952 rural immigrants constituted 75% of the city’s population Problems that occured: -overcrowding -lack of infrastructure -poor sanitation Shanties and sheds as integral part of North African cities, result of migration from rural areas to rapidly modernizing urban areas.
POLITICAL-INSTITUTIONAL BARRIERS With the establishment of the Urban Planning Department, the situation changed and controls on prefecture and neighbourhood level got imposed. Every single modification on the dwelling requires authorisation, and one needs to know how, where, and when to obtain them. The procedure to obtain permission takes long time and is somewhat arbitrary, as the inhabitants told us. The approval from the municipality is, as one young guy said, “sometimes also ‘buyable’” Corruption is responsible for lots of neighbourhood ttransformation and also degradation; there is a loss in quality and safety of the building when inspection is buyable. Those who do not get a building permission do the constructions overnight.
ECOCHARD Education in archeology and first-hand witness to the rise of attitudes in the post-war decolonizing world. He did surveys from both airplane (areal view) and motorbike (land view). Part of CIAM and also head of planning department in Morocco. Expert for the UN. He is a fine example of a “more practical” man to address “real-world problems”, as mentioned by LeGates & Stout. He embraced the Athens Charter’s ideas, having developed a close relationship with Le Corbusier and initiated plans to radically transform the city of Casablanca’s design
GAMMA (Groupe d’Architectes Modernes Marocains) – consisted of Michel Écochard and a group of young architects, among them Georges Candilis and Shadrach Woods, who worked with him on the housing estates in Casablanca. Le Corbusier in CIAM 6 introduced the ‘town-planning grid’ as a template of presentation matrix (21x31cm) 4 urban design themes: living, work, cultivation of body and spirit, circulation CIAM 9 dealt with the shabby built environment of the bidonville.
1917 URBAN PLAN
ARCHITECTURAL BARRIER
The first urban plan of Casablanca was developed by Prost (1917) in the middle of the Moroccan resistance against the French protectorate and the turbulences of World War I. The plan was characterised by the spatial separation between the European and the Moroccan population, as well as the establishment of zoning in order to provide urban districts that were socially and ethnically distinct. Reasons therefore were hygienist concerns. The result was total spatial division and marginalisation of numerous Moroccans living in the peripheral slums. the semi-circle grid of boulevards, which aimed at improving traffic circulation (with precedence given to cars).
The architectural or physical barrier concerns the floor plan, foundation, and material of the building, the sanitary infrastructure, as well as the general street grid of the neighbourhood and the existing (public) services… If the material is weak then adding a storey is coupled with fortifying the support beams, which may present a barrier.
ARCHITECTURAL BACKGROUND
1984 URBAN PLAN
1952 URBAN PLAN
The Athens Charter’s ideas were embraced, having developed a close relationship with Le Corbusier and initiated plans to radically transform the city of Casablanca’s design.
The third urban master plan was introduced by the newly established Urban Planning Department Casablanca in 1984 through the architect Pinseau, in order to address the violent turmoil that had shaken Casablanca 1 in June 1981.Riots erupted mainly in the working class neighbourhoods, where citizens attacked the symbols of wealth
The second urban plan (1952) was also created during political instability, when the violent nationalist movement clashed with the colonial power. The immediate reaction of the rulers was an immense social housing, with no change in zoning regulations. Michel Ecochard and his aim, or rather hope, was to integrate the slum dwellers into the city. Mass housing for the indigenous population became an emergency issue and a political matter in dispute. By 1949 about 120’000 people we reliving in slums, from a total population of 700’000 (Rachik 2002).In only 13 years the value of land had multiplied by the factor of 175. This exemplifies the force of speculation, which started in the beginning of the 20th century. Plots of land got more expensive the closer they were located to the centre. Ecochard’s team of young urbanists, landscape architects,economists, and jurists were in contact with sociologists investigating the customs and living conditions of the Moroccan population. Furthermore he achieved a solution which both considered immediate needs, especially hygienic aspects, but also included a long-term perspective.