Interview Patrick Kasingsing
Images MAMMA Group
Hope your team is doing fine despite the pandemic! Please introduce yourselves.
Thank you for your kind invitation. My name is Lahbib El Moumni, I’m an architect and co-founder of MAMMA (Memoire des Architectes Modernes Marocains). We are an NGO founded in 2016 focused on highlighting, archiving, and preserving the modern architecture of Morocco between the period of 1950 to 1980.
School us in a bit about how modernism arrived in Morocco. What makes Morocco’s localization of modernism in art, design, and culture distinct?
As you know, Morocco’s localization stands in the meeting point between Europe and Africa. Its close relationship with Europe made it a potential site for the development of modern architecture. Casablanca for instance, the largest city in Morocco was considered as the laboratory of modern architecture.
In the period of the French protectorate (1912-1956), many European architects came to Morocco as an opportunity to express their creativity. They had carte blanche to imagine modern buildings with the newest extraordinary technologies invented at that time. Famous architects like August Perret, Marius Boyer, and many others helped to shape new cities with a modern identity. Casablanca holds the largest collection of Art Deco buildings.
According to historian Jean Louis Cohen, different experiments with concrete (a new material in use at the time) made by Perret in Casablanca helped Oscar Niemeyer build his amazing vault structures in Brazil. Morocco since then never stopped developing and connecting to the world through architecture. Different styles and movements of architecture are represented today in Morocco in urbanism and architecture.
What are the prevailing attitudes towards heritage architecture in Morocco?
Like most southern countries colonized in the first half of the 20th century, the population and states neglected this heritage—defining it as a colonist product and not representative of the country’s identity.
Preservation was very difficult to address right after the independence of Morocco. Many buildings have been demolished, and after a fight between different professionals and NGOs, this modern heritage has finally come to the attention for preservation and to be used in different ways. The Moroccan modern heritage from 1912 to 1950 has more recognition and value today, but there’s still a lot of work to do when it comes to the post-colonial heritage between 1956 and 1980.
MAMMA’s work today is focused on awareness regarding this modern heritage of this period specifically. We make the information about these buildings available to the public, not just the professionals. The idea is to make people love this heritage through the different cultural and social events we do, as well as through social media and television.
What are some of the victories or notable achievements scored by your team for your cause?
In 2018, we organized for the first time the Heritage Days of Agadir, a city that was completely damaged in the 1960 earthquake and rebuilt in five years by Moroccan architects. It was built with Charte d’Athènes principles and is considered the biggest collection of brutalist architecture in Morocco. It was an opportunity for us to bring the authorities and the citizens together to visit, talk about, and celebrate this modern heritage. The two days were filled with free building tours, debates, conferences, workshops, and music celebration. This event is very dear to us as we had more than 380 visitors. We helped get these buildings more attention and value in the eye of the people of Agadir.
We have also celebrated the 100th anniversary of two of the most important architects of the period: Jean François Zevaco and Elie Azagury. Celebrating their work puts a spotlight on the characteristics of modern buildings in our country.
The last is a Modern Map of Casablanca highlighting 50 of the most important modern buildings in the city. It is a guide that emphasizes the different styles and programs built upon the independence of Morocco.
There is still a long way to go, but we believe that each project we do to make people aware of the importance of heritage is a step closer to its full recognition and preservation.
Residential art deco building in Casablanca by Edmond Brion (1935) – Photographed by El Mahdi Meslil Nid d’Abeilles and Sémiramis – Residential buildings at Carrieres Centrales by Atbat Afrique (1950-53) © MAMMAARCHIVE – PH – Photographer unknown (1952)
As mostly architects yourselves, how has your view of your field of practice changed upon being part of MAMMA? Based on your research, how has the practice of architecture in Morocco changed from then to now? Would you say that things have changed for the better for the field?
You are right about this. I believe that a lot has changed. We get a lot of messages from young architects today who support our actions, and we can even see their work is inspired by modern Moroccan architecture. What is important for us is not only to educate the eye of the public to see the beauty in the architecture but also to raise more pride for Moroccan architects working today and get their attention back toward their heritage.
There are many lessons to get from this period and many questions raised back in the day whose answers are still being worked on. For instance, a very important one is the question of identity: how can a building be Moroccan but modern at the same time? A lot of us still consider modern to only be western and never Moroccan.
What’s the most challenging part of your job, as an independent advocacy group?
The most challenging part is always the fight we give for each project, mainly in getting the authority’s attention to our work. We believe that we cannot make considerable progress if we only address the people because, in the end, actions on the future of the buildings we seek to protect lie in the hands of the authorities. By the authorities, I refer to the municipality and its mayor — entities that are not easily accessible and require a lot of convincing.
Another challenge is to get the right funding for each project. We are now putting more focus on this matter so we can maintain our activities and make a bigger impact.
We’ve seen how lively and open the initiative is in interfacing with other modernist and modern architecture advocacy groups worldwide. How did having a network of supporters aid your cause? Would you say that the fight to save modern built heritage is a global one?
It is amazing to see how modern architecture can bring people together from different countries. Social media makes it easy. We share our heritage not only with our city or Morocco but worldwide, and this helped us also to connect with many organizations that have mutual interests and goals. This gives us more support and recognition. It is also very important for us to learn from different experiences worldwide.
The fight to save modernist buildings is indeed global, but it appears that our continent has a much longer path to take to get the same attention as modern heritage has in Europe for example.
What would you consider a barometer of success for your initiative?
Our barometer is the clarity of our approach and goals. Also, we believe that no one can save this heritage but the people who live and experience it every day, so the success of each event is tightly related to accessibility.
It is encouraging to frame heritage architecture through the lens of adaptive reuse, especially in a world faced with climate change and resource scarcity. What do you suggest local government or private sectors can still do to promote the reuse of heritage buildings as opposed to their destruction for redevelopment?
This issue has been around for a long time. In the eyes of the local government, our work is not helpful to development but serves to block investments. The debates we organize and meetings we have with them is to suggest adaptive functions to reuse the buildings, highlighting that heritage can never be preserved without giving it a sense of life or a new life. So we encourage injecting new functions in abandoned buildings like offices, hotels, or other facilities instead of demolishing them for new developments.
It is refreshing to see such a young team of like-minded folks helm a heritage-driven advocacy. As this issue is dedicated to heirlooms from our past, what would you say is the most valuable lesson, quality, or characteristic espoused by the modern movement you are working to preserve that future Moroccan creatives can learn from?
We’ve learned a lot from our research and archiving work. Today, the world is more stripped away of its humanity and is more interested in making fast, productive work. Simply looking closely at the drawings of modernist architects somehow makes time stop, pushing us to think more deeply about our role as builders of a human-environment that need more attention and detailed thought.
The work of Zevaco for example is astonishing. He made hundreds of sheets for each project filled with details of things to design—from the door handle to the choice of trees that depend on shades and wind—and by looking at his work, it gives us the motivation to be more honest and attached to what we do as architects.
I only have a day in a Moroccan city. Which city and what modernist landmark should I go visit?
Casablanca for sure is the city you have to visit! Its downtown area has a collection of buildings from 1910 to 1980, all accessible within a two-kilometer perimeter. The landmark you should definitely visit is the brutalist Postal Sorting Office, built back in 1978. •
Your introduction to Moroccan Modernism over at mammagroup.org and @mamma.group on Instagram
