Superbia? Sub-rural communities / Thinking the new Maghrebian metropolis by studiofroh

subâ&#x20AC;&#x201C;rural communities / Thinking the new Maghrebian metropolis

SUPERBIA ?

â&#x20AC;&#x153;No house should ever be on a hill or on anything. It should be of the hill. Belonging to it. Hill and house should live together each the happier for the other.â&#x20AC;? / Frank Lloyd Wright

SUPERBIA ?

INDEX SUPERBIA ?

// INTRODUCTION preface design goes wild stay on designated path nature – a diffuse ideal definition as worldview – a portrait of nature between essential dependency and cultural growth landscape is nature? on planning and design: the holistic nature of nature! the promise of equity through aesthetics off the beaten path resources of the essay

04 06 06 06 07 07 08 08 09 10 11

// context analysis the Maghrebian metropolitan landscape general statistics and facts planning Casablanca climate geology vegetation soil agriculture urban development local settlement typologies

13 13 14 18 19 19 22 22 26 29

// synthesis design proposal

// Notes

// appendix data resources figures

57 57 58 59

sub–rural communities / Thinking the new Maghrebian Metropolis

// diploma thesis // kristian ritzmann supervised by Prof. Undine Giseke / Technische Universität Berlin Andre Viljoen / Brighton University Berlin, January 2014.

introduction // PREFACE “During the last century, the catastrophic effects of technological control over natural resources, as well as their exploitation, attained a dimension previously unimaginable; a dimension that has resulted in fundamental cultural changes of the natural habitat EARTH. […] However, it seems as if the majority of people, including decision makers, do not fully realize that new attitudes and behaviors are required.” / Staeck, Odenthal 2010 As a landscape architect I have been closely observing the afore mentioned cultural changes of our natural habitat over the last years. Now that I have been asked tohand in a résumé of what I have understood about my profession, I want to be clear about my motives and goals. It would be easy to agree to the above statement and to comply with acting accordingly. But the changes in attitude and behavior will not be easy at all. We are at a point of time where many developments made by man cannot be taken back. That goes furthermore for the impacts of these developments on our natural habitat. Therefore it will be much more difficult to evolve any intended turn on the basis of what has already been done. We will have to take in account the promising concepts for urbanenvironmental-sound living as well as the devastating alternations of natural cycles and systems of the past decade. To begin with one has to start with the true “now” and change it to a substantial “tomorrow”. To achieve this without just “greenwashing” master plans, I plan to rethink the human concept of landscape. A concept that only evolved in opposition to settlement and city. From the recognition of nature as the “dangerous wild” in the early centuries to the current desire of “living in the green”, nothing much has changed in the way we build our settlements consisting of four walls, shallowly hammered onto the ground. But over time one major fact has dramatically changed, the area of untouched and healthy land. Due to coherent demands of more and more people living on this planet, as in intensive agriculture, mass-housing and high energy production, nature is disappearing. Not only as an ecological foundation of human livelihood and picture of peace, but even more as an aesthetic term. The concept of landscape, which is a philosophical, a theoretical perspective of nature, can be of enormous power in this debate, since it does not describe a region according to natural sciences or climate theory, but has an arttheoretical approach that leads to sensitive experiences and sensible thought. Therefore let me introduce my diploma thesis with an essay on how I preceive my role as a landscape architect in current and ongoing changes of our “habitat EARTH”. Take this text as a map to the mindset that underlies the project proposal in the region of Dar Bouazza.

design goes wild / how much landscape (architecture) does nature need? In the newspapers, I read currently that “our battleship struggling against climate change” (Vorholz 2013) is in danger of sinking. The results of this journalistic input can be summed up with the observation that, as it is currently being executed, emissions trading1 has reached the end of the road. The impression that emerges here is not an illusion: reading on, I learn about the so-called “borehole landscapes” on the seabed and heated discussions about the establishment of a national park in the Black Forest – but terms such as “epigenetic” and “bioeconomics” also describe the on-going debate concerning our relationship with our ancestral habitat, planet Earth, and their presence in the public sphere is growing – sometimes with shockingly little reflection. A short-term view of the future certainly doesn’t offer any improvements: the incorporation of the developing countries (in Asia, Africa and Latin America) into the global economic flow is certainly a concern, if one takes the energy and raw materials figures and the data concerning the environmental destruction of Western countries and scales it up to the populations and foreseeable economic power of e.g. China and India. In terms of natural resource economics, Western civilisation should serve as a negative example rather than a positive one. “We were only able to overlook [this fact] whilst the rest of the world remained on a low, even abject level in comparison to us” (Böhme 2007). Like a tidal wave, the highly publicised ecological catastrophe seems to be breaking over us in a way both unalterable and yet precisely predictable. However, despite their partially threatening and even devastating effects, nature’s manifestations and forms have kept their visual fascination. The advancements of the destruction of nature have been proved by countless academic statistics and they appear eerily on the screens of our smartphones, televisions and computers, hanging there like the writing on the wall (see Böhme 2007). In real time, bush fires in California and earthquakes in Pakistan dance across our shiny screens. Within the comfort of our living rooms, we can follow the catastrophe from the very first spark right up to the last dying embers. In this way, we become witness to not only the ravages of “nature’s violence” but also the disappearance of the dreams we built for ourselves1. In actual fact, however, the power relations between mankind and nature present themselves in a far more contrary fashion. The evolution of industrialisation – of industrial culture as a whole – has altered the dynamics of nature. The complex relationship with the pre-existing dimension “nature” lies somewhere between amazement, toleration, control and utilisation. But which nature should we be worried about? Physical nature – i.e. the nature that has been studied by modern scientists for approximately 200 years and in recent decades to a greater extent by ecologists? Or should we be concerned with physiological nature, i.e. that part of the world which is just as cosy for the human organism as it is for the animal and plant life forms at whose mercy we must live, symbiotically and synergetically. We can be clear about one thing. Despite the relentless worry and concern on the behalf of society and scientists (above all, from ecologists but also from transdisciplinary practitioners such as landscape architects) this ecocatastrophe is unavoidable. Within this unavoidability lies the fundamental question of how profoundly we should be discussing the concerns of nature and above all which disciplines remain underestimated in their scope of action. Indeed, it can be seen that the more threateningly a global problem is perceived, the less it is treated within an aesthetic, creative spectrum of possible solutions. To put it another way, the answers given to the great global challenges and problems have hitherto always resembled a mastering of the “problem” via advanced technology (technocracy). A somewhat extreme conclusion to be drawn from

1 “Homeowners had to clear out with little warning, and too little time to grab precious possessions. Million-dollar homes burst into f lames, despite the best efforts of firefighters to protect them. “I actually watched [my home] go up in f lames, as well as my boat,” one resident told ABC News.” Castellano 2013.

the accumulation of threatening scenarios affecting the “environment” could therefore be as follows: in a future in which all nature has been forcibly converted into culture by technology, we won’t need landscape architects anymore. However, the central question remains: what does nature need herself? // Stay on the designated path! Wildlife conservation areas and national parks are seen as a refuge and a response to the destruction of nature. Here, in contrast to other natural open spaces, nature is protected from mankind. Here, man forbids himself from the destruction of nature via fences, boundaries, keepers and regulations. The number of visitors to the Great National Parks in the United States of America is on the decline. One might think that this is evidence of a decline in interest in real nature. However, over the last few decades, a constant change in the structure and functional approach of the national parks has taken place2 . This includes new guidelines for complete disabled access but also general efforts to increase the number of visitors by marketing the wilderness as a destination for minibreaks and getaways. In global terms, these measures have had more of an influence on today’s national parks than climate change. At the same time, the records show a change in the visitors’ activities. When the national parks were first established, active observation of nature was at the forefront of considerations. Today, however, only a small fraction of the elements of national parks are of interest to visitors. These few elements can be summarized in a socalled “tourist bubble” (Judd 1999) and include activities such as eating, buying souvenirs and taking pictures. Although it’s tempting here to draw conclusions of causality, the technical decrease in the number of visitors is not to be taken as a direct indicator for a decline in interest in nature or a bond with it that is gone for good. In this context, the geographic conception of the American national parks is of significance: it sub-divides each and every park into a network of different areas of protection. Alongside national parks, there are also national forests, whose visitor counts remain unknown since they were not primarily conceived as holiday destinations. Compared with national parks, they have little or no tourist infrastructure and fewer regulations; they are, however, just as much “public land” and contain landscapes that are no less spectacular. It has been suggested that a number of the “old” national park visitors have switched over to the national forests. There – according to the “secret tip” – those seeking nature can get a better deal, in both senses of the word. This is because they must neither pay high entrance fees nor wait for a reservation. However, it would seem to be of greater significance that in the national forests, one can have a more self-sufficient relationship with the natural environment: here, one may leave the paths and camp out in the open. Even if it’s just to reach a couple of wild berries… // Nature: a diffuse ideal At this point it is necessary to take a closer look at the crucial term “nature”. Although one speaks of the “natural sciences” in many different areas and contexts, the concept of nature that underlies this term is different in virtually every category within theses academic disciplines. There is therefore no academic definition that is accepted by all, meaning that within the natural sciences, one actually never speaks of ‘nature’; rather one uses a specific description of a small section of the whole. This leads to the concordant conception of nature denoting a whole, but one that must be conceived of as an open, changeable and changing system. Ever since the Enlightenment, nature has been observed from technomorphic and utilitarian viewpoints. The utilisation and cultivation of nature have constantly secured its role within the history of human development. Even today, attempts to clarify the concept

2 See also the commentary What’s Wrong With the National Parks? (2009) In the section “Room for Debate” by the editors of the New York Times, 27 September 2009. URL: http:// roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/27/whats-wrong-with-the-national-parks/ (accessed 24 July 2013).

// Definition as worldview – a portrait of nature To all intents and purposes, the woods – the eternal paradigm of wilderness – has disappeared; it is being exhausted. Globalisation has brought about the citification of nature. The front gardens of the detached houses in new housing districts and derelict urban areas contain a greater diversity of life than the woods, the meadow or the field (see Poschmann 2007). Monocultures sterilised by herbicides and pesticides, devoid of herbage, insects and songbirds and lacking powerful animals such as wolves or bears do not only impoverish the woods in an ecological sense but also make it a comparatively boring experience. In a world in which one’s decision-making processes are dominated by the intensity of the stimuli on offer, a baroque park area apparently offers variety and breadth. In this sense, the woods’ value inheres less in the inherent power of a highly complex area of life and more in the use of its content as building material and a source of energy. This instrumental-rational perspective and the perception of the instrumental value of nature as a resource have by now begun to be taken on board in the areas of environment and nature conservation. Here, using references to actual or supposed inherent ecological constraints, one argues that natural functions of production and regulation should remain in place (Kirchhoff 2012). Amongst the natural sciences, ecology is the science to which one ascribes the inherent conservation of nature. The term ‘ecology’ was coined by Ernst Haeckel 150 years ago as part of a system of biology called “Physiology of the interrelationships between organisms and the external world and between each other” (Haeckel 1866: 236). When dealing with nature, ecology tends to use the notion of an ecosystem. An ecosystem then consists of a biocoenosis – i.e. at least two different types of organisms that interact with each other – and its biotope – i.e. the entirety of abiotic factors within a given space. In this way, ecologists are able to at least achieve a linguistic definition of the limits of nature. In a slightly less comprehensive manner, Haeckel also formulated his idea of the “lessons from nature’s budgeting” (Haeckel 1866). The term budget (Haushalt) is already indicative of an ambivalence that is seen constantly in this discipline. On the one hand, there exists a conception of ecology as environmental physiology, but on the other hand, it is seen as a type of budget theory of all nature, as an analogy of economics (see Potthast 2010: 2). In economics, however, the use of the concept ‘nature’ has a more contrarian effect. When economists speak of nature, they are actually talking about man’s essence. A concept that regularly appears in the discussion of the nature of mankind is that of the homo economicus – a term most likely first used by the Italian engineer, economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto in his work “Manuale di economia politica” (1906). The term is not concerned with a genealogical ancestor of homo sapiens ; instead, homo economicus denotes a theoretic

3 Rath(1996) describes the around 1800 beginning semantic shift of the term. “Secon nature” becomes the subject of desire that deals with the possibility for a recurrance of a new and enhanced nature in the middle of culture.

