Cultural Urban Heritage at the Challenge of Urban Planning Policy: Rabat and Casablanca as Example (1912-2018)

Abstract

Cultural heritage in Morocco, has become one of the factors of local development, it is framed by texts of specific laws, but it is often the subject of multiple legal interpretations even contradictory by overlaying other law governing other areas, especially as regards urban regulation. It is being debated by heritage architects who challenge its implementation as a conservative solution. The approach of safeguarding, conserving, restoring or rehabilitating domestic buildings is not considered as a regulated action, except for a few restorations of classified monuments, and finds in some conservation solutions a solution for maintaining a heritage image! This new approach to the wider patrimony, which no longer stops only at the monument, but becomes an urban project carried by the actors, has cast hope for its care, in the years to come, because until now only a few intellectuals and initiates have argued for its safe-guarding. The title of the theme tends to present the heritage as the origin of all difficulties in the planning of the city. This text is written to demonstrate that it is not the heritage that is problematic but rather a set of actors, who tend, by their power of persuasion and action to undermine the identity of the new city in Rabat. Heritage is considered the main urban component. Beforehand, it seems appropriate to recall the history and development of heritage management in Morocco and France and confront them with the different urban planning laws that Morocco has seen parading since the arrival of the Protectorate. As a result, we conducted an analysis of historical documents taken from Rabat's archives dating from the protectorate period, as well as interviews with individuals (architects, design office, landowners ...) who are linked to projects that we will analyze.