For many people a visit to Casablanca is more of a disappointment. Where is all that romantic flair from the 1940s movie? Where's the ambiance of a cute little harbor town? Nowhere! In fact, Casablanca was only founded a bit more than 100 years ago by the French and is mostly characterized by long boulevards, endless streets lined with modernist white facades; pretty much for the sake of the name: Casablanca means nothing else but “white house” in Spanish.
The major landmark, of course, is the impressive Hassan II Mosque with the highest minaret in Africa and a light beam that points to Mecca every night. I really recommend having a look at it. Outside of the prayer times you can join a tour. But what about the rest? If you get a bit more involved with the city and its history, you will discover many hidden places from famous architect villas to impressive belle epoque buildings.
The Bauhaus-like architecture with its round corners, stretchy streamlines and functional interior is one of the main features of Casablanca and the best reason for lovers of modernism to come here. Urban planner Henri Prost saw the city as a kind of laboratory where he and his followers could create a new kind of city from scratch. He then came up with a clear division between the “oriental” medina and the European modernity in the villes nouvelles.
All in all, most of the buildings look quite similar at first glance and combined with a large slum belt as well as drugged up kids sniffing glue in the streets, it doesn’t strike the visitor as much as places like Marrakesh, Essaouira, or Chefchaouen. But after having having walked the boulevards and seen the Hassan II mosque, there are still some hidden attractions in Casablanca.
Because, come on: A city with more than three million inhabitants must have some attractions for people to move here. A big part of it is the architecure of Casablanca.
Architecture
MAMMA. Modern Map
A great idea to discover the modern architecture of Casablanca is to follow the “Modern Map” made by MAMMA.
(AXA Insurance Building by Zevaco)
This association is dedicated to preserve the city's modernist architecture and to point out historic buildings designed by famous architects like Pierre Jabin, Marius Boyer, Elie Azagury, Jean-François Zevaco, Edmond Brion, and Henri Prost. If you follow the tags on the map, you can stroll through more than 100 years of modernist architecture with early Art Déco and Art Nouveau façades, Bauhaus-inspired functional balconies, perfect streamlines following Le Corbusier’s ideas, and eventually the Brutalist masterpieces, often fallen from grace nowadays, but with a history worth exploring.
Buildings
Cinéma Rialto
Some of the earliest modernist buildings date back to the French belle époque and art déco time. In the first quarter of the 20th century, mainly French architects like Henri Prost directed the construction of monumental facades and perfect streamlines with great focus on detail. One example for this type of architecture is the Cinéma Rialto, which was built in 1929.
When walking into the oldest part of the ville nouvelle, you can’t really miss it. The round corners and the huge letters saying RIALTO in ochre red immediately catch the eye. The building is a masterpiece of the early French architecture in Casablanca, here represented by Pierre Jabin.
(Historic ville nouvelle)
In the past, it was a popular meeting point among the French and Moroccan elites. Until today, you can enjoy watching films in an historic setting with space for almost 1,300 people. That said, some knowledge of Arabic or French is pretty useful to be able to follow the plot.
Location: Right at the corner of rue Bouchaïb and rue Mohammed El Quorri, Cinéma Rialto
Zevaco’s Heritage in Casablanca
Jean-François Zevaco is by far the most important architect leaving his footprint in Casablanca. Being a Casablanca-native with French roots, he grew up with the modern development of the city and learned about modernist approaches during his studies in Paris. Returning to Casablanca, he and his partner Paul Messina opened their own office and started working with different influences. In the 1950s, Zevaco joined the Group of Moroccan Modern Architects (GAMMA) – which is commemorated by the MAMMA map –, and became one of the emblematic figures of this movement.
Agadir Street Market
Enjoy Zevaco’s brutalist work, for instance, by strolling around the Agadir Street Market in Casablanca. It was inaugurated in 1974 and reminds a bit of a petrol station – also a type of building Zevaco designed quite a few times during his career. Noticeable are the multiple roof layers copying huge parasols and the circular entrances and shop windows, now colorfully decorated.
(Source: إيان, Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Location: Rue d’Agadir, Casablanca, Agadir Street Market
AXA Insurance Building
Just a short walk away from Agadir Street, you will find the impressive AXA Insurance building, which Zevaco designed between 1977 and 1979. The main feature of this construction is the tessellated structure of the windows. Looking from the front, their hexagonal shapes add up to what looks like a bee hive to the observer. After taking a look at the AXA building from the other side of the street, step a little bit closer and view up to the parallel rows of windows – you’ll get some pretty good perspective for pictures.
Location: 120 Ave Hassan II, AXA Insurance
Villa Zevaco and Chez Paul
In 1947, Zevaco and his colleague Paul Messina built the Villa Sami Suissa, today named Villa Zevaco in the cosmopolitan Anfa district. Being abandoned for a long time, it now houses a boulangerie and restaurant of the French chain PAUL. If you come here in the morning, you can start your day with a typical North-African breakfast: mint tea, white bread, honey, oil, pancakes, jben cheese, and olives. On the way to bathroom or pastry shop, also take a look at the exquisit staircases and wide terrace on the second floor.
Location: Right at the roundabout at Bd Moulay Rachid and Bd Abdelkrim al Khatabbi,Villa Zevaco
Elie Azagury
While for a long time, the modernist architecture circles in Casablanca were dominated by the French, fairly soon Elie Azagury became the first ethnically Moroccan in the GAMMA movement. After the country's independence, he even began to lead the institution and worked hard to counter orientalist ideas like his predecessor's opinion that Moroccans can not live in high-rises. For him, going vertical was one of the main aspects of modern urban planning. He started to create Derb Jdid in the late 50s, a special housing project with characteristic cubic blocks in the suburb of Hay Hassani.
Another famous heritage of Eli Azagury are the Roches Noires: Inside this quarter far in the East of Casablanca, Azagury designed the Roches Noires Schools, which buildings remind of traditional Tamazight desert tents. Today, the area is known as Ibrahim Roudani School and occasionally you can attend tours to adore the modernist architecture here.
Location: Derb Jdid
Hubous Market
When it comes to shopping, Hubous market is a must. Just like the villes nouvelles, it has a special history. Created in 1916 by Albert Laprade and Henri Prost, it was supposed to be a new medina, a modernized, cleaner type of an indigenous village, where the locals would sell their products in a more organized way to the French population. One means of distinction here was that Arabs and Tamazight wouldn’t be able to live in high rises – therefore, Prost & Co. integrated a special organized mess for the non-French population, simultaneously serving as a sort of orientalism for the colonialists.
(Source: Milamber, Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Elie Azagury, the first ethnically Moroccan architect inside the GAMMA movement, later countered this deeply ingrained attitude. Hubous itself was eventually seized by the locals after the French left and turned into a genuine Casablanca place. Not far away from the sultan’s palace, the bazaar soon turned into a very vibrant spot, where you can find all kinds of spices, food, textiles, metal goods and carpets. Most of the shops open from Monday to Friday and the afternoon hours are the best time to stroll around. In the evening, you have the chance to grab some delicious Moroccan mint tea or some hearty tagines.