scientific model of a human who thinks exclusively in economic terms. This model forms the basis of classical and neo-classical economic theory (Thommen et al.). With respect to human decisions, one of the main characteristics of man – from an economic perspective – is his capacity for unrestricted rational behaviour. Thus it could be claimed that, for consumers, it is a maximisation of utility that is decisive for action, whilst for producers, it is the maximisation of profit. Here, economics and ecology seem more or less identical. Both fields seem to be in agreement: the world is a battle for resources, and what one needs are efficiency, thriftiness and (self-)optimisation. It is economics that determines all practice and it is biology that governs all knowledge regarding the nature of man. These results, representing a contrary theory to one of a harmonious man-nature relationship, show that the interpretation of nature as an immaterial concept is not in complete agreement with the actual physical assets of nature. On the hunt for the right looking glass with which to view nature, it seems possible that a perspective with the greatest possible distance from the subject might be fruitful. In physics (from the Latin physica ‘nature studies’), nature comprises everything that is. To put it more precisely, the study of physics consists of the productive advancement of our understanding of nature. Of particular concern are matter and energy, along with their interrelationships in space and time. For a physicist, an atom of carbon is just as much a piece of nature as is a distant galaxy. The problem of perspective that this entails is undeniable. If one considers that our entire physical knowledge at the same time constitutes the basis for our dealings with nature’s resources, the selection of a particular perspective becomes of crucial importance. On a galactic scale, nature seems far from being limited. However, to take this as a scale for the use of nature’s resources on planet Earth would most certainly be fatal. This brief glance into some disciplines makes it clear that ever since the great developments of the modern era of science, there has been no uniform definition of nature. Mathematical physics, geological and biological sciences, veterinary and human medicine and psychology as well as art and cultural studies all use varied concepts of nature. Even if these concepts of nature are far more interrelated than merely existing in isolation from one other, we are unable to extract a comprehensive concept that could tell us what is essential and what is productive in terms of our relationships with nature. Such a judgement would appear different for each of the aforementioned views. Ultimately, these “aspects of nature” are the respective kinds of our relationship to ‘nature’, our interaction with it and our difference from it (and its partner/opponent ‘culture’). Moreover, we can say that it is precisely these discrepancies within the concept that testify to the actual practical state of nature. It currently seems impossible to speak of a “closed theory of being in and with nature” (Seel 1991: 13). So as not to file the subject away due to deficiencies in description, let us say this: a general concept of nature can in principle only ever be an abstraction from these relations. ‘Nature’ is the complement (from the Latin complementum “(means of) completion”) of the particular self-understanding with which man is confronted in “natural phenomena”. // Between essential dependency and cultural growth Alongside the sheer quantity of “natural phenomena”, it is far more the quality of nature beyond its services for general mankind (ecosystem services) that suffers. One example of this kind of service on the behalf of nature can be seen in the provision of food. For mankind, this process – called a “service” – represents a dependency that is despised to a certain extent – a dependency that is to be conquered through science and research at some point in the future. However, the orientation of the conversation concerning food security leads to a belief that nature would offer us an uncertain possibility for survival at most. Since the “Earth Summit”4 in 1992, questions concerning food production have come to centre stage in the global discourse. There are countless ways to find a solution, many of which are already in practice: land grabbing5, intensive farming with

4 The United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED), also known as the Rio Summit, Rio Conference, and Earth Summit, was a major United Nations conference held in Rio de Janeiro from 3 June to 14 June 1992. 5 Land grabbing is the contentious issue of large-scale land acquisitions: the buying or leasing of large pieces of land in developing countries, by domestic and transnational companies, governments, and individuals. While used broadly throughout history, land grabbing as used today primarily refers to large-scale land acquisitions following the 2007-2008 world food price crisis.

of nature often turn out to be mere descriptions of the relationship between mankind and nature as that of two opposing worlds. With the popularisation of the idea of the ecosystem in the middle of the 1980s, an integrated understanding of nature arrived in Western cultural circles in which mankind and his culture (compare “anthropocene”) are constituent parts (Oldemeyer 1983: 30). This conception has recently let to a situation where the city as a cultural achievement of mankind is acknowledged as a second nature3. However, since this second nature habitat for man is increasingly shaped by man himself in a way not conducive to living, there appears a longing for the diffuse ideal of “undisturbed nature” and recuperation there. When not displaying its “true colours” in the form of colossal violence and change, she charms and seduces man, be it as an advertisement picture or the promise of a spa getaway. The relationship between the curious omnipresence of images of nature and the exploitation and disrespect is one of ambivalence. Man’s categorisation of his “surround-ings” ranges from primary nature to biotic and abiotic and to a second nature; they all demonstrate the inability to apply order to nature’s chaos. Now that we know that we don’t know what we’re talking about when we talk of nature, it can be concluded that every individual has their own understanding of what could be meant by it. In this way, “nature” is on a par with “love” and “beauty” in our shared reflection. Everyone is at liberty to have their own idea of it, and, indeed, everyone does.

8 genetically modified crops, the use of pesticides and herbicides, hydroponics6 and entire landscapes of greenhouses and migrant workers, food imports and many more. All these examples emphasise the concerted search for solutions to the political and technical problems of feeding the world. People are currently convinced that it is at least technically possible to feed a global population that is still on the rise. However, it remains unanswered as to whether there exists the global social will to feed the entire world unlimitedly. And even when this question is answered with an incontrovertible yes, it isn’t yet clear what a fair price for this would be and who will pay it. Within ecosystem services, nature represents the foundation for all economic activity. But as well as productive resources, nature is also the source of a simply endless diversity of forms, structures and systems. It is the very nucleus of complexity. This means that when one goes around a natural history museum, it also becomes clear that natural history is first and foremost a cultural history. The diversity and complexity of nature was a summons to generations of adventurers, scientists, scholars and artists to disclose its secrets, to fathom its existence, to understand its structures, to conquer its dangers, and in more recent times, to seek healing, recuperation and distraction in it. Nature is the foundation of our (academic, economic, planning and free time) culture. // Is landscape nature? Since things are getting a bit heavy and the philosophical spheres of the perception of nature do not knit together to produce a secure path to enlightenment across this unsecure terrain, one might well think that the term ‘landscape’ was born out of this emergency. If we are not able to describe ‘nature’, then the thought is that ‘landscape’ should achieve all that we want to exemplify. This would certainly also fit with the fact that until now, there are no trained “nature designers or nature architects”. But the term ‘landscape’ contains an important aspect of nature that in actual fact becomes graspable through its description. We are concerned here with a momentary cutout of nature, “that, for a sensitive and sympathetic observer, has an aesthetically contemporary appearance” (Ritter 1963: 18). In 1844, Alexander von Humboldt expressed a comprehension of landscape as the aesthetic discovery of nature within his “abstract for a physical description of the Earth”. His ambitious intention of an overall understanding (“portrait of nature”) of the appearances in the cosmos for a better understanding of “the collaborative effect of the forces in a holistic natural system” (Ritter 1963: 19) in fact mostly served him by being an appeal to the world of empirical research (which was at that time experiencing swift expansion) to counter the “mass of individual properties” (Humboldt: I, 15) with the “idea”. Here, then, “pleasure” as the experience of nature without knowledge of its physical, biological or ecological effects comes alongside science and opens up the broad field of aesthetics. In this sense, landscape serves as a tool for the cutout aesthetic image of the totality of nature via the inwardness of the human idea (subjectivity). “Landscape is man’s living reality reformed by aesthetic nature” (Seel 1991: 222). At this point, my task would be over and the power of nature would have its effect on all of us through the aesthetic idea of landscape. But the connection between an “enjoyment of nature that originates from ideas” (Humboldt: I, 11) and landscape was abandoned soon after Humboldt and replaced by a scientific definition that is as neutral as it is possible to be7. This has led to a position where we now have nature as a problem child and landscape as a cultural and scientific answer to it, with the two of them colliding into one another. This is accompanied with the undermining of the boundaries of landscape with regards to its content. Today, we talk of street landscapes, industrial landscapes and urban landscapes. With this broadening of the concept of landscape, it becomes clear that nature, in its basic, powerful characteristic is being utterly repressed. This is broadly based on our Western lifestyle and is embedded in our culture to such an extent that we think of its scales (the massive number of globally produced images of private housing, cars, budget airlines and television) as perfectly normal (see Poschmann 2007). However, I am convinced that the natural-political and economical path that we have hitherto been on has passed its sell-by date.

6 Gericke originally defined hydroponics as crop growth in mineral nutrient solutions. Hydroponics is a subset of soilless culture. See Dunn 1929: 29. 7 See also the fundamental essay on the basic concept of landscape: “Die geographische Landschaft und ihre Erforschung”, by C. Troll (1950).

// On planning and design: the holistic nature of nature! If our human society is to have a future, then it is absolutely necessary to expand the basal axiom of political equality regarding nature’s totality, particularly on a global scale. It cannot be assumed that nature is simply there. Rather, it is and will remain our task to pay off nature’s “acquisition costs” by allowing it the space and the conditions for re-investment. We do not need to abandon this space or write it off; through the “idea of nature”, it takes on an organising function within our social system and thus stabilises communal human life. In this context, it is not naïve to call monstrous motorway projects and industrial livestock farming into question – it is in fact an important part of the process of the application of natural law. The complexity of our society – a society for whom nature was not the least significant role model – very much allows the mechanisms of this transformation to be called into question and fundamentally re-thought. This is because the destruction of nature and the environment that accompanies these mechanisms makes it clear that what we are talking about is a problem of guidance and control. This is where we must turn to planning and its inherent processes. The engineer is concerned with the conception and development of means or tools for a particular purpose, typically by excluding a large part of the interrelationship of the whole reality of existence. The consequences of his actions (on the interrelations he has excluded), along with the discussion of the goals of said actions do not fall within the realm of his responsibility. An increase of traffic deaths due to bigger and more efficient engines that enable faster driving or the need to build wider, less bendy streets is someone else’s responsibility (Trepl 2013). In contrast, the architect must try, insofar as this is possible, to keep the totality of life in mind. He creates something that should function practically in our empirical world. The demands – i.e. the everyday demands, but also, on a scientific level (see Trepl 2013), the sociocultural, economic and ecological demands – as well as form and symbolism – must all be taken into consideration. The challenge, therefore – in contrast to that of the engineer – is the intermediary connecting of the technology within the limits of an idea of the whole. This conception, despite its current popularity, is not new. This holistic8 perspective is seen as a particular characteristic of the design profession (design and architecture). In order to carry out (new) interventions in the world, the designer must know the world (environment) as it currently stands as intimately as possible. “The ‘real’ nature of the world is revealed when it is explored as thoroughly as possible in breadth and depth, in order to understand its basic constitution.” (Nelson, Stoltermann 2012: 119) This understanding for reality is generated using a diverse range of methods of knowledge creation. These methods are in part strictly scientific but also intuitive approaches. In both cases, an interpretation of the knowledge gained is mandatory, as an intentional pointer (Nelson, Stoltermann 2012: 121). This (subjective) process constitutes the foundation for the conceptualisation of a creative way of acting. This kind of action doesn’t only effect a change in the existing situation; it also creates a newly made, emergent totality that genuinely differs from the previous totality. For this reason, it is of utmost importance that every complex planning procedure is also perceived as a holistic process. Any individual analysis or measurement of a situation can only be an element of an overarching understanding that itself can only be formed out of “design interpretations”, i.e. means for the qualitative evaluation of the whole. All qualities – systematic and emergent – evolve through the interactive relationship and connection of parts that constitute the whole. And yet, the immaterial achievement of a designer – for example, of a landscape architect – will always be faced with the physiological criteria of nature. It can therefore be seen that the criteria for the perception of nature (an “idea”) are not true criteria of nature itself. On the one hand, our standards can be exclusively human standards; but on the other hand, we’re concerned with the result of

8 “Holism is the idea that the properties of a system cannot be determined or explained by the sum of its components alone. It is often regarded as opposite to reductionism, although proponents of scientific reductionism state that it is better regarded as the opposite of greedy reductionism. Holism and holistic are terms coined by Jan Smuts in the early 1920s.” Source: www.wikipedia.org

Man’s intervention in nature can be understood as an infringement of a functioning system. It is not a matter for debate that our cultures have inflicted major damages on the ecosystem as a whole in the last ten decades. One could argue that this is evil. In Huxley’s “Perennial Philosophy”, evil is characterised by the formation of a break in unity, the splitting of the individual from the fundamental principle of the whole (Huxley 1944). In many spiritual traditions, evil is also defined as a splitting-off from the one, absolute and highest nature (Nelson, Stoltermann 2012: 184). The removal of the “self ” from the overall whole via logical thinking, desire and feeling is the beginning of this split and, according to Huxley, will, sooner or later, lead to the total destruction of all things. To take an example; logical thinking leads us to scientific findings. But every finding made today is only a finitely valid finding. What is true today may turn out to be false tomorrow, as new findings come to light. The challenge is to accept the whole and its innate uncertainty. For planners in particular, this is manifested in the form of severe ambivalence. How can a prediction and guidance of conditions be valid if the coordination system upon which it is based cannot be said to be valid itself? That which we can call contradiction here is in fact the motor of all creation and permits precisely the kind of porosity that is necessary for ideas of nature. This is of course not a plea for a “trial and error” strategy in planning! Design is evil if that which is not desired becomes manifest and part of the world despite the practice of design – whether through chance, by necessity or with intention. Unintended consequences affecting the system usually evolve as a result of shortcomings in knowledge concerning the complexity of the design context before the intervention, as well as shortcomings in knowledge concerning the dynamics of the introduction of new variables (relationships) into a complex environment (Nelson, Stoltermann 2012: 185). Since there can be no indubitable knowledge, every plan can be judged as “evil” from certain points of view. Both the planner and the designer must give consideration to this circumstance. Consider how, on the one hand, the evolutionary “survival-atany-cost” or “survival-of-the-fittest”10 takes on an evil use in man’s vocabulary, whilst on the other hand, it is described as naturally immanent. Survival of the fittest was what Darwin discovered whilst searching for a theory of the origin of species and evolution (Darwin 1859). Accordingly, evolution doesn’t strive for the “wellbeing of an ecosystem”; instead, it is rather the case that it is subject to the merciless self-interest of individuals (Gould 1989: 89). Does nature actually want to destroy itself? At this point, it is worthwhile to think once more about the “idea of nature”, which lies dormant in each one of us in a slightly different way, generating our opinions and convictions. This is because the notion of “survival of the fittest” is complemented by the conception of the “selection of groups”, which works with the assumption that groups develop systems of regulation in consideration of the wellbeing of the group as a whole (altruism11), in order to ensure their continued existence (Gould 1989: 90). This observation is to be understood as an allegory for the fundamental possibilities for the planning of our naturally formed environment. The provision of a porosity in space, time and social organisation is in essence an acknowledgement of the “evil in design” and thereby also a better estimation of the consequences, with the possibilities for feedback and inherent dynamics. It’s not about survival in nature, but rather living well with nature.

