Bidonville, Casablanca © Flickr/Mhobl
CASABLANCA, MOROCCO
Medina Errahma, Casablanca City Without Slums Programme
Morocco Brief History
Coordinates: 33°35’57”N 7°37’12” 1960-1970s Provision of plots for self-constructed housing.
GDP: 103,836 M USD. 1990s Special programmes to reduce poor housing e.g. the Ministere de l’Habitat
Area: 38,600 ha. programme.
Gross density: 105 pop/ha (approx.) 2004 Morocco launches the “Villes sans bidonvilles” programme in 85 cities.
Budget: 2,860 M USD. 2007 Medina Errahma neighbourhood recasement project starts.
2010 The implementation of the programme results to a reduction of the slum
Medina Errahma Neighbourhood population in the country from 8.2% in 2004 to 3.9%.
Coordinates: 33°32’13”N 7°43’33” 2012 The programme is 75% complete, having helped a total of 272,939 dwellings.
Area: 67 ha. The state declares 45 cities within the country as cities “without slums”.
Population: 32,500 possible inhabitants.
Density: 485 pop/ha.
Budget: 32 M USD.
Urban Planning and Design
CONTEXT AND RATIONALE
Since early 20th Century, Moroccan cities and The program was based on:
particularly Casablanca experienced years of
fast urban demographic growth produced by - City-wide based initiatives;
the massive rural-urban migrations. Just like it is - Shared responsibilities between the public
the case with other North-African countries, in and private sector; and,
Morocco, industrialization and modernization - Social housing intensification towards
processes were accompanied by huge housing slum prevention.
backlogs, producing different “bidonvilles” The success of the VsB programme draws
in many urban areas. This trend continued from lessons learnt from past experiences, in
throughout the century. Morocco attained the country:
independence from France in 1956 and as of - Renewal and upgrading model
1960; the city of Casablanca had an estimated (restructuration), integrating the slums
32,700 barracks and a city total population of within the rest of urban context through
640,000 inhabitants. Different programs have infrastructure development (streets, sanitation,
since 1956 been launched with the aim of water and electricity supply), land tenure and
addressing slum proliferation. In the 1960s and register implementation.
1970s, the approaches focused on improving - Relocation (relogement) of slums people
“hygienic urban patterns” by providing plots to new social housing
of 8 by 8 metres for auto construction (self- - Rehousing (recasement), providing
constructed housing) (Carrieres Centrales, 1952). serviced plots (size changing from 64 to 80
Specifically, the 1970s strategies were aimed at square metres) for assisted auto construction.
the restructuration in-situ of slums, increasing
participation processes and improvement of Casablanca’s Medina Errahma neighbourhood is
facilities. In the 1990s, the country witnessed one of the most interesting and, at the moment,
special programs for reducing poor housing successful experiences within the “Villes sense
conditions in different cities, such as the Ministere bidonville” national programme. Located in the
de l’Habitat programme. west of the city, 4 kilometres from Casablanca
city border, it is an example of housing and
After decades of unresponsive interventions, infrastructure implementation through a
Morocco officially launched the “Cities without recasement approach, which involves relatively
Slums” programme in 2004 (Villes Sans smaller slums and those detached from the wider
Bidonvilles, VsB).This became a national priority, urban structure. The project was co-financed by
aimed at alleviating urban poverty and urban the state (by providing loans to slums dwellers
exclusion in the Moroccan urban context. The and technical assessment, and selling land),
programme was structured through a public/ by the same slum dwellers (through purchase
private financial arrangement of an estimated of land and meeting auto construction costs),
2,860 Million USD (40% public founded), and its as well as private investors (contractors and
objective was to “eradicate slums” in Moroccan investing in commercial spaces).
cities (around 362,327 dwellings in total) and
rehousing of 1.6 million people.
