MONIQUE ELEB An Alternative to Functionalist Universalism: Ecochard, Candilis, and ATBAT-Afrique The attitude of the ( 1a) to issues related to habitat changed in the early 1950s, and it would appear that Moroccan architects took an active role in bringin} this change about. ‘The initiatives of Michel Ecochard, head of t Sen internationaus d'architecture modeme fe 'Urbanisme under the French protectorate from 1g achie Id-wide revognition through meetings. Far from of the Athens Chatter, the Service a Urbanisme’s team prompted a realization that was part twofold phenomenon: the southward shift of functionalist diseourse and the unusually high importance given to local lifestyles. Studying toms and habitue of rural Moroccans transplanted to the urban s marked a now stage in crsM' co! theorizing, a shift away from the eritique of urban shams and “unsalubrious blacks” in Eucope® toa concern with the problems in the larger cities of Afri Asia, and Latin Ameri Atthe time, theoretical study of the “housing funetion” was under: going a erisis within cians. The meeting to “work for t Bridgewater in 1947 aime tion of a physical environment that will satis an'y emotional and material needs” and to “stimulate man's spiritual srowth.”* Following a proposal made by the French, the notion of habitat, whieh served as the basis for ciavt discussions, was borrowed Fro 1 graphical space and land, the latter the connection with civil ropnlogists, the former stressing the geo- Habitat” thus replaced the terms “logis” (dwelling), “muchine @ and “fonetio biter” (residential function) that had been in us dy ilo til then. This theme involved taking account of lifestyles and cul- h tural and geographical contents, but the new shift to “Ineal” or “region. i . al” considerations conflicted with the idea of international solutions ay fer applicable to all, an idea upheld until then by the most radical mod- mists. So new to English-speaking architectural circles was the {habitat that in 1955 the Smithsons, exeators along with others oflistricts te spect dual Culture ‘ique work isted 36, the ita sould 104s i Local sources of inspiration were another variable to be taken into account. Betwee the two world wars, government officials, saders, and architects like Laprad Cadet, Brion, and Laforgue strove to creat “mimetic” habitat, invariably conceived ssan urban int structured according o certain traditional rules of Muslim urban culture, In an already extant city like Casa blanea, assimilating traditional Moroc archite 1gt0, when the concept of the new city architecture had motivate was frst developed. Although architects derived ideas from the houses of Mor notables ot from monumental a in European cities for their or public buildings, they took no note of more modest vernacular dwellings except on those rare occasions when they were called upon to design working-class neighborhoods, For modest homes, they examined housing in coastal cities, while for large houses swed ideas from “academic” urban architecture, Mass housing was ignored Neighborhood Unit and Housing “Grid” A “vital” problem for Morocco, a “problem of technique and of conscience for France, housing for “the greatest number,” in Ecochard’s view, required new solutions." Drawing inspiration from theories in the English-speaking world, he advocated the creation at the neighborhood level of a “theoretical guideline,” a “neighborhood rit” comprising 1,800 inhabitants. The number was not arbitrary; its pertinence ould be confirmed by the theories of Jacques Berque about settlements around souls (open-air markets) and about hou in small cities in Nozth Aftiea.” Ecochard established a “housing grid” for Muslims measuring 8 by 8 meters (26 f. 3 i Wy 26 f.3 in fig, 2, theoretically allow all possible “combinations standard unit forall subsequent projects of the Service de !'Urbanisme, this surface area would “permit the constra dard wo-roam dwelling,” It would also accom- modate 350 inhabitants per hectare, a fact hhich would be no small argument when it came to rehousing the inhabitants of the The §by-8 combinations were based not only on observations of “new forms appear ndustial cities” but also on analyses of ancient médinas in which “blocking the view in from the streets is traditionally oblig. atory in the Muslim habitat.” Although the choice of 8 by $ was a new development, the layout of interiors remained unchanged. It continued earlier “indigenous” practices, from the Habou districts to the industrial working-class areas.'* While newly arrived architects drew lessons from this fact, they did not acknowledge their provenance. Individual courtyard houses were offered to inhabitants of the shantytowns. This polic ‘was based on converging studies that for the first time examined the actual living cond- tions ofthe new Moroccan proletariat. These ts lke Robert Montagne and André Adem, who also studies were conducted by socio examined the lifestyles of people of rural backgrounds once they had moved to villages ain of Ecochard’s collaborators, including landscape architect and shantytowns.!