9 Under the keyword “Kantische Bewusstseinsauffassung” (mindset of the German philosopher Kant), respectively Kant’s epistemology, the basal scheme of our conscouisness is desribed as ambivalent. It is the result of the passiveness of our sensual actions (feeling and perception) and an intellectuality in form of intuition and imagination descending from given matter. See also Plesser 2002: 71. 10 Charles Darwin, who wrote of natural selection, did not introduce this phrase. Instead, British economist Herbert Spencer wrote: “This survival of the fittest, which I have here sought to express in mechanical terms, is that which Mr. Darwin has called ‘natural selection,’ or the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life.” (Spencer 1864: 444). 11 In the study of social evolution, altruism refers to behaviour by an individual that increases the fitness of another individual while decreasing the fitness of the actor. See also Bell 2008: 367.

// The promise of equality through aesthetics As a goal for planning in architecture, “living well” turns out to be imprecise and even unserious. Nevertheless, the expression contains a key to our encounters with things and with the world. “Living well” gives away nothing concerning materiality or any other measurable units of sub-division and shaping of life. Rather, it describes the type of sensuality or logicality inherent to life. Sensuality and logicality are aesthetic, semiotic categories that can be applied in a particular way to the phenomena of nature. It must be concluded here that the “aesthetic sense…” of open nature, regardless of how prepared or shaped by man, it is “…not a creation but rather a result” (Seel 1991: 115). In the same way, the realisation of the aesthetic experience (the experience of nature) can be seen as “theological and metaphysical apriori” – as a “determination of man” (Volkelt 1914: 544). Beyond the theological superstructure of such a worldview, there lies the utterly thrilling view of the aesthetic experience as a self-valuation of man, removed from “social substance, and instead developing out of human nature” (Volkelt 1894: 207). Dealing with nature with an aesthetic definition offers the chance of manifesting a respect for nature and a respect in nature as basal standards within discussions concerning the future. As well as the ethical (functional) approach to nature, the aesthetic criteria, with reference to sensuality and the associated sociocultural practices, must be incorporated in planning to a greater extent. One could counter by saying: aesthetics and cultural symbolism always correspond to a subjective experience that must be subordinated to the objective state of affairs. Two things must be said with regards to this standpoint. Firstly, it has already been shown how little reliability is to be had with objective states of affairs in terms of nature, meaning that they cannot be taken as fixed constants in the planning and shaping of natural spaces. Secondly, in the objection raised, the understanding of aesthetics and culture used is of a trite, perhaps even a superficial nature. I would like to take a closer look at this second point. In general, aesthetics (in ecology and landscape planning) stands as “romantic sentimentalism” in the face of the hard facts of “surviving the ecocatastrophe”. This seems to be based on a “restrictive character of a strictly rational-instrumental approach to nature” that refuses to acknowledge all affective and aesthetically intended ‘dialogic’ attitudes (Großklaus 1983: 171). Yet nature offers us more than just a vague hope of survival. From an aesthetic point of view, nature is not simply resources or conditions but rather, above all, “the reality of living well” (Seel 1991: 342). This is because even “subjective” aesthetic and cultural experiences are not subject to the specific whim of the individual. A substantial fondness for certain figurations in nature or alternatively of cultural landscapes cannot simply be shrugged off overnight. Knowledge concerning the subjectivity of one’s own experiences does not affect the perceptions themselves. In fact, we can assume that this relationship strengthens the perception and, in the context of rationalinstrumental demands, solidifies as an expression of subjective freedom. It is only through subjectivity that the “divine and beautiful” can be objectivised, independently of all external relationships (see Ritter 1974: 27-30). At this point, it becomes clear that aesthetics (perhaps in contrast to ethics) possesses the capacity to implement individual freedom subjectively and with it equality12 – which is the point at which techno-scientific and political measures reach their limits. With this in mind, drawing a distinction between “classical” and “ecological natural aesthetics”13 barely seems to be of use. Whilst “classical natural aesthetics” begins with an alienated relationship to nature – i.e. “that stuff out there”, the ‘other’ of the (city) person – “ecological natural aesthetics” is based on an understanding of man as a part of nature – as a natural creature. Thus, the difference in an aesthetic understanding consists of a move from “beauty” to “wellbeing”. For a fundamental “power of the idea of nature”, such a distinction makes no difference. Rather, both approaches would have to be recognised as realities of individual perceptions of nature. At the centre of modelling and planning according to aesthetics lie relationships to nature that can be produced practically (in contrast to the evidence we have of all the subject-object distinctions that have appeared in the history of civilisation) (see Hasse 2004). Martin Seel has researched the fundamental possibilities for a relationship with nature and presented them in a theory of the aesthetics of nature. He distinguishes between three forms of (non-instrumental) natural-aesthetic

12 This relationship between aesthetics and liberty is also represented by Martin Seel. “...the aesthetic affirmation of nature is a form of affirmation of human freedom.” Seel 1991: 197. 13 This classification, or rather the term itself was coined by Gernot Böhme. See also Böhme 1989.

an awareness process of our “internal world”, which itself is not spatial9. Any standards we might use do not necessarily have to be decisive for the existence of nature. This distinction – or rather, the acknowledgement of a distinction between nature and human achievement – is the divergent observation of nature, rather than one that sees her as mere practical material that is simply available to us.

experience. A requirement for all three is the (internal) detachment of man from nature, out of which an aesthetic experience becomes possible as an “attempted closeness”. The perception of nature that seems to sink aimlessly in an “expressionless game of appearances” is termed contemplation or “disinterested attention” (Seel 1991: 58). Although a (body-oriented) structuring of space is realised, it is detached from all structuring of sense (Seel 1991: 58). The name correspondence is given to “the clear and vivid nature (Anschaulichsein) of existential goodness of the forms of life that are possible in this nature” (Seel 1991: 90). This aesthetic experience of nature does not exist independently but rather points to a manifest correspondence with one’s own life. In the imagination, the third aesthetic relationship, nature is a projection of art. The detachment from everything from current significance to possible significance and situations is seen as indicative of the imaginative perception of natural space (Seel 1991: 157). An autonomy (art) is accorded to things in natural space and this autonomy is projected in the contemplation of that being perceived. On this level of nature-aesthetic theory, we find highly promising approaches for planning practice in today’s landscape architecture. The reality of most of man’s living spaces provides shockingly little potential for contemplation, correspondence or imagination. As already seen, it is far more the case that a vapidity, a “well-tempered” average, nothing but a mimicry of nature dominates – on the one hand, this serves as a sign of the governable nature for the selfinsurance of human conscience and on the other hand this makes any sort of profound relationship to nature practically impossible. However, it is also the case that exceptional moments – be they of a nature-aesthetic or emotional nature – cannot be had on demand. Nature as such does not need to be restored. It produces itself. It is more important to allow it space to do this. The trust that is shown to nature in this way is mirrored in a new relationship between man and nature. Different natures represent different ways of living. Nature can only offer the possibilities of choice that are necessary for an equal society when it is present in all its facets. When we’re concerned with nature, we are always concerned with diverse forms of equality. When spreading (natural) resources across all areas of society, aspects of global equality are called into question. Furthermore, this equality must be considered with respect to future generations as well: will they be in a position to experience and shape nature to the extent that we currently think of as normal? On a yet more fundamental level, it is in fact about a relationship of equality between man and nature. Who is acting unfairly to whom? This question cannot be answered adequately if it is only treated by people. Nevertheless, it is possible to make approaches towards a way of dealing with nature, and these can be seen as basal standards. Due to their simplicity and fundamentality, it is almost impossible to misinterpret these standards. For this reason, they have at least the potential to survive changes in politics, economics and society. These so-called ‘basal standards’ can become tools for the shaping of the future experience of nature, by functioning as guidelines, dogma or simply as axioms. // Off the beaten path I’m fully aware that this kind of approach might initially seem an abstract, indeed sublime target. In order that the undertaking receives the creative tone that is expressly desired, it is at this point worthwhile mentioning Aldo van Eyck’s “Otterlo Circles” (Eyck 1962: 468). This diagram, developed by Eyck, describes the fundamental values of various building traditions that contemporary architecture must involve itself with, if it wants to respond to man’s entire existence. He divided these fundamental values up into three categories (and paradigms): the classical (“immutability and rest”), the modern (“change and movement”) and the archaic (“the vernacular of the heart”). Van Eyck was of the opinion that the three aspects are not exclusive but rather that it was the architect’s duty to combine, adapt and absorb them in order to reach solutions that corresponded to man’s nature (Eyck 1962: 467). This trinity is then closely related to the categories of the reality of human relationships (“for each and every man”). This interplay also applies to our creative dealings with nature. What do these ‘basal’ standards actually look like in practice? To start with, in order to be perfectly clear, we must recognise that, with such an undertaking, we are concerned with the development of sustainable standards in our dealings with nature. And the emphasis here lies with the process-like elaboration of the base motives of sustainability and equality. According to the Brundtland

definition, sustainability14 and equality are inextricably linked15. It is inherent in the nature of the matter that this is and will remain an iterative process. This is because change is intrinsic to nature (“change and movement”). This must be reflected firstly in the constitution of axioms and secondly in (practical) planning. The constant change in nature that occurs due to nature itself thus also brings the question concerning the much-demanded “ecological balance” to the centre of attention. We must assume that we are not here talking about a balance in the classical sense of the word, wherein weights on the two sides of a set of scales are evenly balanced. Instead, we ought to conceive this balance as a process of unbalance in which the condition of actual balance is only briefly touched upon before being lost again. In view of this assumption, there can be no such thing as an “ecological balance”. Correspondingly, there is no form of loss or risk or danger caused by mankind that must be compensated for. However, we can to a certain extent make it our task to select the potential spaces of mankind’s dominance more specifically and to shape them aesthetically. Such an understanding of our dealings with natural capital can accordingly be classified as a ‘basal standard’. “Where all the people go, no grass grows” (Rilkin 2009-2012: 13) and, in fact, nothing grows at all. Having achieved the present insight into the dynamic of nature – ‘nature’ in the Greek sense of the word, where we understand it as everything that grows (that changes) – there follows the insight that the reforming of nature, e.g. from wilderness to landscape, can achieve a state of satiety, particularly when it brings with it the prevention of growth (“immutability and rest”). Conservative nature protection has been verbalising this standard for a long time now. The theoretical difference – which above all should get the designers and architects to sit up and listen – is to be found in the perspective from which one views the situation. An anthropocentric approach to nature conservation “as a politics of responsibility concerning man and other species that are affected by the consequences of a nature that is transformed by technology” (Hasse 2004: 56) brings the state of satiety due to natural change on cultural and social levels – i.e. those affecting man – to the centre of attention. Nature is indestructible. Yet man exists within the framework of nature with his living conditions and his own “being-nature” (Natur-Sein) and “destroys […] precisely the fragile sphere of organic life in which his existence is embedded” (Picht 1989: 94). The principle being considered here should make it clear that in planning, we are less concerned with the exclusion of mankind from all natural spaces in order to protect natural capital, but rather that we should be looking for a way to guide mankind through these spaces. Less centralised and regulated interests and intentions allow individual experience of nature and prevent cultural oversaturation of natural spaces. Here, it is a matter of “progressive regression of perception” (Hasse 2004: 56) in the experience of nature – a regression that acknowledges all facets of nature – apart from the superlatives i.e. the global images of high mountains and rainforests – as aesthetic (and therefore ethical) apriori – including all the subtleties of the natural interplay between evolution and decay. This leads us to a further ‘basal standard’ that describes how, in this sense, nature becomes a means for design (“the vernacular of the heart”). Because even if nature does not possess a “stable” form it is anything but formless. The diverse forms of nature as experienced by man stimulate cultural practices and generate social rootedness. The requirement for a real exchange between man and nature (externally as well as internally) is porosity (“breathing in and out” in van Eyck’s words). This porosity is above all to be generated by keeping space open. The important thing here is not simply the quantity of space that is kept open – this can vary depending on the type of region (city, countryside, wilderness…). What is far more important is the quality of the space, i.e. its interconnectedness with other natural spaces and an ability to engage in an exchange with them (protection of pristine spaces).

14 The term ‘sustainable development’ was coined in the paper Our Common Future, released by the Brundtland Commission (WCED 1987). ‘Sustainable development’ is the kind of development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. 15 “… the ‘environment’ is where we all live; and ‘development’ is what we all do in attempting to improve our lot within that abode. The two are inseparable.” WCED 1987: 7.

Many case studies16 show that current (engineering) technology, in association with an understanding, rooted in the zeitgeist, of the underlying systems and traditions (vernacular architecture) fulfils all pre-requisites for the design of a life (relationship) with and within the phenomena of nature. When developing ecosystems, contemporary landscape architecture must not accept any idealised difference between natural and artificial systems. It is only when man’s subjective handwriting is acknowledged that he will be able to integrate himself into a “sustainable development”.

16 A particulary notable example was given by deca Architecture on the greek island of Antiparos. The Aloni house (2005-2008) fits into the site-specific topography (between two hills) and is futhermore responding to local farmin systems. See also deca Architecture (2008) Aloni. Available Online. URL: http://www.deca.gr/#/en/project/265 (accessed 04 December 2013).