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Lessons Learnt from International Experiences
PROCESS AND SOLUTIONS
Medina Errahma housing estate, planned on OPEN SPACES AND FACILITIES
land with an existing slum, is composed of two
sectors of housing estates of 3,000 and 3,500 Apart from the 30 meter central boulevard, the
new dwellings, respectively, in a GF+2 and GF+3 rest of the vehicular streets are 20 and 15 meters.
buildings with commerce on ground floor. The This street system is supported, within the block,
project area covers 62 hectares of land. by a pedestrian oriented pattern of 8 meter
width that provides access to all plots. Peripheral
THE STREET PATTERN streets around the two sectors will enhance
neighbourhood mobility and possible further
The backbone of the entire new neighbourhood extensions of the same in the future. Some
is a 30 metre wide boulevard, the only additional squares (around 20 by 50 meters) are
neighbourhood street that is directly connected located nearby the public facilities and along the
to P3014, one of the main axes of connection main boulevard. A public facilities strip (open
between centre and the south west territory of areas and sport grounds) is located along P3014
Casablanca. The boulevard is flanked by GF+3 Street, in order to provide service to also other
open-markets oriented buildings, and constitute neighbourhoods in the south.
the access to the entire neighbourhood street
network. The rest of the vehicular urban pattern PHASING AND MANAGEMENT
is composed by blocks, whose dimension is
directly dependent of the 7 by 10 meters plot, The process of development is based on a
being the common block around 200 by 110 government driven mechanism, which involves
meters. Two main “special block”, located in the participation of slum dwellers (targeted
each sector contain public facilities. Each block beneficiaries/ inhabitants of the rehousing) and
has in its interior, a local network of pedestrian the private sector. The government offers to the
streets, organized around a centric common slum dwellers the planned and serviced plots
space/square, mainly oriented as a space for of 80 square meters, and an access to a special
parking plots credit for auto construction of new dwellings.
Medina Errahma / before and after © Google Maps
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Urban Planning and Design
PROCESS AND SOLUTIONS
Future residents are fully in charge of the building This programme is among the major milestones
process, with technical support from government that Morocco has achieved with regard to
technical staff (engineers). Architectural and addressing slums. The projects have had major
technical solutions are fixed and established results, impacts, and shortcomings alike:
before, and are uniform within the project. A
model house has been built as reference for auto eradicating slums within 85 cities, Morocco
construction processes just close to credit offices. has not been fully achieved the target.
FINANCING THE DEVELOPMENT programme still represents one of the most
prominent efforts to confront the challenge
The future dwellers have different options to of slums in Africa. It has been also useful
finance their building: to introduce different methodologies of
intervention in the Moroccan context,
building, combining the traditional relogement and
social housing dwelling building programme
same to third persons (for example commercial with more innovative recasement and renewal
ground floor). This aimed to cross-subsidize oriented processes.
costs of construction, and also to ease the
repayment of credit. if combined with policies to increase the
land offer and social housing production,
to increase prevention focusing on urban
plot) and private investors (offers construction
planning strategies, and reforming the public
capital). The private investors are third parties,
sector to create fully dedicated public agencies
who finance the building process, and later
to slum prevention and social housing
the ownership of the building is divided
functions.
between the beneficiary slum dweller and the
private investor.
Bidonvilles” most interesting experiences, is
The credit system FOGARIM (Fond de Garantie
today, almost fully complete; an interesting
en Faveur des Populations a Revenus Modestes
et Irreguliers), was established in 2003 in order
to enable low-income people access loans. The
system allows the slum inhabitants to access
to a maximum loan of 21,000 USD, with a 20
years payback period, which is calculated at
510 USD per year (or 42 USD per month). The
government guarantees the 70% of the total
loan amount.
Medina Errahma / plan
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Lessons Learnt from International Experiences
achievement if we consider that it is mainly incomes and not able to temporarily relocate,
based on auto construction; led by slum to self-organize and build a temporary shelter
dwellers. during the construction process.
not as rich and ambitious, the implementation linked to individual difficulties to access the 20
process that is based on direct participation of year loan, especially for the elder cohort of the
beneficiary slum dwellers can be considered a community.
precedent-setting reference for other similar
programs in different countries. 2006, cited limited institutional capacity to
effectively coordinate full implementation of
the project.
the site of the original slum is envisaged in
the necessity for some people with lowest
gravel
Construction Site Bidonville © ETH Studio Basel
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Urban Planning and Design
KEY LESSONS
STRENGTHS: demonstrated approaches to fast construction
processes. In some cases it took only three
months to build the new buildings, which was
view, having a stock of open market dwellings in catalytic of the desire to own properties by the
the estate along the main boulevard will prevent slum dwellers and land developers.
