Casablanca: Colonial Myths and Architectural Ventures

by Jean-Louis Cohen, Monique Eleb

Casablanca is a city of international renown, not least because of its urban structures and features. Celebrated by colonial writers, filmed by Hollywood, magnet for Europeans and Moroccans, Casablanca is above all an exceptional collection of urban spaces, houses, and gardens. While it is true that Casablanca developed as a port city well before the introduction of the French in 1907, it unquestionably ranks among the most significant urban creations of the twentieth century, attracting remarkable teams of architects and planners. Their commissions came from clients who were interested in innovation and modernization, thereby fostering the emergence of Casablanca as a laboratory for legislative, technological, and visual experimentation. Having studied the city for ten years, Jean-Louis Cohen and Monique Eleb trace, from the late nineteenth century to the early 1960s, the rebirth of a once-forgotten port and its metamorphosis into a teeming metropolis that is an amalgam of Mediterranean culture from Tunisia, Algeria, Spain, and Italy. The extensive presentation of the significant buildings of this hybrid city -- where, alongside the French, Muslim and Jewish Moroccan patrons commissioned provocative buildings -- is drawn from French and Moroccan archives, including hundreds of previously unpublished photographs. Cohen and Eleb focus as much on Casablanca's diverse social fabric as its urban spaces, chronicling the clients, inhabitants, and inventive architects who comprise the human component of an essential yet overlooked episode of modernism.

480 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Jean-Louis Cohen (20 July 1949 – 7 August 2023) was a French architect and architectural historian specializing in modern architecture and city planning.

Reviews

[Arnold Wentholt · Rating 5 out of 5]

This impressive book by Jean Cohen and Monique Eleb is a monumental work and the definitive book on this subject. The authors have greatly contributed to the view that the architectural ventures in Casablanca need protection instead of being badly maintained or destructed. Regrettably, it is too late already. The city which had the most, and most beautiful art-deco buildings in the world, already lost 40% of it. And many historic buildings, so well designed, so pretty, and so incredibly luxury in their time, nowadays are in a bad shape.

This book is a real gem. It’s core subject is about architecture, but at the same time it is about history and the live of people as well. People who dreamt of shaping the future. People who listened to the radio station of Nouaceur, the U.S. military base, and who were years ahead in adopting the passing trend of “Tahiti”-style, long before Saint-Tropez did.

The book is chockfull of attractive photos, beautifully typesetted, and I simply can’t recommend it enough.