// Resources of the essay Articles Vorholz, Fritz (2013) Mit Dreck gehandelt. In: DIE ZEIT, 11.07.2013 Nr. 29. Available Online. URL: http://www.zeit.de/2013/29/emissionshandelunternehmen-umwelt (accessed 22 July 2013). Böhme, Hartmut (2007) Rettung durch Rückschritt. Teil 2 der Serie “Die Zukunft der Natur”. In: DIE ZEIT, 01.03.2007 Nr. 10. Available Online. URL: http:// www.zeit.de/2007/10/Natur-Zukunft (accessed 24 June 2013). Poschmann, Marion (2007) Traut dem Augenschein! Teil 7 der Serie “Die Zukunft der Natur”. In: DIE ZEIT, 04.04.2007 Nr. 15. Available Online. URL: http:// www.zeit.de/2007/15/Natur-Serie (accessed 24 June 2013). Contemporary media Kirchhoff, Thomas (2012) Natur – Landschaft – Wildnis. In: Bundeszentrale für Politische Bildung (2012) Dossier Umwelt. Available Online. URL: http://www. bpb.de/gesellschaft/umwelt/dossier-umwelt/76052/natur-landschaft-wildnis?p=all (accessed 30 September 2013). Thommen, Jean-Paul et al. (no date) Homo oeconomicus. In: Springer Gabler Verlag (Ed), Gabler Wirtschaftslexikon. Available Online. URL: http:// wirtschaftslexikon.gabler.de/Archiv/8004/homo-oeconomicus-v12.html (accessed 24 June 2013). Dunn, H. H. (1929) Plant “Pills” Grow Bumper Crops. In: Popular Science Monthly, Volume 115, No. 4, October 1929, Popular Science Publishing Co. Inc. New York. Trepl, Ludwig (2013) Energiewende – Ende der Ökologiebewegung? Available Online. URL: http://www.scilogs.de/chrono/blog/landschaft-oekologie/ kologiebewegung/2013-03-18/energiewende-ende-der-kologiebewegung (accessed 14 August 2013). WCED World Commission on Environment and Development (1987) Our Common Future. Report of the World Commission on Environment and Development, compiled by the NGO Committee on Education of the Conference of NGOs from United Nations web sites. Available Online. URL: http://conspect.nl/pdf/Our_Common_Future-Brundtland_Report_1987.pdf (accessed 21 November 2013). Castellano, Anthony (2013) California Brush Fires Torch Million-Dollar Homes, Lead to Further Evacuations. In: ABC News, May 3, 2013. Available Online. URL: http://abcnews.go.com/US/california-brush-fires-torch-million-dollar-homes-lead/ story?id=19098990 (accessed 04 December 2013). Literature Bell, Graham (2008). Selection: the mechanism of evolution. Oxford University Press Oxford. Darwin, Charles (1859) On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. John Murray, London. Eisel, Ulrich and Körner, Stefan (2007) Landschaft in einer Kultur der Nachhaltigkeit, Band 2. In: Landschaftsarchitektur im Spannungsfeld zwischen Ästetik und Nutzen. In: Arbeitsberichte des Fachbereichs Architektur Stadtplanung Landschaftsplanung, Heft 166, Universität Kassel. Available Online. URL: https:// kobra.bibliothek.uni-kassel.de/bitstream/urn:nbn:de:hebis:3420080723169/1Lands chaftKulturNachhaltigkeitII.pdf (accessed 09 December 2013) Sarasin, Philipp and Sommer, Marianne (eds) (2010) Evolution. Ein interdisziplinäres Handbuch. Verlag J.B. Metzler Stuttgart Weimar. Eyck, Aldo van (1962) The Child, the City and the Artist. In: Eyck, Aldo van (2008) Writings. Volume 2: Collected Articles and Other Writings 1947-1998. SUN Publishers Amsterdam, pp. 467-469. Gernot Böhme (1989) Für eine ökologische Naturästhetik. Suhrkamp Frankfurt am Main. Gould, Stephen Jay (1989) Der Daumen des Panda. Betrachtungen zur Naturgeschichte. Suhrkamp taschenbuch wissenschaft Frankfurt am Main. Großklaus, Götz (1983) Der Naturraum des Kulturbürgers. In: Großklaus, Götz and Oldemeyer, Ernst (eds)(1983) Natur als Gegenwelt: Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte der Natur. Karlsruher kulturwissenschaftliche Arbeiten, Loeper Kerlag Karlsruhe, pp. 169-196. Haeckel, Ernst (1866) Generelle Morphologie der Organismen. 2 Volumes. Verlag Georg Reimer Berlin. Hasse, Jürgen (2004) Ästhetik im Spannungsverhältnis von NaturDenken und NaturErleben. Für einen anthropozentrischen Naturschutz. In: Fischer, Ludwig (ed) (2004) Projektionsfläche Natur. Zum Zusammenhang von Naturbildern und gesellschaftlichen Verhältnissen, Hamburg University Press, pp. 45-59. Available

// Get close to the shifting centre and build! In order to be able to take these “standards of nature law” into consideration at all, a general approach must be found that deals with the rising accommodation pressure of growing urban structures. At the root of this approach are the paradigms of porosity and the reservation of land. This can already be seen in the teachings in the universities, and it is precisely here that the particular quality of landscape architecture is seen as a trans-disciplinary field. As a creative discipline, it is, “due to its cultural dimensions, the perfect partner for a bond between political action and the shaping of nature” (Eisel, Körner 2007: 5). The profession of landscape architecture promises to generate more than just the previously mentioned general compromises with their aesthetic – and very likely ethical – mediocrity. The integration of considered reflection and practical action is the expertise of the designer. Seen as its own intellectual tradition, a level of negotiation between objective and subjective conditions evolves that can be understood as a “generative service relationship” (Nelson, Stolterman 2012: 46). If one recognises the experience of nature as a beneficial psychological desiderata of a client, then a work contract results for the (landscape) architect. In the same way, however, it can be seen that the totality of nature takes on the role of client, not as an opposite but as the core itself – its desiderata as basal standard must also always be taken into consideration. Any design a designer comes up with (wether concrete or conceptual) is valuable or significant in terms of the intentional service relationship that lies at the heart of it. Each relationship is the goal of design. Culture is designing the way of dealing with natural (environmental) entities. Therefore, all “symbolic forms” of culture, landscapes included, are expressions of our creative handling of structurally contradictory needs.

context analysis

// Dymaxion Map of the world according to R. Buckminster Fuller

Christchurch Sydney

Cape Town Bangkok Dubai

Tripolis

Tokyo

Berlin Paris

Online. URL: http://hup.sub.uni-hamburg.de/volltexte/2008/74/chapter/ HamburgUP_Projektionsflaeche_Hasse.pdf (accessed 18 November 2013). Humboldt, Alexander von (no date) Kosmos. Entwurf einer physischen Erdbeschreibung. 2 Volumes. Stuttgart. Huxley, Aldous (1944) The Perennial Philosophy. Harper and Row New York. Judd, Dennis R. and Fainstein, Susan S. (eds) (1999) The Tourist City. Yale University Press New Haven. Nelson, Harold G. and Stoltermann, Erik (2012) The design way : intentional change in an unpredictable world. Second Edition. The MIT Press Cambridge (MA) London. Oldemeyer, Ernst (1983) Entwurf einer Typologie des menschlichen Verhältnisses zur Natur. In: Großklaus, Götz and Oldemeyer, Ernst (1983) Natur als Gegenwelt: Beitrag zur Kulturgeschichte der Natur. Karlsruher kulturwissenschaftliche Arbeiten, Loeper Kerlag Karlsruhe. pp. 15-42 Picht, Georg (1989) Der Begriff der Natur und seine Geschichte. Vorlesungen und Schriften. 4. Auflage 1998. Klett-Cotta Stuttgart. Available Online. URL: http:// books.google.de/books?id=P4JoOo4pQmUC&pg=PA199&source=gbs_toc_r&cad= 4#v=onepage&q=zerstören&f=false (accessed 03 December 2013). Plessner, Helmuth (2002) Elemente der Metaphysik: eine Vorlesung aus dem Wintersemester 1931/32. Akademie Verlag, Berlin. Potthast, Thomas (2010): 21 Umwelt. In: Sarasin, Philipp and Sommer, Marianne (eds) (2010): Evolution. Ein interdisziplinäres Handbuch. Verlag J.B. Metzler Stuttgart Weimar. Rath, Norbert (1996) Zweite Natur: Konzepte einer Vermittlung von Natur und Kultur in Anthropologie und Ästhetik um 1800, Volume 229 of Internationale Hochschulschriften. Waxmann Münster New York München Berlin. Riklin, Patrik (2009-2012) Atelier für Sonderaufgaben. In: Stiegele, Juliane (Ed) (2013) Utopia Toolbox. Werkzeuge für die Arbeit an der Zukunft. Eine Anstiftung zur radikalen Kreativität. Volume 1, Toolbooks Ltd. Available Online. URL: http:// www.toolbooks.eu/fileadmin/downloads/UTB_BlickinsBuch_002.pdf (accessed 20 November 2013). Ritter, Joachim (1963) Landschaft. Zur Funktion des Ästhetischen in der modernen Gesellschaft. In: Schriften der Gesellschaft zur Förderung der Westfälischen WilhelmsUniversität zu Münster. Heft 54. Verlag Aschendorff Münster Westfalen. Printed again in: Id. (1974) Subjektivität. Sechs Aufsätze. Suhrkamp Frankfurt am Main, pp. 141–163 & 172–190. Ritter, Joachim (1974) Subjektivität. Sechs Aufsätze. Suhrkamp Frankfurt am Main. Seel, Martin (1991) Eine Ästhetik der Natur. Verlag Suhrkamp Taschenbuch Wissenschaft Frankfurt am Main.

Casablanca

San Francisco New York

Buenos Aires

Spencer, Herbert (1864) The Principles of Biology. Volume 1. Williams and Norgate London Edinburgh. Volkelt, Johannes (1894) Die gegenwärtigen Aufgaben der Ästhetik. (Antrittsvorlesung Universität Leipzig). In: Volkelt, Johannes (1895) Ästhetische Zeitfragen. Oskar Beck München, pp. 195-222. Availbale Online. URL: https:// ia600402.us.archive.org/2/items/asthetischezeit00volk/asthetischezeit00volk.pdf (accessed 03 December 2013). Volkelt, Johannes (1914) System der Ästhetik. In 3 Volumes. Third Volume, Kunstphilosophie und Metaphysik der Ästhetik. Oskar Beck München. Available Online. URL: https://ia600408.us.archive.org/13/items/systemdersthet03volkuoft/ systemdersthet03volkuoft.pdf (accessed 03 December 2013).

Casablanca, just move on to Marrakesh or Fes! Just before the great debate about modernism and its criticism hit our societies in the late 1960’s Casablanca was known as an exceptional testing ground for modern building and innovative landscapes. Until today this fact can be seen in many buildings as well as throughout whole districts. The former “blueprint of the future” turned into a “menagerie of modernism”. Transformation and development appear to be the cities essential characteristics. Her alternating appearance refects different ages, cultures and natures. Against the perception that the city is almost exclusively a product of colonisation, her appearance is undeniable a modern one. There are no ancient port facilities that could bear witness to a long tradition of trade. Visitors may find a Medina, but typical for so many North African cities, the historic centre is dominated by surrounding colonial-style urban expansions. In order to understand the extraordinary diversity and desirability, or in other words to read the narrative character of the whole metropolitan area, a look into history is helpful.

Had I known that my first stay in Casablanca in 2008 will have such an enduring influence on my further studies and designing practice, resulting in a 2014 graduation with a thesis about this region, I presumably would not have been overwhelmed by the depth, complexity and richness of my experiences. The research on aspects of culture and history of the place promised yet from home an unimaginable adventure. Digging into the history of the city (-region) of Casablanca, a place which is emotionally connotated in diverse ways, wants to be encountered as a human environment. According to the interpretative paradigm the social reality of the chosen study area is not an ojective constraint. Reality therefore is much more constituted by social structures and their interpretation by different actors (Stein, Schulz 2007). People interact with objects due to their inherent meanings, consequently objects are here understood as everything which mankind relates its actions to - phenomena of nature as well as phenomena of culture. How should one try to understand a space, whose loose shapes and characteristics can be easily identified, but whose specialty, attractions and potentials are hardly perceivable? The name Casablanca, frequently appering in literature, film and music comes along with an affective sound. It is an adventurouse place, an exotic and dynamic metropolis, habitat for creativity and modernism – at least in Michael Curtiz’s1 motion picture. Likewise the fact that Casablanca can not be seen in one single moment of this movie, contemporary guidebooks tell us this: Do not stay in

Casablanca, in the Arab world better known as Dar El Beida and called by the inhabitants concise Casa is with a population of approximately 3.62 million people2 by far the largest city in the Kingdom of Morocco. Looking at the entire metropolitan area, which spreads between the capital city Rabat and Casablanca and considering that Morocco is home to 32.6 million people, it becomes

1 In 1942 Michael Curtiz (1886 – 1962) directed the movie “Casablanca”, which was awarded as “best us-romantic-movie ever” by the American Film Institute in 2002.

2 The population of Grand Casablanca is estimated to grow to 4.6 million inhabitants in 2015. See Urban Agriculture Casablanca (no date) Grand Casablanca.

morocco / facts and figures

POPULATION

32° 00’ N, 5° 00’ W

rural

32 926 000 (FAOSTAT 2013)

other land forest cover

446 550 sq km

permanent crops organic agricultural area arable land

RABAT constitutional monarchy

urban 1996

morocco / topography Mediterranean Sea Grand Casablanca

Gharb

Er Rif

Chaouia Sahel

Middle Atlas

Doukkala

Moroccan Meseta

Abda High Atlas Atlantic Ocean

Anti Atlas

Sahara Desert

LAND USE 2011

agricultural area permanent meadows and pastures

2013

All data accessed at FAOSTAT, FAO of the UN.