the neighbourhood from becoming a ghetto; by
providing more social mix to the community. re-planning existing slum sites, combined with
self-construction processes is a viable option
interesting option in-situ interventions to slum to address slum issues in urban areas. This is
upgrading/elimination programmes. This stems mainly because of the minimal displacements
from the aspects of maintaining the original site and relocations, reduction of over-reliance on
for neighbourhood development, re-planning government finances, and inclusion (through
existing slums and relocating slum population participation) of different sectors of the
to a better urban environment, which in turn community (not only at the neighbourhood scale)
helps to strengthen and maintain the social and actors in the project. The self-construction
structure of the community; based on already process proofs that it can as well be a faster
established social equilibria and work relations. process of executing construction projects, if
Importantly, people are not displaced from their well executed. At the same time, this process
actual neighbourhoods, but only involved in a prepares the occupants to the responsibility of
programme to improve their conditions. implementation and maintenance.
increases community confidence in the project WEAKNESSES:
from the very beginning, avoiding mistrusts that
are often associated with these kinds of projects.
connection to P3014 Street, through the
based on the direct participation of the target boulevard. That scheme, not only can generate
beneficiaries; slum dwellers, which inculcate a mobility and vehicular access problems in the
strong sense of responsibility, self-developing, future, but also reduces substantively, possible
and redefined relations between government and
citizens, where the former becomes facilitators
of self-development. Participation also increases
a sense of belonging, enforcing already existing
social relations between inhabitants, and finally
strengthening the community structures.
different types of implementation for the auto
construction process management and finance,
introducing possible third party actors/investors,
facilitates the development process, opening
up possibilities of housing improvement for
a wider range of slum dwellers. Furthermore,
the recasement project in Medina Errahma has
Shantytown Casablanca © Flickr/Magharebla
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Lessons Learnt from International Experiences
connections and community relations with other should be mobilised to address the immediate
real estate neighbourhoods on the south. disruptions to households.
strip along P3014 on one hand reduces this repayment and affordability for various age
problem by providing facilities for the different cohorts to avoid limiting their access by some
communities and housing estates, but on the households such as those headed by the elderly,
other hand, it can also become a barrier for the as witnessed in Madina Errahma.
neighbourhood interactions, considering the
possibilities of the commercial ground floors I household contribution of about 70% risks the
Madina Errahma. exclusion of households in absolute poverty.
classic model of the “block/cluster” repetition, can limit slum upgrading programmes to
assures a decent amount of public spaces (streets, conceptualising social exclusion as merely a
boulevard, squares) in relation to actual densities, housing problem as witnessed in the Morroco’s
but the in-block organization, based on the 8 national upgrading programme; “Ville sans
meters pedestrian access to plots seem too rigid Bidonvilles”. This can be limited by combining
and not flexible enough for possible further housing with Local economic development
densifications in the future. projects.
costs for temporary relocation will always be programmes in cities peripheries tends to worsen
affordable to beneficiaries. Therefore, even where other aspects of exclusion such as access to jobs
self-construction model is adopted, finances and opportunities.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The World Bank. 2006. Kingdom of Morocco Poverty and
Carliez, M; Daphnis, F; Mourji, F and Matasick, C. n.d. A
Social Impact Analysis of the National Slum Upgrading
Rapid Urban Diagnostic & Proposed Intervention Strategy
Program. Final Report- Report No. 36545-MOR. The World
for DIG in Casablanca, Morocco. Accessed on 27/03/2015.
Bank. Washington.
http://www.urbisnetwork.com/documents/Casablanca.pdf
ETH Studio Basel. 2015. The Inevitable Specificity of Cities.
The World Bank. 2014. Leçons du programme “Villes sans
Lars Muller Verlag. Gebunden.
Bidonvilles” au Maroc. Accessed on 25/03/2015. http://
einstitute.worldbank.org/ei/lessons-program-morocco-
ETH Studio Basel. n.d. Urban Research Project Casablanca:
french
Madinat Errahma. Draft Report. ETH Studio Basel.
Accessed on 25/03/2015. http://www.studio-basel.com/
UN Habitat. 2011. Evaluation du programme national
assets/files/031_CASA08_03_medinat.pdf
Villes sans Bidonvilles. UN Habitat. Nairobi.
La Novelle Tribune. 2013. “Villes Sans Bidonvilles”:
UN Habitat. 2012. Rapport National Résorption des
La Politique Adoptée Par Le Maroc Citée En Exemple.
Bidonvilles: L’expérience Marocaine. Conférence
Accessed on 25/03/2015. http://lnt.ma/villes-sans-
international. Sortir des bidonvilles : un défi mondial pour
bidonvilles-la-politique-adoptee-par-le-maroc-citee-en-
2020. Novembre 2012.
exemple/
Construction Site Medina Errahma © ETH Studio Basel >>
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