Modernist architecture in Casablanca. Photo by Tom Avermaete.
Casablanca is a showcase of the interplay between planned and unplanned
urban development and construction and the varied architecture that
results from this. What can architects learn from these developments? In
collaboration with the African Perspectives Conference and the Embassy
of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Morocco, the Netherlands
Architecture Institute (NAI) organised two Debates on Tour in Casablanca
on 4 and 5 November 2011.
Casablanca is a showcase of the interplay between planned and unplanned urban development and construction and the varied architecture that results from this. This debate examined the city of Casablanca as a model of how cities spatially adapt to the constantly expanding needs and aspirations of their inhabitants, and of how formal and informal construction processes enrich one another. The debate also asked what architects can learn from these developments. Can architects draw design lessons from the urban reality of Casablanca? Can these lessons be discussed in terms of formal and informal, or do we need a new set of concepts that take into account the capacity of architecture to allow for appropriation and development?
NAI Debates on Tour
For several years the NAI has been working with partners abroad to organise debates on location under the title Debates on Tour. Dutch speakers are invited to enter into debate with their local colleagues. The NAI hopes to promote the exchange of knowledge on a global scale by discussing topical, global themes in architecture and urban planning at the most diverse locations in the world.
Two debates
This Debate on Tour consisted of two separate debates. One was held as a part of the African Perspectives Conference, within the conference sub theme of The African Urbanity – Formal and Informal. A roundtable of international experts started by making short polemical statements. Taking place right before the closing session of the conference, it aimed to expose the underlying assumptions and radicalise implicit positions of earlier presentations during a lively debate.
In order to give a larger audience, which might not be able to attend the conference, the opportunity to engage with this fascinating subject matter, an additional and more informal debate was held in the cathedral of Casablanca, on the evening prior to the conference debate.
African Perspectives Conference
African Perspectives is a series of conferences on urbanism and architecture in Africa. It aims to bring together major stakeholders in order to map out a common agenda for African Architecture and create a forum for its sustainable development. It provides an opportunity for African experts in architecture to share locally developed knowledge and expertise with one another and the broader international community. And it intends to establish a network of African experts on sustainable building and built environments for future cooperation on research and development initiatives on the continent.
Dutch architecture in Casablanca Cathedral
The debate was set against the backdrop of the exhibition Dutch Architecture: A Round Trip. This exhibition showed a cross section of architecture and landscape in the Netherlands. It was part of the Architecture Year 2011 programme of the Dutch embassy in Rabat.
Speakers
Jord den Hollander
Den Hollander is an inspiring architect and filmmaker with a keen interest in Africa and its architecture. He moderated the debate.
Hannah le Roux
Hannah le Roux works in Johannesburg at the University of the Witwatersrand, and practices, curates and writes about architecture. Her work revisits the modernist project in architecture in Africa, and its transformation through the agency of African users and makers.
Her writing has appeared in blank_architecture, apartheid and after (NAi 1999), Narrating Architecture (2006), Afropolis (2011), and in journals including Domus, The Journal of Architecture and the Architectural Review, and she has curated exhibitions in Johannesburg, London and Venice.
In practice, she is involved in the repurposing of modernist buildings and public spaces in Johannesburg, including projects for Bloemenhof Park (published in Radical Landscapes, 2003), Upat (Mendrisio, 2007) and KwaThema (IFG Ulm, 2008).
Tom Avermaete
Tom Avermaete is Associate Professor of Architecture at Delft University of Technology (Netherlands) with a special research interest in the public realm and the architecture of the city in Western and non-Western contexts. He is the author of Another Modern: the Post-War Architecture and Urbanism of Candilis-Josic-Woods (2005) and has co-edited several publications, including Colonial Modern: Aesthetics of the Past, Rebellions for the Future (2010). He is one of the initiators of the research and exhibition project In the Desert of Modernity: Colonial Planning and After (Berlin 2008, Casablanca 2009, Marseilles 2013).
Abderrahim Kassou
Abderrahim Kassou is partner at Kilo Architectures, with offices in Paris, Casablanca, and New York. He is a government licensed architect (DPLG) holding a degree from the École d’Architecture de Paris La Villette. He also has a degree in Anthropology from the University of Paris VIII in St. Denis and a degree in Geography from the University of Tours. He co-founded the non-profit organisation Architecture et Development, which aims to promote sensitive and appropriate architectural and urban interventions in zones of development.
Kassou is a former president of Casamémoire, a non-profit organisation that aims to preserve the modern architectural heritage of Casablanca.
Antoni Folkers
Antoni Folkers is an architect and urbanist. After studying at Delft University of Technology, he went to Africa in 1984 where he set up the firm FBW architects with branches in Kampala (Uganda), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and elsewhere. Since 2000 Folkers and his practice have been based in Utrecht. He is one of the founders and co-director of the ArchiAfrika platform.
His publication Modern Architecture in Africa (SUN 2010) is one of the few Western studies of modern African architecture. He shows both the clash and the blending of ‘original’ African architecture with Modernism.
Ola Uduku
Ola Uduku is Reader in Architecture at the University of Edinburgh. She received her PhD in Architecture at the University of Cambridge. Dr Uduku is reporter of theme 1 at the APC. Her interests are the modern movement in architecture in Africa, school design and educational development in Sub-Saharan Africa, and social infrastructure provision for minority groups in the cities of the global north and south. She is currently involved in a British-funded project to archive the Alan Vaughan Richards House in Lagos, and a member of the EU-funded "Researching Architecture Beyond Europe" ECOST research group. She has authored, contributed to and co-edited the publications Minority Urban Infrastructure in Granby Toxteth (1998) with G. Ben-Tovim, Africa Beyond the Post Colonial with A. B. Zack Williams (2001), and Gated Communities (2009) with Samer Bagaeen.
Practical information
Both debates were held in English. In the more informal setting of the cathedral, the speakers and moderator added French summaries where needed.
Casablanca Cathedral
Friday 4 November
19.00 – 21.00 hours
Blvd Rachidi
Casablanca
African Perspectives Conference
Saturday 5 November
14.30 – 16.00 hours
Ecole Supérieure d’Architecture de Casablanca (EAC)
Corner Blvd. Abou Hanifa Al Noâman and Tarik Al Kheir
Sidi Bernoussi, Casablanca
Collaborating partners
Netherlands Architecture Institute (NAI)
African Perspectives Conference 2011
The cathedral debate is supported by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Rabat.
House for sale
In collaboration with partners abroad, the NAI organises debates on location under the title Debates on Tour. Dutch expert speakers are invited to join in debate with their local colleagues. The NAI aims to promote the exchange of knowledge on a global scale by raising topical themes in architecture and urban planning for discussion at diverse locations around the world.
> Read more...
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How has modernist architecture in Africa, often designed by European architects, been repurposed and reinterpreted by Africans? And how can the study of this lived modernism inform contemporary design practices in Africa and Europe? Johannesburg-based architect and researcher Hannah le Roux addressed these issues in the second evening in a series of debates about the informal city. Antoni Folkers introduced Le Roux and joined her in a discussion afterwards.
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