// General Statisics and Facts

evident that a quarter of all Moroccans live in a relatively small area limited only by the Atlantic coast. This has to be interpreted as a remarkable concentration, regarding the absolute national territory of 446.550 square kilometres. Located in the west of the country on the Atlantic Ocean, Casablanca is the most significant industrial center of Morocco and largest commercial hub. Today, Casablanca presents itself as a cosmopolitan metropolis, like other emerging cities of the global south it is driven by rapid transformation and growth processes. With astonishing pace shopping malls, villas, amusement parks and complete residential areas for the rapidly expanding middle and upper classes are planned, designed and built. At the same time Casablanca is also the arena for migration and gentrification, and so the region has an annual influx of 300 000 residents from the hinterland. Additionally migration processes more familiar to the European view like the relocation of production facillities out of the inner city districts frequently occur, mostly evident at the urban fringe and in the neighboring provinces, notably alongside the main regional roads connecting Casablanca with its sourrounding countryside and rural sub-centres as Tit-Mellil, Mediouna or Dar Bouazza. It has to be anticipated that the contemporary appearance of the redion will change with its further entry3 into the global economic flow.

3 “To boost exports, Morocco entered into a bilateral Free Trade Agreement with the United States in 2006 and an Advanced Status Agreement with the European Union in 2008.” (Central Intelligence Agency 2014).

// The Maghrebian metropolitan landscape

// Planning Grand Casablanca

Nevertheless there is to acknowledge that the founding of the city is not entirely dating back to the beginning of the 20th century. It is also true that many historic layers have shaped the specific landscape and its city equal to the process of sedimentation. The old Anfa only got its today known name Dar El Beida in the 18th century under the regency of Sultan Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah. The sultan had prompted the reconstruction of the harbour facilities and through the errection of a bastion

The latest stage of development began after the independence of Morocco and the end of the French Protectorate in 1956. The period between 1907 and 1956 is often described as Casablanca’s hour of birth. Eventhough Casablanca and Morocco alltogether had to make considerable sacfrifices under the French Protectorate, the town history of Casablanca is much more than a typical story of suppressor and suppressed. Around 1907 Casablanca inhabited 25 000 people, the majority of them being merchants and traders from Europe. The City was growing in such a rapid pace that already 1912 first farms were built as or expanded to suburban settlements along the coast outside the city walls (Cohen, Eleb 2002: 45). This boom was triggered by the French funded harbour extension beginning in May 1907.

Chaouia / Grand casablanca / general map

Kenitra

Rabat

Oued Mellah Mohammedia

Tamaris beach Medina of Casablanca

Ben Abid quarry

Dar Bouazza

Oued Oum er Rbia

Tit-Mellil

research area Wadi Bouskoura

Oulad Hamida quarry

Mediouna

Grand Casablanca

Nuaceur Azzemour El Jadida

Grand casablanca / zoning plan for Casablanca by Ecochard (1952)

Accomplishments of the management plan since its enactment (25 August 1952) until the end of 1954

Sidi el Bernoussi

Ain Sebaa

Ain Diab Sidi Belyout Beautéjous

Carriéres Centrales N

Sidi Othman Ain Chok

Sidi Maarouf

4 km

Areas built or under construction Areas acquired by public puissance Implementation of “trame sanitaire” Limit of areas studied in detail Motorway (land acquired) Motorway (land being acquired)

fortified settlements against hostile landfall by the Spanish and Portugues. From the 11th century, when the place was first mentioned under the name of Anfa, till the 16th century, when the region was not only inhabited by Zenata Berber tribes (Cohen, Eleb 2002: 21) but also by the Spanish, trading activities grew. Caused by the quick colonisation along the coasts of Africa, this development made Anfa gain importance. References to settlements of the Mediterranean cultures Hittites, Assyrians and Phoenicians date back to the time around 3000 BC. The traces of this first man-made forming can be recognized through the characteristic landscape of Maquis4 coining the whole region of Chaouia until today. Already 5000 years ago massive forest clearing for shipbuilding throughout the area lead to an immense degradation of nature.

Morocco/ population density (persons per sq km) 2000 > 1001 251 – 1000 26 – 250 6 – 25 1–5

Another interesting chapter of the city chronicals only came to the fore in the 1990s. This was when prehistoric sites were discovered in and around today’s Casablanca, e.g. in the Cave of the Rhinoceros in the Oulad Hamida strip mine and in the Cave of the Big Cat in Dar Bouazza (Raynal, Amani, Geraads et al. 2008).

4 Maquis or Macchia defines a shrubland biome spread throughout the Mediterranean region, typically consisting of densely growing evergreen shrubs. Although maquis is by definition natural, its appearance results from anthropogenic intrusions such as destruction of forest cover, mainly by frequent burning that prevents young trees from maturing. It tends otherwise to grow in arid, rocky areas where only drought-resistant plants are likely to prosper.

Grand casablanca / city growth

1929 1907 1942

1996

2004

5 km

network of railroads and stations network of routes

1962

Considering the further (urban) development of Dar Bouazza as shown in / Schéma directeur d’aménagement et d’urbanisme (SDAU) Greater Casablanca 2010 the “Schéma Directeur d’Aménagement Urbain, one gets a clear picture of the planned vision for the near future (2030). The SDAU consists of 34 individual management plans covering the whole territory of the province of Grand Casablanca. After the approval of the master plan in 2010 the L’Agence urbaine de Casablanca (AUC) is now finalizing the latest management plans before 2014 Built up areas (including appartments, villas, touristic (beach) (Saadou 2014). The main objectives address a wide variety of problems, namely accomodation, mixed urban usages and economic activities) a deficit in economical development, further social division, insufficent supply of Health, cultural, public, administrative and educational residential housing, insufficent transport systems and a challanging status of the equipment natural environment, including missing recreational open spaces. However, as Existing development a solution the SDAU proposes the transition and accumulation of urban growth Open space (including marine reserves, forests, cemeteries, to peri-urban sub-centers like Dar Bouazza, featuring dense urban layouts sports grounds and rural zones) consisting of big city blocks, some beeing roughly 300 by 300 meters in size. Open space / protected area (SDAU 2008) Each of these urban blocks represents a different function in the zoning plan, i.e. zone under architectural protection, health facilities, cultural facilities, public and administrative service facilities, educational facilities, touristic and beach N zone, zone of villas, zone of dense living, mixed residential areas, city port area, sports facilities, cemetaries, green belt, rural zone, marine reserve, forests, open 0m 500 m space and unbuilt land. Whilst the plan shows differentiated information about building densities, construction heights and functions it is missing measures concerning the open space, e.g its overall concept, cultivation methods and zone of villas environmental guidelines. Furthermore the actual planning threatens a major characteristica of this place – the open access and connection between the hilly hinterland embellished by agricultural practice and the Atlantic coast with its cliffs, beaches and city slickers. Until today marine reserve agrobiotopes, reserved plots, abandoned construction sites, waste land, vernal pools and mine heaps form touristic beach zone a continuouse network of open spaces. forest

sports ground

green belt

rural zones

open space

marine reserve zone of villas

marina facilities / city port zone

zone of villas

golf course

green belt

zone of dense urban living

cemetery

park

18 morocco /climate

// Climate Although the climate of Morocco resembles this of other Mediterranean countries, it is profoundly affected by different factors such as the Atlas Mountains, the Atlantic Ocean, the Sahara Desert and the extreme northsouth latitude. The Atlantic coastal plains Doukkala, Chaouia, Gharb or Saiss with an annual precipitation of 400 – 600 mm and temperatures of 27,4 (warmest month) and 7,1 (coldest month) degrees Celsius rank among the warm semi-arid climate types (Nahal 1981). There is a concentration of rainfall during winter months that is also subject to a natural variability (HCP 2013). “Climate-driven impacts are mainly caused by presence or absence of rainfall. The most important period of rainfall for production of green biomass spans from October 1 to December 15 each year.”(Scherer 2011). Arid and humid years mostly occur in a row which lead to high risks for rainfed cultivation (Fiedler 2004).

Mediterranean climate Semi-arid climate Desert climate

// Geology

Casablanca / arid and humid sequences 1977 – 2013

600 mm 23 °C 400 mm 15 °C

200 mm

8 °C

0 mm

For data resource information see APPENDIX

201 3

201 1

200 9

200 7

200 5

200 3

200 1

199 9

7 199

199 5

199 3

0 199

198 7

3 198

198 1

9 197

197 7

0 °C

average annual temperature (max) average annual temperature (min)

average annual precipitation average annual temperature

Casablanca / average annual wind speed 1977 – 2013

15 km/h

10 km/h

5 km/h

For data resource information see APPENDIX

3 201

201 1

200 9

200 7

200 5

200 3

1 200

9 199

7 199

5 199

3 199

0 199

7 198

3 198

1 198

9 197

197

0 km/h

average annual wind speed

Quartenar y Deposits of Morocco / The The Quartenary Deposits of Morocco

Cross-section of the morpho-sedimentary units of the Casablanca littoral MIDDLE PLEISTOCENE

LOWER PLEISTOCENE

UPPER PLEISTOCENE

50 m

HOLOCENE

Anfatian Dar Bouazza

Ouljian

20 Maarifian

Harounian after Lefèvre & Raynal, 2002, graphically modified

5 Limestone is a sedimentary rock composed primarily of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) in the form of the mineral calcite. It most commonly forms in clear, warm, shallow marine waters. It is usually an organic sedimentary rock that forms from the accumulation of shell, coral, algal and fecal debris. It can also be a chemical sedimentary rock formed by the precipitation of calcium carbonate from lake or ocean water. AgLime: Calcium carbonate is one of the most cost-effective acid neutralizing agents. When crushed to sand-size or smaller particles limestone becomes an effective material for treating acidic soils. It is widely used on farms throughout the world (Geology.com).

accumulated soils, as forage adding in livestock farming and as core part of contemporary filter technology in purification plants and combustion power plants. Furthermore limestone takes a key role as the coastal region Chaouia’s6 groundwater storage reservoir. The prevailing permeable limestones are bedded on water-impermeable shale. The zone west and east of the Wadi Bouskoura is one of the most important aquifiers of the Atlantic Plain (Zerouali 2001). As there are no year-round water-bearing rivers this aquifier is the region’s main source for water. Since the propagation of modern pumps the water from this source is not only used for public drinking water supply but more and more intensely for irrigation throughout the area. Recordings since 1995 show a mean groundwater level decline of 60 centimeters per year. Whereas the downwelling of groundwater was measured to be up to 20 meters until 2001 in particular areas. The quality of water has rapidly dropped throughout the entire coastal region. There is a notable rise in salinity levels caused by severe water abstraction from the aquifier combined with high pollutant concentrations. The latter resulting from the reuse of former strip mines as waste dumps (Ezzirari, Bahi, Barhoun 2011). The emergence of strip mines around Casablanca however dates back to 1907, when east of the city bounds Ain Mazi stone quarry was established and connected to the harbour with its own railroad line to serve the 1905 planned harbour extension. // Vegetation Morocco belongs to the humid subtropics as well as other areas e.g. the litoral band of California, the northern and eastern shores of the Mediteranean Sea, ecoregions of eastern and western Australia and the Chilean mattoral. Covering 1,7 percent of all terrestrial ecosystems worlwide, it is the smallest biome. Contrasting its actual size, the humid subtropics provide habitat for more than 2000 and partly up to 4000 species per square kilometer (Schulz 2000). The Mediterranean forests, woodland and scrub biome, as characterised by the World Wildlife Fund, is home to highly distinctive ecoregions, collectively providing habitat for 10 percent of all (known) plant species (WWF 2014). The following five major plant groups are included in this biome: forests and woodlands, composed of sclerophyll woody vegetation, are mostly found in riparian areas, composed of species like Olea europaea, Ceratonia siliqua, Pinus halepensis, and Arbutus unedo.

6 The landscape between the phosphate plateau in the south, the Atlantic Ocean in the north, Casablanca in the east and Azzemour in the west is called Chaouia côtière. This term originates from the Arabic word chaoui which translates to breeder or shepherd (Zerouali 2001).

