''Carrières Centrales'' () is a series of

modernist Modernism is both a philosophical and arts movement that arose from broad transformations in Western society during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The movement reflected a desire for the creation of new forms of art, philosophy, an ...

housing developments in

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

, Morocco designed in the 1950s by architects Georges Candillis,

Shadrach Woods Shadrach Woods (June 30, 1923 – July 31, 1973) was an American architect, urban planner and theorist. Biography Schooled in engineering at New York University and in literature and philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin, Woods joined the Par ...

Alexis Josic Aljoša Josić ( sr, Аљоша Јосић), known in France as Alexis Josic (Bečej, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, 24 May 1921 - 10 March 2011) was a French architect. Son of the Serbian painter Mladen Josić, he studied architecture in ...

. The development aimed to create utopian "habitats" that would provide alternatives to slum life for working class residents of the city. Carriere Centrale has been noted as a prominent example of modernism within the

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ar, الْمَغْرِب, al-Maghrib, lit=the west), also known as the Arab Maghreb ( ar, المغرب العربي) and Northwest Africa, is the western part of North Africa and the Arab world. The region includes Algeria, ...

History

Michel Écochard was appointed Director of the of

French Morocco The French protectorate in Morocco (french: Protectorat français au Maroc; ar, الحماية الفرنسية في المغرب), also known as French Morocco, was the period of French colonial rule in Morocco between 1912 to 1956. The prote ...

in 1946. Following a multidisciplinary study of the nation's housing needs, Écochard established a plan to develop a number of housing projects for the

working poor The working poor are working people whose incomes fall below a given poverty line due to low-income jobs and low familial household income. These are people who spend at least 27 weeks in a year working or looking for employment, but remain und ...

at the outskirts of Morocco's major cities. Écochard conceived of a substantial

program Program, programme, programmer, or programming may refer to: Business and management * Program management, the process of managing several related projects * Time management * Program, a part of planning Arts and entertainment Audio * Progra ...

that included a specially designed 8 x 8 meter

grid plan In urban planning, the grid plan, grid street plan, or gridiron plan is a type of city plan in which streets run at right angles to each other, forming a grid. Two inherent characteristics of the grid plan, frequent intersections and orthogona ...

. Carrières Centrales, a site the

Hay Mohammadi Hay Mohammadi or Hay Mohammedi ( ar, الحي المحمدي) is an arrondissement of eastern Casablanca, in the Aïn Sebaâ - Hay Mohammadi district of the Casablanca-Settat region of Morocco. As of 2004 it had 156,501 inhabitants. Notable res ...

district of

, was the first project to test Écochard's design. The development aimed to provide affordable housing for individuals working in a nearby factory and French homes. In 1952,

Georges Candilis Georges Candilis ( el, Γεώργιος Κανδύλης; 29 March 1913 – 10 May 1995) was a Greek-French architect and urbanist. Biography Born in Azerbaijan, he moved to Greece and graduated from the Polytechnic School of Athens between 19 ...

, and

—the architects Écochard assigned to the project—designed a series of utopian modernist modular complexes for the site that additional educational, administrative, and religious facilities. Influenced by Le Corbusier's

Unité d'habitation {{Infobox company , name = Moldtelecom , logo = , type = JSC , foundation = 1 April 1993 , location = Chişinău, Moldova , key_people = Alexandru Ciubuc CEO interim , num_employees = 2,750 employees As of 2019 , industry = Telecommunica ...

and the communal nature of slum life, the resulting mid-rise complexes featured highly collective multilevel living exemplified by myriad balconies. The site's buildings became known by the residents as ''Semiramis'' and ''Nid D'Abeille'' as references to their visual similarities to honeycombs and the

Hanging Gardens of Babylon The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World listed by Hellenic culture. They were described as a remarkable feat of engineering with an ascending series of tiered gardens containing a wide variety of tre ...

respectively. Since their construction, many of the complex' residents have modified the buildings significantly, most frequently by walling off the original balconies.

References

{{Reflist
Buildings and structures in Casablanca Residential buildings completed in 1952 20th century in Casablanca