* C and urban planner Pierre Mas, complement- ed these largescale studies, also relying on critiques of earlier projects. In formulating its projects, Ecochard’s multidisciplinary task force (before the term was invented) took as much account of age ‘oup and matrimonial status as of economic status. Since the early 1920s, government officials had been firmly convinced that only indi vidual courtyard houses met the needs of the Muslim population, Beochard and the Ser ice de Habitat, however, envisioned mass 71952; masing housing for an ever growing population, and were supported in this by Moroccan mer bers of the Commission des Lo which cequested in 1949 that “modem living conditions be established in housing,” This position, it must be emphasized, was quite ents Tt was in the midst ofthis changing situa tion that the araaT (Atelier des batisseur team, which had been based in Casablanca arrived. This branch of the research consultancy formed by engineer Vladimir Bodiansky for the construction of Le Corbusier's Unité d’Habitat Marseilles was directed by architect Georges CCandilis, whe had just spent two years at the site, working with Shadrach Woods, Was Candilis’s approach innovative and, if oun, so, in what respeet? During the 1950s exponents of the “Mouvement modeme both within aroar and outside, discovered the cubic volumes of the casbahs and the fortress-grnaries ofthe farmers of sonthern Morocco and used these vernacular ref ences to justify collective housing for Moroccans. The inspiration provided by rural housing was another new developmen Service de "Urbane, orciects a/Vicee Fr, 1958] Until the 1950s, only the urban habitat had infivenced architec. The Service de young architects who were members of Architectes Modermes ‘Usbanisme relied on ‘canes (Grou Matocains), which had been accepted as an independent branch of CAM as a result of the Hoddesdon meeting in 1951'* The ation nF the Morocean group was a result convergent and suecessive initiatives by Ecochard, Candilis, and the historian Sightied Giedion, secretary-general of ctx Certain canta architects were also members of ATaAT-Afrique. The divisions among French members of ciaM, however, had repercussions in Moroc in arpaT-Afrigue was Vladimir B who was affiliated with the Lods ned with whereas Candis was more a Le Corbusier. The young architects under Ecochard, by contrast, were linked with é, led by Roge a third group called La Cit Aujame. Thus, European and French debates were transplanted to Morocean soil Several experimental initiat tized the aims of the Service de !'Urbanisme and would fuel a debate that went well 39gists were resuming research here originally Begun in the 19368."! Candilis affirmed that “the easbahs of the Sahara, the sour or fortified village of the Atlas Mountains, collective fortress-granaries reflect the th ability of the people to live sid speeting family privacy and man: common accord, matters of communal interest" He stressed certain characterises ofthe traditional habitat, such asthe court yard: “a veritable family hearth, a living room, it has tie funtion of ‘bringing people Both structures thus proposed 5 ltstory solution i together a transposition, which the courtyard will be bathed in light and the rooms will also have sunshine, In the Sémiramis Building, divided into two ub-blocks to imodate the slope of the land, the facades face east an hed by pa west and the units ae re sways on cry other level leading to private court yards opening on the two facades. The buil ing’s name alludes to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, once supposed to have been built by Queen Semiramis The differentiation of the two buildings sed on the de prospective resident style, a fumetion of their religious belief ), Far Candllis the Semiramis Build ing, with its “double-height enclosed court ard!” that ensured privacy and “another ee of urbanization oft their life- facade with protruding passageways,” is + that segment of the population that has remained closest to the Muslim way of life In the Nid d Abeille (Beehive) Building, which is orthogonal to the first one, the passageways are shifted to the north side, and the south facade has a geometric pattern of large openings directly lighting the courtyards and their blind walls (Rg, 24). It contains about o hundred apartments and eight shops, the neliculously explicitly “designe¢ P geometry of which reveal how ees seblanc, «1959; seu ocode Nid die bling. TBATAque, orchitels served the architec- Candilis and Woo ture of casbahs. In response to Eco objections, Candilis justified the m 1s ofthe stairways by comparing and slee them to the entrances of multi-story build- ings in the southem valley ‘Along the same line of thought, one