Like no other region on earth Africa and Morocco in particular offer anthropological and geological insights in the deepest of history. Morocco falls intoofthree major scenic entities. Theof Rif Cross-section the morpho-sedimentar y units the ranges in the north, the adjacent mountain ranges of the Atlas, the Middle Atlas and the Anti Atlas and Casablanca littoral Lefèvre & R aynal (2002). furthermore the fertile Moroccan Meseta plains descending to the Atlantic. The Moroccan Meseta is an upstream tableland descening in different stages from 600 meters to sealevel. The region is flat simply because during the Permian a sea spread ontop of the Variscan folded base layer and covered it with sediments. The coastal area around Casablanca appears in fact flat compared to the Atlas mountains, but the region of Dar Bouazza in the south-west reaching to the Oued Mellah in the north-east offers a distinctively diverse terrain with several dunes running parallel to the shore line. Each of these anticlines (also known as ridges or barriers) preserves a historic peak of the mean sea level. These distinct ranges of hills were formed during the warm intervals inbetween glacial periods. Today’s shore line maps the Holocene and alternates further inland with dunes dating from the Upper and Lower Pleistocene. These eolian build-ups stretch up to 10 kilometres from the coast. They are more spread inland and merge close to the shore. The wavy topography relates climate history. There is hardly any other place on earth to take a geological stroll, literally, through the entire Quartenary without underground minning, cresting steep cliffs or core drilling. Consisting of beach deposits the hills progressively merge upward into lithified dune sands, better known as Limestone5, whilst beeing grounded on folded paleozoic slates and quartzites dating back to the Cambrium. These eolianites are mined in large quarries which yield important quantities of building stones (Michard 2008). Today you will find many large abandoned strip mines, only some smaller mines are still running. Depending on the composition of subsoil they have specialised in digging lime rock as dimension stone (ashlar) or in the production of Portland Concrete as cement and as its necessary aggregates. The region’s limestone has various compositions and appearances with a colour range from ivory to yellow ochre and red-orange tones. There are also various forms of structure and solidness, that are not only crucial for its use as bulding material, but also as agro-chemical medium for neutralisation of acid

Savanna and grassland is characteristic for the California Central Valley. Most grassland and savanna had disappeared in the Mediterranean due to conversion for agricultural uses. Shrublands are defined as dense thickets of evergreen sclerophyll shrubs (Pistacia lentiscus, Sarcopoterium spinosum, Calicotome spinosa, Myrthus communnis) and small trees of Quercus coccifera and Quercus ilex. Furthermore herbaceouse plants and geophytes, like Asphodelus microcarpus, Rumex bucephalophorus, Plantago coronopus (specialty salad), Spergularia fimbriata, Lotus maroccanus, Vulpia myuros (an invasive species found worldwide), Bromus rigidus and Paronychia argentea are prevalent. This type of landscape, also called Macchia, occurs either naturally as the mature vegetation type or, in the case of the Chaouia, is the result of degradation of former forests or woodlands in consequence of logging and overgrazing. Espacially the woody species can be found on land which is not used for grazing, e.g. on street- and waysides, as part of hedges and on cemeteries, waste land and spaces inbetween houses. Shrubland makes a strong appearance along the caostal strip, where plant communities are often adapted to wind and salt from the near ocean. The vegetation is therefore dominated by small shrubs and grasses. Regional and local endemism is common, particulary in plants. The specialisation on soils is habitual.

/ bio-geological map Sedimentary units

Natural biotopes

Holocene

wetlands

Upper Pleistocene

subtropical dry forests

Middle Pleistocene

scrub and grassland

Lower Pleistocene

coastal / marine ecosystem

500 m

The region of Dar Bouazza, is no exception concerning natural richness and diversity. As shown in the / bio-geological map four different types of biotopes, ranging from subtropical dry forests and scrublands to wetlands (vernal pools â&#x20AC;&#x153;Wararâ&#x20AC;? and riparian stripes) and the marine ecosystem along the coast, were identified. In contrast to those scopes, large areas are covered by anthropogenic ecosystems, e.g. agrobiotopes and urban biotopes (see map / anthropogenic biotopes).

B B B

B C C

B C B

C D

D D

// Soil Corresponding to the gathered information about the predominant geology, climate and vegetation of the Moroccan Meseta (Doukkala, Chaouia, Abda), the soils are mostly calcisols. In the FAO World Referece Base for Soil Resources calcisol is characterised as a soil with a substantial accumulation of lime (WRB 2007: 73). They are located in arid and semi-arid tropical and subtropical levels up to hilly areas and provide habitat for xerophytic shrubs, trees and shortlived grasses. Vast areas of cacisols are used for extensive grazing. The Wilaya of Grand Casablanca is characterised by different subordinate soils, showing large differences in distribution and agricultural value (HCP 2010: 37). These vernacular soils are Hamri, Tirs, Rmel, Hrach and Biat, of which the light reddish Hamri, as well as the dark clay-marl soil Tirs produce satisfactory yields of wheat and barley when precipitation is sufficient and can retain enough moisture to support summer pasture. These two types cover 54 percent of the coastal areas around Casablanca and Rabat.

/ anthropogenic biotopes Naturally strong borders

Anthropogenic biotops

cliffs and rocks

agrobiotopes (seasonal and permanent crops)

beach

urbanized areas quarry or strip mine waste or mine heap

// Agriculture Farming in Morocco generates 12 to 15 percent of the annual Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and although the non-productive industries contribute more than 50 percent of the annual GDP, agriculture remains one of the most important economic sectors. Morocco holds more than 9.5 million hectars of arable land, sustaining 1.5 million companies with over 4 million employees (Wiedemann, Sohm, Höhn 2010: VII). The Coastal Meseta of Morocco is mainly occupied by cropland, whilst much of the land closest to the coastline, the so called Sahel (where the lithified dunes can be found), is partly covered by natural vegetation. In autumn, winter and spring these areas are used for grazing (FAO).

500 m

24 Calicotome spinosa

Bromus rigidus

Pistacia lentiscus

Rumex bucephalophorus

Ceratonia siliqua

Arbutus unedo

Quercus coccifera

Sarcopoterium spinosum

Asphodelus microcarpus

Pinus halepensis

Olea europaea

Plantago coronopus

Myrthus communnis

Vulpia myuros

Les Jardins Ecosolidaires de Dar Bouazza / anticipated appearance of agricultural

7 The Plan Maroc Vert (PMV) is Morocco’s national agricultural strategy launched in 2008. Its main objective is to make agriculture the driving force for economic growth in Morocco. Within a decade the doubling of agriculture’s value is estimated through a comprehensive overhauling of the sector’s structure in terms of cropping patterns, land tenure, and agricultural taxation. See Sutter 2012: 2.

other hand the government tries to foster smallholdings by poverty reduction through the implementation of modern agricultural techniques. Furthermore, the aggregation of small holders in cooperation with private investors and local authorities aims to overcome fragmentation of plots, as they represent a main obstacle for the national agro-economic development (Sohm, Höhn 2010: 23). Following the PMV joint ventures have easier access to funding through for example buying additional acreage or investing in modern production methods (irrigation, mechanization, use of fertilizers). Consolidating their crop production joint ventures can meet the demand of large customers and provide commodities for exportation. Additionaly this combination gives wholesalers and processing industries the possibility to influence the product quality via co-determination of cropping-systems and means of production, thus producing more goods without the need to invest in additional acreage. To meet these goals, on an administrative level, the government launched the Agence pour le Développement d’Agruculture (ADA), which made the aggregation known as a model. Among the latter task it manages the consolidation of small holders and provides loans and subsidies worth 13.1 billion Euro. As previousely mentioned, the basic requirement, concerning efficency, in agricultural production is to get independent from annual rates of precipitation. To meet the objectives of the PMV Morocco is expanding the area equipped with drip irrigation from 154 000 hectares in 2010 to more then 690 000 hectares projeceted for 2020 (Sohm, Höhn 2010: 25). Moreover this growth implies both an intensification of productivity on already existing agricultural plots but also an accomodation of additional acreage in areas that were until today not evaluated as arable land. Since 2006 the overall area under agricultural land use has been in decline (HCP 2013: 265). In the year 2006 116 996 hectares were used, comprising 40.3 percent of cropland, 0.3 percent of orchards, 15.7 percent of summer fallows, 3.7 percent of forests and 39.7 percent of uncultivated land. Compared to a total of 113 853 hectares in 2011 the decline is mainly caused by a massive loss of uncultivated land and summer fallows, collectively about 10 000 hectares. In opposition to this general trend cropland was extended to 53 439 hectares, adding 6 275 hectares while orchards are prominent with more than doubling its occurrence in 2011 .

According to FAO recordings 70 percent of all holdings have no more than 5 hectares and only 4 percent encompass more then 20 hectares. A traditional farming system with farms no bigger then 5 hectares favours a generally diversified production, whilst small scale farming also features higher vulnerabilties against markets forces, low incomes and drought events (Berkat, Tazi 2004). The Wilaya (district) of Grand Casablanca consists of the four provinces Casablanca, Mohammedia, Mediouna and Nouaceur, covering nearly 66 500 hectares of agricultural land, the province of Nouaceur holds 51.1 percent (33 984 hectares)(HCP 2010). The region produces mainly cerals, legumes, vegetable crops, forages and fruits, of which cereals occupy 72 percent, forage 17.1 percent and vegetable farms hold 8.5 percent of all agricultural land. In contradiction to the nationwide situation agricultural farms in the region of Grand Casablanca cultivate on larger plots. 3 percent of the local farms are bigger than 20 hectares and another 3 percent are even largen than 50 hectares. In spite of the general economic relevance of the agricultural sector, it is with only 12 to 15 percent of GDP underdeveloped. Currently Morocco sees a bigger potential for further development since the occurance of fertile soils, its climatic conditions and not to forget its proximity to European markets. At the core of the Moroccan agricultural policy lies the Plan Maroc Vert7 from 2008. As described earlier the agrarian sector is constitued by two different groups of companies: smallholders using traditional farming systems and large-scale corporations. Stimulating both types, the government addresses economic as well as social dimensions of the announced upgrading of the agricultural sector towards becoming a main economic driver (Sohm, Höhn 2010: 22). On the one hand the initiative promotes the development of an internationally competetive, modern farming systems, e.g. further professionalization of large-scale enterprises towards higher revenues mainly through private investors. On the

// Urban development

which originally was zoned for villas – was refused. Anyway Ecochard’s vision of Casablanca, as a modern industrial metroplise, emphasized the need to reduce urban congestion, to straighten out the suburban belt and to create agricultural processing centers in the greater Casablanca area. These processing centers in the countryside where planned to foster agricultural production, thus allowing the rural population to remain on their farms. Though beeing constantly adjusted from 1952 to 1974, the plan finally came to a functional breakdown. It was simply not possible to provide space for the ever growing population within the infrastructural boundaries planned 30 years ago. In response to the dramatic situation, which in 1981 flamed civil protests, lead to the creation of the L’Agence Urbaine which is working on the scheme or master plan for the whole Wilaya of Grand Casablanca. Today the city limits are not anymore to be found in Ain Sebaa, Ain Diab or Ain Chok (see / zoning plan for Casablanca by Ecochard), in fact one has to leave the district of Casablanca in any possible direction and keep walking for hours (approximately 10 kilometres) before one can see the horizon, feel the fresh breeze from the ocean and take notice of all the donkey carts navigating over the seemingly endless agricultural surf school landscape.

The city of Casablanca is growing at a rapid pace due to an ever growing population. Best visible at the urban fringes the phenomenon of citification takes place outside the city limits, spreading alongside mayor roads westward towards the coastal areas of Dar Bouazza, to the Airport Mohammed V and moving up to the north-east until Rabat-Salé. It is expected that this conurbation will further grow towards the city of El Jadida in the south-east and Kenitra to the northwest then covering a narrow strip of 150 kilometres alongside the coastline and extending up to 30 kilometres inland (AUC 2006: 20). The region represents the main national hub for aerial, street and rail transportation and hence this will stimulate the foreseable significant urban growth in this region. Reading the different historic plans that were designed for Casablanca, beginning in 1912 with the Plan Tardif, the Plan Proust (1914), the Plan Courtois (1944), the Plan Ecochard, one can understand and acknowledg the constant efforts beeing made by generations of city planners, architects, city councils and citizens. However, the urban planning of Michel Écochard turned out to be an important turning point. He and the newly created Regional Inspectorate of Urban Planning were the first to address the upsurge of rural migrant Moroccans, by the incorporation of so called “extensional areas” in the former hinterland of Casablanca. On a design level, the extensions were based on the analysis of industrial areas and bidonvilles, where already 100 000 Muslims were crowded in 20 000 shacks (Eleb, Cohen 2002: 310). The plan was complied with Le Corbusier’s ideal-theoretic Athens Charter, which speaks strongly for its groundbreaking modern approach. Indeed the influential landowners thought it was literaly groundbraking. They dimissed the new zoning plan (the design of a linear industrial city), because of the anticipated obstacles in the “free exercise of land rights”. Especially the Tamaris Beach aim to build collective housing Cape Tamaris units in the suburban Sunny Beach perimeter – (private)

Jack Beach

Kasbah Bouazza

Tamaris Beach 2 weekly souk Caravan camping L’Oasis

municipal sports ground Ben Abid

Educational Farm

Ben Abid quarry

Les Jardins Ecosolidaires de Dar Bouazza

/ urban grain plan Camping Crazy Park Cape Oued Merzeg

Oued Merzeg Beach

Cape Bobine

Le petit port

Golf Course

Aquaparc Tamaris Club Ă&#x2C6;questre Oued Merzeg

College Dar Bouazza Moulay Elhassan Hospital mosque Municipality Dar Bouazza Oued Merzeg

Nursery Garden La Main Verte Car dealer showroom

500 m

â&#x20AC;&#x153;They were in a well ventilated room overlooking a garden where the hibiscus and bougainvillea were flamed by the midday sun. Here and there, carved stones giving an appearance to the landscape of natural disorder, and rose bushes and flowers that marked a break in this chaos, both wild and familiar.â&#x20AC;&#x153; / Khair-Eddine 2006: 31

/ panorama estate

/ psycho-gramatic collage of ‘panorama estate’ typology

FOOD & NUTRITION access to all kinds of nutrition access to food via city supermarket or eating out

facilities

Property use & size areas of recreation included, e.g. pool, pool side and garden

irrigated, non-productive plants external gardener 150–2000 sqm

sheltered views into the land

typology of building

collected by a paid-for system

900–1500 €/sqm mostly built in the late 1980s til now

// local settlement typologies However, the offset of the urban fringe clearly challenges not only the city by a general overload (e.g. gridlock, pollution, waste, energy and water and food demands). The rural communities also face mayor challenges. A further fragmentation of open spaces will lead not only to further degradation of landscapes and ecosystems, but also to a degradation of lifestyles. Whilst today we can observe many different settlement typologies, inhabiting a wide spectrum of the Moroccan society, literally from rags to riches. Dar Bouazza, inhabiting roughly 115 000 citizens (HCP 2013: 52) in 2004, is the biggest rural community of the Nouaceur province. It is located on the western outskirts of Casablanca, about 20 kilometres out of the city center.

