When a patio becomes a city: (In)volution of Carrières Centrales, Casablanca
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 are what motivate the critical analysis of the research.