When a patio becomes a city : (In)volution of Carrières Centrales, Casablanca (1953-­‐2018)

In the 1950s, the city of Casablanca experienced enormous demographic growth. Having become a strategic port during the French protectorate, it soon had to accommodate more than 140,000 new arrivals from the countryside. The most extensive urban development in the city was Carrierès Centrales, introduced as a relevant case study in the CIAM IX by the GAMMA team. Michel Ècochard, Candilis and Woods reinterpreted the traditional Moroccan house in a compact horizontal fabric as well as in singular buildings, thereby making it the typology not only for the pattern of a house, but of the whole city. A revisit to Carrières Centrales 65 years after its construction leads to an understanding of the metamorphosis that the urban fabric has undergone over time. The main architectural and social parameters that have influenced its transformation is what motivates the critical analysis of the research. To achieve this goal, fieldwork was carried out based on a research trip in October 2018, which involved contact with local professors, access to the archives of the University of Casablanca, interviews with the inhabitants, and the rigorous exercise of redrawing and graphing all the architectural elements since their construction and subsequent modification. The evolution of the urban fabric supports the following hypothesis: the application of an imported urban model to a developing country is considered a failure by not taking into account the adaptation to changes in the life of its inhabitants. Time defines, modifies and adapts architecture to the needs of society. Culture, politics and the economy influence the transformation of the city as a reflection of its population. Learning from Carrières Centrales, we understand the need to include time as a parameter in the design process to address the increasingly complex response to the contemporary city