plastered and painted

communication

social structure

one family and guests

all privately funded

gated

well-paid job commuting with private car in the city

1000 m

/ distribution of typology in research area

30 / psycho-gramatic collage of ‘open field small holding’ typology

FOOD & NUTRITION

Property use & size

access to most kinds of nutrition

agriculture

traditional cooking SHOP

access to food via street market or village shop

facilities

some use of bigger machinery, e.g. tractors depending on weather conditions, partly irrigation in use

garden with some productive plants

typology of building

40 €/sqm

mostly burned

communication

social structure

For a long period Dar Bouazza was a typical Moroccan rural area, characterised by few settlements, mostly farmhouses or fishermen huts, but even a Kasbah (citadel) existed. In the early years of the 20th century, the area became famous for its hunting parties held by Marshal Lyautey and for the unpredicted massive occurance of lobsters in the Bay of Tamaris. In 1914 the first quarry was opened in Dar Bouazza, providing dimension stones for the first urban expansions around the Medina (Dar Bouazza - Académie du Loisir 2009). Later in the 1930s Dar Bouazza entered a period of intensive agriculture which was followed by a time expanding leisure and entertainment facilities in the 1950s. The first touristic site in the area was the Jack Beach resort. It was instantly crowded by Casablancans longing for a weekend getaway. Among surfers Dar Bouazza has been known as a fine surfing-spot for a long time. The Atlantic Ocean offers a constant swell all year round on the beaches of the area. Surfers and foreigners living in Morocco were the first to build weekend and holiday houses near the beaches. It is not very surprising that Dar Bouazza is still a place with two faces – a poor and a rich one.

only going to neighbouring village shop

community funded and functioned access via village shop

SHOP

property is handed down

praying at home

1000 m

/ distribution of typology in research area

“The two sheep were standing around. One had a blade of grass in its mouth, but did not chew on it. Time seemed to melt in the sun. The two men from town had faces of sweat, tiredness and a kind of rebellion against fate. [...] He asked: ‘What is the name of the village?’ The words tumbled out of him like dry stones. ‘Village.’ the farmer replied, and his voice had become even more sluggish.” / Chraibi 2007: 34

/ Open field small holding

“‘My father, however,’ he reported, ‘ran an oven. You know, a Ferann – a community oven, where the women brought their round loaves of bread on a cutting board and let it bake there.’ ‘Those were the days!’ sighed the boss.” / Chraibi 2007: 22

/ hilltop village

FOOD & NUTRITION

Property use & size

access mostly to vegetarian nutrition

SHOP

social life takes place in village shops or on dirt roads

traditional cooking SHOP

/ psycho-gramatic collage of ‘hilltop village’ typology

no garden no agriculture

access to food via mini store or nearby souq

facilities

typology of building without building permission

self-made houses of concrete own septic pit under each house meter facility even without electricity

prepared to get electricity

communication

mostly discarded in open space or burned

prefab concrete slabs and > 25 sqm other cheap materials minimum: 5 x 5 m since the 1990s (concrete stone boom)

social structure minimum wage as working class

community funded and functioned SHOP

grows one storey each generation

community mosque

families with 4 to 6 children

commuting to the city or nearby factory by grand-taxi several generations

access via village shop

At present a wide range of different building typologies defines the urban fabric of Dar Bouazza. According to surveys made in 2004 (HCP 2004) 115 000 people live in approximately 25 500 households, including 2 percent country villas / residences, 9.7 percent traditional rural houses, 61.4 percent multi-storey dwellings (Habitat Sommaire) and 19.3 percent simple houses (Maison Marrocaine). In addition to the latter weekend houses, hotels, camping grounds, amusement parks, markets and mosques, administrative offices, health care centers, educational institutions ranging from kindergarten to secondary schools, all kinds of craftsmen and agricultural facilities, stores and warehouses up to monstrouse distribution systems manifest the profound transition Dar Bouazza went through over the last 15 years.

1000 m

/ distribution of typology in research area

34 N

1000 m

/ distribution of typology in research area

FOOD & NUTRITION

Property use & size

access to all kinds of nutrition

SHOP

access to food via market, mini store or eating out

facilities

areas of recreation, e.g. pool, pool side, terrace and garden > 60 m2

The transformation of Dar Bouazza from a rural community into a vibrant commercial/industrial center is mainly driven by private individuals such as private real-estate developers. They construct outside the urban zone in unoccupied rural areas and therefore exploit the opportunity for legal negotiation to their benefit. Those gardening private investors take advantage of the legal uncertainty, so to speak, service due to the out-dated zoning plan (the typology of building new urban master plan is still under revision). This legal ‘vacuum’ leads to large scale projects: temporary city including the afore mentioned specific urban hotels and holiday homes development. collected by a 250 –1000 sqm irrigated, non-productive plants

through pipes with sewage system paid-for system

800–4000 €/month

street lighting

built since the 1970s

full electricity including air condition

plastered, painted and decorated

communication

social structure

one family and guests

all privately funded

well-paid job commuting with private car in the city

/ psycho-gramatic collage of ‘coastal living’ typology

gated

abc

public high school

tourists and weekenders

“[...] they plunge deeper and deeper with astounding speed; fish and whales dodging away to make room for them. Their movements are consistent as if they were rhythmistized by a rapid melody. The floor of the ocean is full of algae, sponges and colorful grasses. They stop, dazzled by the splendor of the hidden light and the size of whales, sharks and tuna. They have no fear.” / Berrāda 1993: 101

/ coastal living

/ valley village

â&#x20AC;&#x153;A small shop with a dirt floor, nothing else, not even a mat on the floor, nothing apart from the oven in one corner and the heat in any weather. In winter it was nice and warm. [...] Then upstairs a kind of chamber with two mattresses. We lived in there. We were seven children, plus my mother and my father, who pushed the bread into the oven downstairs.â&#x20AC;? / Chraibi 1992: 23

/ psycho-gramatic collage of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;valley villageâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; typology

facilities

typology of building without building permission

self-made houses of concrete own septic pit under each house meter facility even without electricity

prepared to get electricity

prefab concrete slabs and > 25 sqm other cheap materials minimum: 5 x 5 m

mostly discarded in open space or burned

communication

since the 1990s (concrete stone boom)

social structure minimum wage as working class

community funded and functioned SHOP

grows one storey each generation

community mosque

families with 4 to 6 children

commuting to the city or nearby factory by grand-taxi several generations

Most of the existing developments in Dar Bouazza were generated during the last ten years. The architecture of these settlements mostly have a generic character and are aligned towards general concepts of resort-architecture. Most of the projects aim at the higher income population and provide a high level of living standard. Some of the newly built communities are gated. During the last decades the government has been purchasing large plots of land for urban expansion which points to their main goal gaining (back) more control over the development in the periphery.

access via village shop

FOOD & NUTRITION access mostly to vegetarian nutrition traditional cooking SHOP

Property use & size no garden no agriculture

SHOP

social life takes place in village shops or on dirt roads

access to food via mini store or nearby souq

1000 m

/ distribution of typology in research area

38 / psycho-gramatic collage of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;low income housingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; typology

FOOD & NUTRITION

Property use & size

limited access to food traditional cooking access to food via locl small street market or mobile traders

SHOP

absolute minimum 20â&#x20AC;&#x201C;60 sqm wasteland or former industrial shared with animals sites

facilities

some decorative plants in pots

typology of building without building permission

informal market, partly rental system

mostly burned

started in the 1980s, with new houses still being built today

public, shared septic tank

minimal shelter, one level, by hand

prefab concrete slabs, corrugated iron, wood and other cheap materials

communication

social structure

community funded and functioned community mosque SHOP

SHOP

densely built, very narrow streets

families with 4 to 6 children

only small distances

1000 m

/ distribution of typology in research area

“Everything has gone, everything: Every piece of decoration, even the olive trees. Independence was the utmost goal, the door to paradise. [...] In the plains at the foot of the mountains, trees from mulberries, pomegranates, cherries and olives had grown. The earth was a patchwork of melon, cucumber and corn fields, while the Atlas Mountains with its waterfalls, lakes and wondrous caves looked down on us.“

/ low income housing

/ Abūzaid 1980: 25

“Remember, today there is no bread kneaded by housewives and neither is there burned bread any longer. Today we have industrially produced bread that you can buy in the supermarket, wrapped in cellophane! There is even bread from ‘Dschermany’! A fine thing that is!” / Chraibi 1992: 24

/ commodified lot

/ psycho-gramatic collage of ‘commodified lot’ typology

FOOD & NUTRITION

Property use & size

5.000 sqm – 200.000 sqm

production of food (if at all)

depending on agriculture / dairy farming irrigation e.g. golf course, agriculture and industrial production road access

quarries

facilities

typology of building

trash is collected by a paid-for system 900 – 1500 €/sqm adVertisement

information systems

communication

some use of bigger machinery, e.g. tractors

inverted warehouse, factory light-weight steel constructions or prefab character, no buildings, stables, farms, windows quarries, golf courts concrete slabs

social structure no residential use

gated corporate funded communication

carpark for daily commuters

security service

1000 m

/ distribution of typology in research area

synthesis

/ strategic measures no real-estate development

submerged architecture

gateway into landscape

cut-out of planned developments by SDAU

Maquis

industry

farming and agriculture

high productive agriculture (e.g. hydroponics)

relocation of planned developments by SDAU

recreation

distribution and transport hub

sdau

/ mapping strategy in research area plots or land for strategy application planned urban development by SDAU 2010 wetlands

Park Le Petit Port

subtropical dry forests

Oued Merzeg Riparian Park

scrub and grassland coastal / marine ecosystem

Chaouia Village III

Ben Abid Quarry Park

Chaouia Estate I Chaouia Farm I

Chaouia Farm II

Chaouia Village I

Industry Oued Merzeg

Chaouia Living Chaouia Estate II

Chaouia Village II 0m

1000 m

// Design proposal

/ Morrocan Maquis

Therefore the peri-urban landscapes of Dar Bouazza ought to be developed according to the idea of a self-observatorio where future generations can observe and locally research the predicted environmental changes and develop strategies to cope with them. First and foremost a, so to speak, nature oriented lifestyle which is connected to this idea needs space – open space dominated by natural dynamics. The subordination of (some) human affaires may as an alternative to high-tech climate-capsules enable a life in our planet. The below is the starting point for a conception of growth, which no longer grows high above on a shaky foundation or as a bubble consisting of speculation and which no longer blocks the views over beautiful and productive landscapes. To address these complex problems I propose an expanded view on agriculture. The proposal goes as far as to suggest connecting less productive, rain fed (sometimes even burned) farming systems with other needed developments such as cultural and recreational facilities, commercial development and housing.

In accordance to the introducing thoughts I worked on a basal design strategy which could allow a sound future urban development in Dar Bouazza. ‘Nature’ itself is the very basis of all man’s (economic) actions. As said before it is not ‘nature’ that is endangered. Rather the diverse ways to encounter, perceive, observe and to distinguish nature are threatened. With this in mind it is hard to think about restrictive design tools and antiquated policies which have little chance to raise the required concern and sympathy for nature amongst a population. To strenghten the appreciation of nature’s phenomena ecological literacy is a basic condition. In an educational sense Natural History Museums have been typical places to experience nature, both in a public and popular (sometimes even spectacular) way but also in a very professional and academic-elitist way for the last two hundred years. Both sides have been and always will be closely connected and at the same time strictly seperated. This separation is not only administrative but also aesthetical. Whilst large bressbound cabinets of glass and premium woods display exotic species, the remote depots and repositories are dark, narrow, dusty and sometimes deserted. Changing times and lifestyles proof to be a challenge for these institutions. Modern techniques like DNA sequencing, big data and the global networking of science open up new perspectives and ways to generate knowledge. The new Natural History Museum is no longer to be found indoors, it is literally all around us.