of the most spectacular productions of this ted by the Swiss phase was the one con: architects Jean Hentsch a at Sidi Othman between 19 fig. 2.5). Ativing in Morocco after work sith Le Corbusier and travels in Arizona and Mexico, Studer fst envisioned a rmidshaped building that captured the spirit ofa “modern casbah” and strove to ocustoms and habit ming in from th inhabitants countryside mountains.” But the police oiected building impossible led courtyards dear treated in an expression Lending rhythm to the lower part of the buildings, pitoris bore the wei the courtyard, where the “sanitary ¢ arpa build ht to preserve ultural dimension, in act th the principles invoked by the tion in each how: F the ‘patio’ [courtyard] as traditionally understood, that is, open to the sky, invisible to outsiders, and at the center of the unit, me 9S feet) ted vertically to create a itary core While the formal inspieation suggests a pretation of constructed and ometrical and Iyrical int tradition, the apartment out in.a very madern style, as they are biton both fueades, the rooms are generous and the bathrooms and kitchens uuped together.” Most of the court ed into livingroomns or bedrooms The International Resonance of the Moroccan Experiments The country’s prosperity in the hat modem lanca allowed yingle bor lh Sidi Ohron, fessionals like Elie Azagury, Jean-Frangois Zévaco, Hensi ‘Tastemain, and Jean Chem- rneau to present to C1AM a relatively large number of built works, whereas architects in France were unable to get their projects constructed.® But this in itself is not enough to explain the influence of the Moro: -sperience. The intemational reception of the concrete achievements of Ficochard’s team and of Ecochard’s theories abou the habitat “for the greatest number" alsc increased the impact of Moroccan architec ture around Casablanca. As early as 1952, when Bodiansky arranged to have the impor- tance of the habitat “for the greatest num ber” acknowledged by the Social and Economic Council of the United Nations the achievements of araat were taken into consideration by cia. The Morocean example is central tthe report Bodiansky presented that same year to the UN, and which should have led to a UN seminar in ” Some fifleen architects based andilis, Ec Azaguty, Mas, and Jaubert, took part in the Moraceo jin Morocco, includin IAM meeting at Aix-en-Provence it. 1953, which was to be a turning point in the poli cies of c1am. According to a method adopte atp vious meetings, two “grids” or panels set up, based on the four functions of the Athens Charter, to display the Moroe an achievements.” These grids displayed the finished projects of the Service d P’Urbanisme through striking photographie between the old cities and new districts like the Carrigres Centrales ). They linked solutions adopted courtyard houses and collective hous- of the comparison for o the time-honoured tradi ancient medinas and‘The wor of ATAAT-APRIQUE COLLECTIVE HOUSING IN MOROCCO cones 8 The Morocea shock to the most radical cia members, display at Aix was a tr The Gavima grid on the “Morocean Hubi- and Reochard, was tat,” designed by dovetailing as it did with the theories of habitat forthe greatest number” designed Aldo van Eyck and the Smithsons on the dentity and specificity ofthe urban habitat eclipsed by the araxr-Afrique grid on “the by Candilis with the assistance of Mas, While this group of young rebels within Initia tion of the “Moroccan Habi u Cité verticale,” was intended to 1AM was expanding its activities, Alison and acknowledge problems specific to the build- Peter Smithson published in 19 atic ceview of the aTuar buildings in the Car ). They stated that ‘ound is brilliantly ut 1¢ Carrieres Centrales. But when riézes Centrales (fi the slope of the ized” and that the volumetry and pol ing the Service de 'Urbanisme's analysis chromy contributed to “a spatial exercise of at refinement.” But above all the Smith- smphasized the breakthrough the build the panels were mounted, the hierarchy appeats to have been reversed. Candilis made this section the central focus, rel (0. supporting role. Ecochard’s anger over ‘compli was further fueled by the sor se Candilis and Bodiansky made of th ings e Ais exhibits in a brochure published in 1953, J these buildings in Morocco as th ‘marked “of urgency to humanity”) that st achievement since Le Corbusier's Unité was designed to gather comparable experi ences from around the world that would be Habitation at Marseilles Whereas the Unité was published in support oftheir theses.