/ Oued merzeg riparian park

shared spaces and paths

N 0m

LAND USE

agricultural area dynamic vegetation

preserved land

27.3 ha

100 m

LAND USE

HABITAT USE

subsurface level surface level

dynamic vegetation

garden / yard

20 agricultural area

shared space

dwellings

5 ha 210.8

1.2 ha

N 0m

100 m

30 30

alternating traditional farming, pasture and fallow land zone for aesthetic nature

subsurface dwellings

buildings

sunken courts / gardens

roads and paths

surface layer / shared spaces

/ Chaouia Living

area for modern agricultural uses

area for modern agricultural uses alternating traditional farming, pasture and fallow land zone for aesthetic nature

subsurface dwellings

buildings

sunken courts / gardens

roads and paths

surface layer / shared spaces

/ Chaouia Village II

N 0m

100 m

LAND USE

HABITAT USE subsurface level surface level

dynamic vegetation

dwellings

garden / yard

agricultural area 13.9 ha

shared space 0.85 ha

LAND USE

HABITAT USE subsurface level surface level

dynamic vegetation

garden / yard

dwellings

50 agricultural area 12.4 ha

0.12 ha

N 0m

100 m

/ Chaouia Farm II

/ park le petit port

shared spaces and paths

LAND USE

preserved land

agricultural area

dynamic vegetation 36.9 ha

N 0m

200 m

/ Chaouia Estate I

LAND USE

HABITAT USE

subsurface level surface level garden / yard

dwellings

agricultural area

dynamic vegetation 13.8 ha

1.3 ha 50

N 0m

100 m

area for modern agricultural uses alternating traditional farming, pasture and fallow land 55

zone for aesthetic nature

subsurface dwellings buildings

surface layer / shared spaces

roads and paths

sunken courts / gardens

LAND USE

HABITAT USE subsurface level

dynamic vegetation

garden / yard

dwellings

surface level

shared space agricultural area 2.9 ha

0.9 ha

/ Chaouia Village I

area for modern agricultural uses alternating traditional farming, pasture and fallow land zone for aesthetic nature

subsurface industry

buildings

sunken courts

roads and paths

surface layer / shared spaces

N 0m

55 60

/ Industry

LAND USE

subsurface level surface level

dynamic vegetation

HABITAT USE shared space

agricultural area 8.1 ha

production 1.5 ha

100 m

area for modern agricultural uses alternating traditional farming, pasture and fallow land zone for aesthetic nature

subsurface dwellings

buildings

sunken courts / gardens

roads and paths

surface layer / shared spaces

N 100 m

70 75

LAND USE

HABITAT USE

subsurface level surface level garden / yard

dynamic vegetation

dwellings

agricultural area 16.6 ha

0.86 ha

/ Chaouia Estate II

area for modern agricultural uses alternating traditional farming, pasture and fallow land zone for aesthetic nature

subsurface dwellings

buildings

sunken courts / gardens

roads and paths

surface layer / shared spaces

N 0m

100 m

/ Chaouia Farm I

LAND USE subsurface level surface level dynamic vegetation

HABITAT USE 5 6

garden / yard

dwellings

agricultural area 9.3 ha

0.43 ha

/ Ben Abid Quarry Park

shared spaces and paths

LAND USE 0m

100 m

agricultural area preserved land

dynamic vegetation

33.7 ha 15 10

Ben abid quarry park / section

20 / Chaouia Village III

LAND USE

area for modern agricultural uses

subsurface level

alternating traditional farming, pasture and fallow land

surface level

dynamic vegetation

zone for aesthetic nature Olive trees

agricultural area 13.8 ha

55 60

HABITAT USE

65 garden / yard

N 0m

dwellings

100 m

shared space

Chaioua Village III / section

1.86 ha

10 m

Chaioua Village III / perspective view

Despite the steady urban development alongside the coast and in particular at Cape Bobine I suggest to revise the current masterplan SDAU and establish a continuous open space to maintain future open space linkages of the hinterland and the coast line. The planned residential areas are displaced from the centre and will be relocated dug into the rural landscape. In doing so they constitute a series of individually developped submerged building structures complementing local settlement patterns. The suggested settlements follow a leveled concept. The surface layer is predominantly coverd by already existing agricultural lands. Through the sale of

underground-plots for construction use local small holders can earn additional income. This income will be used as investment in modern farming techniques and/or solely to keep their land. Helping farmers to continue farming complies with retaining open space. Lowering the economical pressure on agricultural production offers the possibility to lower the intensity of agricultural uses. The level of used heavy machinery, the use of fertilizers and economic risks will be lowered. Only shared spaces like stables, storage rooms, workshops or shops qualify for above-ground construction. To ban unwanted insights into the private rooms and courts each group of dwellings is embedded in patches of planted shrublands consisting of autochthon macchia-type vegetation. In the sense of an emotionally durable design the enhanced aesthetic affectiveness of the local nature will be capable of supporting deeper and more meaningful relationships with its users. These relationships constitute a requirement for any sustainable change. In this respect the anticipated ambivalence, ambiguity and simultaneity of readings of nature provide a rich ressource for strategies and tools. A aesthetic nature will provide space for retreat, consolidation and its selfexpansion.

These first-mentioned, less productive and therfore more dynamic plots preserve open space and are further more qualified through their ecological value. No doubt the preservation of open spaces designated to display the ever changing dynamics of nature in the perimeter of mega-urban agglomerations is costly. But prioritising environmental issues does not necessarily mean a full stop for economic or residential developments. According to the Dual Track Urbanism Aproach developed by Giseke et al. within the research project Urban Agriclulture Casablanca (UAC) there is an evident need to integrate peri-urban farming systems into the urban development process. In order to retain sufficent open spaces for a further sustainable development of the whole metropolis rural-urban linkages between Casablanca and its procuctive sourroundings (GisekeÂ 2013) ought to be structured and accumulated (in accordance to the guidelines of the Plan Maroc Vert).

notes

/ tales from tanger 30/07/2013 Ferdinand Freiherr von Augustin traveled in 1830, as part of an Austrian embassy to the Sultan Abderrahman, to Morocco. During the long journey through the country he summed up his thoughts on the geographical, historical, religious, political and social situation in notes, which he published later in 1838 as a travel report. Travel reports are scientific or artistic, respectively literary descriptions of fictional or actual travels. The most famous and oldest example of a travelogue are Herodotus’ history books, they emerged probably around the year 430 BC. An interesting facet concerning travel reports is, in addition to the mentioned, comparative statements on the landscape, politics and society, the context and mode of description of the experience. “The whole following coast, stretching along the atlantic ocean to the southwest, is completely shallow and softly descending into the sea until south of Mogador. Extremely dangerous for navigation, in particular during misty weather conditions, you can generally find 100 fathom depth in 30 miles distance off the coast. Here, on this long coastline, the ocean disgorged high dunes granting odd views on those covered with Pistacia lentiscus on both the land side and the sea side. Probably influenced by the winds those five to eight feet tall shrubs form a completely smooth adaptation as if they were all evenly cut in the same height.” / Augustin 1830, translated by the author.

/ just like a flash 11/08/2013 Ernest Everett Just (August 14, 1883 – October 27, 1941). Just’s academic journey led him, as a recognized expert in experimental embryology, to the comprehension of the importance of oganic intactness or integrity, in this case healthy and normal raw material, in his experiments about the fertilization of ova. Just, known as a pedant and to have “green fingers”, recognized early that there is no room for compromis regarding the intactness of the entire cell in their normal living conditions. Many famous experiments from excellent scientists are worthless, said Just, because they used moribund or abnormal cells. Their results therefore arise from those “unnatural” conditions and not from the experiment as such. The holistic compromise chosen by E.E. Just underpinned the thoughts, that life as an incident of structural and functional cemplexity can not be anatomised to chemical and physical components and thus can not be fully understood by single aspects of physical and chemical priciples. In addition he objected to the idea that this incapacity of reductionism adds up to a somehow mystical singularity, that special “spark” which is only present in life (Gould 1995: 303). The principles of life are derived from the hierarchical structure of nature. The complexity grows progressivly along a path of atom, molecule, gene, cell, tissue, organism and population. A higher level, however, can not be completely understood by fragmenting it in its smallest components and determining their properties, under the exclusion of interactions. “Under the impact of a spermatozoon the egg-surface first gives way and then rebounds; the egg-membrane moves in and out beneath the actively moving spermatozoon for a second or two. Then suddenly the spermatozoon becomes motionless with its tip buried in a slight indentation of the egg-surface, at which point the ectoplasm develops a cloudy appearance. This turbidity spreads from here so that at twenty seconds after insemination – the mixing of eggs and spermatozoa – the whole ectoplasm is cloudy. Now like a flash, beginning at the point of sperm-attachment, a wave sweeps over the surface of the egg, clearing up the ectoplasm as it passes; (…)” / Just 1939: 103

Just’s historical misfortune, was the fact that he published his discoveries shortly before the introduction of the electron microscope. A disaster in in two ways. Because of the technology, that was not yet available for him, he could never analyze the actual (physico-chemical) structure of the cell membrane. So many of his statements about it had to rely on conjectures. Nevertheless, in the 1960s and 1970s pictures of cells became available through electron microscope technology. Though leading to more or less static perspective on cell biology. Thus the knowledge of the relationships between the cell and the environment gained by Ernest Everett Just fell behind for a certain time. Interestingly enough this changed back to his favor at the beginning of the 1980s by the introduction of the video electron microscopy.

In-feeling 15/09/2013 Theodor Lipps was one of the most influential university professors of his time (1851–1914). Lipps was very concerned with the psychology of aesthetics. His writings regarding the phenomenon of Einfühlung have lately gained a new interest in neurosciences, behaviorism as well as in design theory. He developed a comprehensive “esthetic-mechanical” theory intended to explain all kinds of optical illusions and, like Helmholtz, he understood optical illusions, typical for many geometrical ornaments, as errors of judgement and not as errors of perception. According to Lipps, Einfühlung presupposes a fusion between observer and object and beyond this the unconscious process of Einfühlung is based on a “natural instinct” and “inner imitation”. Although considered speculative back then his work is outstanding in the aspect, that he postulated basic psychological concepts of aesthetic apperception whilst not proposing aesthetic universals. “In fact, there is no artist who does not reflect upon the conditions of his art. All artist, even those who taunt aesthetics, practice it.” / Lipps 1903, translated by the author.

/ wandering under the crescent moon 02/11/2013 Reading the Qur’an we discover that there are no references to the environment as we understand it today, the word ‘nature’ cannot be found in the book. Nonetheless the terms ‘environment’ and ‘nature’ are, as in all cultures, only simple abstractions of both, the idea of unity and diversity. Understood as such, terms like “natural order, original pattern or original state” leap into someones mind. In the Qur’an nature is described with the word Khalq which translates to “creation”. Therfore a conclusion by analogy to the western appreciation of nature as “on its own and developing by itself ” appears to be possible. Considering nature, the Qur’an provides four terms of particular importance: Thawhid, Fitra, Mizan and Khalifa. “It is he who grew the gardens, trellised and bowered, and palm trees and land sown with corn and many other seeds, and olives and pomegranates, alike and yet unlike. So eat of their fruit when they are in fruit, and give on the day of harvesting His due, and not to be extravagant, for God does not love those who are prodigal.” / Ali 1993: 6;141 Thawid stands for the unity of creation. Humanity is only one part of this interwoven manifold. Fitra describes the original state of creation and locates man in the centre of it. Mizan means the principle of the middle way. Man should use his intellect and knowledge for himself, knowing about the responsibility to preserve the quality of the natural order. Khalifa refers to the role of the human species in the grand pattern of creation. We are neither masters nor commanders, we are administrators. Dealing with nature is first of all concerned with limitating or economizing our own behaviour whilst recognizing our very own vulnerabilitiy.

appendix grand casablanca / climate data

average annual temperature °C 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1987 1988 1990 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013

17,2 17,5 17,3 17,5 17,6 17,2 17,8 17,2 18,2 17,6 18,1 17,6 17,3 17,6 18,8 18,3 19,1 18,5 18,0 18,3 18,9 18,6 18,8 18,7 18,6 18,9 18,4 18,4 19,5 19,6 19,3 18,7 18,6

average annual average annual temperature (max) °C temperature (min) °C 21,0 21,2 21,0 21,6 21,6 21,1 21,9 21,2 22,1 21,7 21,9 21,7 20,9 21,4 22,5 21,8 22,7 22,3 21,6 22,0 22,5 22,2 22,1 22,1 22,1 22,3 22,1 21,9 22,8 22,6 22,8 22,2 22,1

average annual precipitation mm

annual average wind speed km/h

354,3 391,21 384,1 342,4 128,0 307,8 459,2 380,0 454,67 433,29 573,51 224,30 414,51 351,81 242,11 433 420,90 178,82 353,3 340,09 314,5 560,8 350,2 332,6 213,9 403,6 312,2 371,9 488,4 514,0 389,7 350,9 332,3

8,8 12,1 11,8 12,5 13,4 12,8 12,3 12,4 12,5 11,6 12,9 9,4 9,2 9,2 8,2 8,2 7,5 7,2 7,9 7,7 7,5 8,5 8,2 7,7 8,4 8,4 7,2 7,0 7,4 7,9 8,5 8,1 9,2

13,3 13,4 13,3 13,4 13,6 13,2 14,0 13,3 14,7 14,1 14,6 14,1 14,0 14,2 15,4 14,9 15,6 14,8 14,5 14,6 15,2 15,0 15,5 15,2 15,1 15,5 14,8 14,9 16,1 16,5 15,9 15,2 15,2

1977–2000 Tutiempo (2013) Climate Casablanca. Available Online. URL: http://www.tutiempo.net/en/Climate/Casablanca/601550.htm (accessed 10 January 2014). 2001–2013 Waether Online (2014) Casablanca Airport. Available Online. URL: http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/weather/maps/city?FMM= 1&FYY=2008&LMM=12&LYY=2008&WMO=60155&CONT=afri&REGION=0010&LAND=MC&ART=TMX&R=310&NOREGIO N=0&LEVEL=162&LANG=sk&MOD=tab (accessed 10 January 2014).

design proposal / land use and habitat characteristics

subsurface level

surface level

agricultural area

dynamic vegetation

habitat

dwellings / production

Chaouia Living

10,8

0,68

0,52

5,5

shared space

garden / yard

4,1

1,2

560 (6720)

2100

Chaouia Estate I

13,8

0,45

0,26

3100

4,4

9,4

1,3

750 (4500)

Chaouia Estate II

16,6

0,3

0,2

8,2

8,5

0,86

750 (3000)

Chaouia Village I

2,9

0,51

0,2

1,4

0,9

Chaouia Village II

13,9

0,44

0,11

8,9

4,9

Chaouia Village III

13,8

0,8

0,17

10,1

Chaouia Farm I

9,3

0,16

0,03

Chaouia Farm II

12,4

0,12

Industry

8,1

1,52

Ben Abid Quarry Park

33,7

Park Le Petit Port

36,9

Oued Merzeg Riparian Park

27,3

preserved land

3600

150 (5100)

2600

1850

0,85

140 (2240)

3000

2963

3,7

1,86

200 (8000)

3200

5500

6,3

0,43

400 (1600)

0,022

7,2

5,2

0,12

400 (1200)

0,05

5,2

2,9

1,5

13,4

5,9

3,5

3,1

0,9

7200

15200 (30400)

413 310 6015

20,2

land area

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