* the summation ofa technique of thinking about AN ALTERNATIVE TO FUNCTIONALIST UNIVERSALISH 65habitat tance ofthe M the impor can buildings i that they aze the First manife Forth re presented asi in built form that convince is transforming the universalist postion. of the modemists through its reintroduction of the notion of cultural adaptation A Maiem, hopefil France was in being in ca where there was none ofthe Europ middle generation’ signs af deviation from the mets ofthe Movement; in Nor rca, “esp I" is plenty, and in the sett while cubie forms; private spaces adjoining the dwellings, the clarity o the Four Funetic Smithson recalled how these sunny, opti mistic propositions and the “new architectur al language engendeced by the forms of th habitat” influenced the embryonic Team Others, examining this research in greate detail, would make more balanced asses iments, In 1958, for instance, Robert Auzelle criticized the solutions proposed in the Sémiramis Building, noting that “the (especially acoustic, with herations in the covered patio ccil example), the proportions of the ther inflexible rooms, and the spac between the buildin that were foreign to the Muslim spit, would seem to needless reduce the impact of the work." Miclil cochard expressed other reservations when ed tha inevitably be he stacked courtyards will ed as habitable rooms,” a Prediction confirmed by just such later trans- formations. Furthermore, the reinterpreta tion of the cout in plastic terms, failed to take into account ion as a connecting area b rs, of rather between tarked that “in today’s women their suspended courtyards are like caged birds." It can now be said that the Sémiramis Building, de from the outset to be more closed, has under= gone fewer changes than the Nid d ‘Abeille This initial project of avaar-Afrique Was followed by a series of unbuilt projects in which the theme of the so dear to C ‘semi-dupley’ ‘andilis was developed. Through Candilis, araar-Aérique also proposed, in thre ng from most closed to ‘most open. There was an apartment building th government housing poli building-types ran for Muslims,” characterized by its closed courtyards, “with general-purpose 1o0m,"*! Asimila was provided for Moroc- an Jews, but the court: ecial com was provided for isnlat- ing women durin asis the cus r menstrual period, m in certain Orthodox Jewish Te was a third type of build- families, Th ing largely open to the outside world and designed for Europeans, still considered to be a homogenous social group. Each solu tion was based on a distinct facade-type. In a fourth pr¢ it was a metaphor for plans and el. ombined in a building designed for mote theoretical since ined ethnicities, the ations of the other three types families of diverse origins. Candilis affirmed in retrospect that his efforts “were fought by racists” and that, considered himself to be a “dangerous” subversive, he r it was time to leave the country Candilis and his team would develop the Nid d’Abeille and Sémiramis building pes for Muslim mass-housing projectsized housing. After winning the competition, Funefionality and Adaptation to Lifestyle <0 im the 1950s the rigid specifies at Oran—in the Place Korte and the Tertad quarter” They also developed model housing for Moroccans, such as the Tréflc and which would be built in Algeria and e ‘ance."* The Canalis team’s reflections seemed the minimal habitat would also constitute ‘ the basis of their response to the Opération Million competition in France,a progam of the Ministere de la Reconstruction et b de ! Urbanisme for lovsrent and industrial: the team set to work in 1955 to consteue In Mor 40 ypartments in the Par and Mar Ecochard foresaw the gradual transforma- tion of horizontal housing projects into fune- under tionalist rows, Muslim cities would become rtically denser. According to Candils, Relativi Muslim representatives and certain militant reg adapted” habitat as 1m of colonialism, of paternal anted “low-rent publ lution of this housiny hhieh would be transfor local customs, would p 1 ion of housing along eth: cla had to this point ined the attitude of archi oimportance to the universality of human needs, thereby justifying the international ization of architecture, Thus it 1 Candilis and Woods approached the ques tion of European housing outside the metropolis, they concluded that the only standards that could be generalized were those ofthe Athens Charter. For them, 1m specific conditions, such as protection from heat and humidity, there is no imperative reason for essential differ: fences in design, since these projects ate nceived by the same people and attemp achieve the same goals to allow people to live in the same way." At exactly the same time these two architects studied the habitats of Muslims, Jews, and Europeans, established, at the ctan meeting in Aix-en-Provence, the need to adapt and successful ocal customs and not simp to climate. For them, these two points of view were only temporarily in opposi tion. For the goal of adapted architecture was lo induce inhabitants to gradually adopt dere lifestyles, as in Eeochard’s theory through the mimesis of European models or the ma Another id forced this postion: modesn architecture ‘nization of residential pattetus, a, rarely made explicit, rein was seen to educate and induce certain forms of behavior through the modern con: veniences it ovides, It therefore major role to playin modernizing customs. Despite their efforts, these archi adhered to the prevailing functionalist cts still model, which ignored the anthropological dimension or regarded itas merely transi- tional. Striving to make architecture more Scientific; like most their colleagues since the nineteenth century, Candilis nd Woods believed deep down that there fundamental ni humanity, and that to project ne need only identify those needs. Between the ‘archaism’ of the human species ~ its common store of vital needs ind the current reality of different cultures, these architects were unable to choos sometimes referring to one smetimes to the other, all the whl most lc denying that our gical needs are also defined and shaped by culture. Traditionally, cin relied upon knowledge ofthe ‘hard s notably at the thd m -cting in Brusse re knowledge of medicine and the exact s Presented as a prereq- uisite to any theorizing about architecture and housing. That tradition was now bei lenged, and the introduction of anothe: that ofthe human se. cenees, and anthropology in particular ~ was type of know edge shaking the foundations of their theories, Moroccan architects, surrounded by special from thi human sciences, appealed the one hand to culture when creating heir adapted habitats, and on the other hand to mo theirattempts io make evervone coexist in the same type of space. What is implicit in this debate is that one’s attach ent to a habitat anchored in culture is linked tothe slow develop ment of certain countr which for th relative to others, € architects was impossible to express. Ecochard, aiming to satisfy “for all, the needs of light, space, hygiene, rest education, and work,” also engaged in this schizophrenic approach, using modern theory asthe basis for projects designed for Europeans, and ethnological or regional The buildings of the C iaritres Centrale, Published in many French and European journals, marked a coming-together of the universalist approach of modern archi tecture and of the wish to adapt to local cultures and identities that was characteristic of the Team Ten generation.” These photo genic buildings thus illustrated the influenceboth in practical terms. Less adapted to ditions of Muslim Moroccans d, these buildings the living « than Candilis maint ce all to foster reflection on the served ab minimal habitat ~ indee habitat population a concept that is still quite nt today The achievements of modern Moroecan ic field 4 when on the emergene adaptable to diverse architects were part ofa proble that Sigitied Giedion defined in he began lookin Referring to the mass housing, awving a paral lel be arch of Ecochard and that of Sert and Wiener for Cuba, Giedion for signs of a new “regiona of Candilis and Wo compared the &-by-8 framework to the “units in rows surrounded by walls” of the ancien! Heed rebellion within ptian village of Tell el Amamna ing the signs ofa grow cian, Giedion understood that the new ideal ~ based on local specifications and the for the fringes of th sould have tn be production nf honsing industrialized world ~ derived from Moroccan experiences. After 1956, reflections by housing desig 1s consisted in improving, without introduc ing radical changes, the standard plans for Muslim housing produced by the previous ‘cams. A memorandum from the Ministéce des Travatsx Publics in 1958 defined the d for con parameters of the solutions adop structing the Derb Jdid housing scheme We are witnessing an evolution having its mnd-Aoor habit much from the traitional a point in the gr which draws its inspiration from the raral habitat, and which is increasingly building.oriented, Moreover, we will see that some ofthe solutions provided to this new pro rip lots) resltin Tots that areal buildable, Elimination of the courtyard is the last step before ariving at the modem and very urban type of build ated objective marked the ysand-year This quietly end of the mination of the th old courtyard house. For the two populations native to Morocco, living in a space stru tured according to the codes of anothe civilization, another culture, another social class was a form of silent education. Inter- nalization of the material ideologies studied m, Lévi-Strauss, or by Maus, Du Althusser involved the appropriation of objects, equipment, instruments of daily life, and inhabited spaces, ce of school and the street. From this standpoint, Lyautey’s strategy, which showe respect for Moroccan Muslirn cult wut also the expe played a decisive rale fora time, especial for the nascent Moroccan middle class. The new medina was given as an example of the preservation of traditions with re to gradations from the public to the private in the Muslim world, notably presenting 2 particular type of male-female relationship. But the spatial distribution of Casablanca, which did not replicate these gradations ~ the ‘Muslim’ habitat as found in the H or at Ain Chock was an exception — was sxperiences for peas one of the first leaminy ants ariving inthe city, enabling them ti become acquainted with and understand, indeed to internalize, certain values of mod ociety that both were and we ern urban rot tinged with colonialist assumptions The bidor structure of acculturation in a context le or shantytown was also a forced rural exodus, the inhabil placed in a quasiexperimental, transitional situation that ereated needs” —a means of relocation that had from time immemori- al bi ployed by the early colonizers, missionaries, and philanthropists reflecting on the vernacular habitat. The transition at to ‘modern’ habitat question social prac from traditional bal thus helped to callin tices, the structuring of relations betweenchild nd bet and specific codes een parents and for relations between the private and the public, and even relations with the sacred." As a female Moroccan investigato: al families The oscillate between the karoum [coal fire] and the butaguz (gas stove]. They don’t com: lain, but are utterly confi twas a fusion that stemmed from the rever newly arrived in the bamres noted: between private and public and between revealed space and concealed space that created by these open-hall al the spaces that w buildings, in traditional cllings being exposed in these outward- riented buildings. It must neverthel in Cas but that eral blanea, and in Morocco ge the government of the prot imposed change of habitat by violence, as was the ease in other colonial situat Europeanctype mass housing was proposed Moroccans, who could always choose a raditional dwelling, What appealed to som: social groups were th nbols of belong. ing to modernity, symbols that could be appropriated through access to a new type of dwelling. From this standpoint, Casabla: ture played an ambiguous role hat bordered on the gaudy, then exploring the multiple modes of hybridization and But most of the new city’s bui ings did not play on this register. For exam: métissage, ple, the ostentatious facades of major builn f dominance in a county whose buildings, generally without external symbols, looked inward to their courtyard, and where ssablanca’s could be seen as an instance compositions or formal hier by ichies, marked al lines and cupo The banker Louis Re naudin remarked in 1954, signs have shown a pro- nounced tendency to freeze the indigenous habitat in its archaic form, whereas it must ¥ made to evolve towards more modem formulas.** Renaudin thought that someday the nal Moroceans would complain of having been confined toa “subordinate tation” in such dwellings, whereas the ould have quickly ethos that we reserve for Europeans.” He agr n this respect aspired to sh pired te with the Morocean represen tatives on the Commission duu Logement which was very rnuch in fa mass housing to Mi stressed that “the admin not seck t of offering modern Hims, and tration should respect traditions more than the ple * Other Morocean accused the French of b ing the advancement of the Mor working c representatives ck by reproducing the structure of the traditional individual house, whereas the apartment building appeared to them bol of entry into the modetn world Faced with this question, Moroccans were s. Nation ‘companied the links between colonization and modernization, Mor ans could react in ty different ways, depending on their his heir position in society, and their place f residence te {na truly colonial situation, members ofa domi- nated society experience foreign intervention san attack on their traditions, and this aggresso n trigger certain forms of rejection. Buti derline cases, freely accepted acculturation corresponds tothe internal dynasnics of thy ndigenous society Accepting this form of modernization — succumbing to the siren song of modem and acceding toa type of comfott bearing the stamp of other cultures ~ is not without inner conflict. Mohammed Boughiali rightlyAN ALTERNATIVE TO FUNCTIONALIST UNIVERSALISMalso Cane, Joe, W Moniaue eves Marco” Wert Caablanea” Arh uments among the paper o Hem enan ad atthe Ministre de Mabitat, Rab lis Bocas, it bre (United Nations, S Woods, who had joined the araaAftiqu tm ll with Bits architect Bnan Richards. See Camus’ account cia g Ae tonenee, juillel 1955." Architecture daujoun Pros ts gid ane preserved the line Tyrwhitt, Archi Those ofthe srsar gid st al the Ministre de 0,2. The projects were yeas late in Aon Smiths no Primer (Landon: Sto Visa, Alton Smit Robert aelle and Wan fankovie, Marce-Casablanes-Cartgres cents de Cbavigme (Pais: esa Beachand, “Habitat musulman au Maroc" 36 1p Ante Adan, Cesalanca, esi Editions du exes, 1968 4 ‘Slalercat by Georges Candis inthe pos Progr "Le projcesuchiteetral et usin, suanary 19gified Ciedion, “The Regi AN ALTERNATIVE TO FUNC n