Redeveloping urban fringe areas in south Mediterranean: the case of ‘grands projets’ in Moroccan agglomerations

This paper develops the theme proposed in the workshop by concentrating on a specific category of built heritage, which is urban fringe areas of the agglomerations of South Mediterranean, with particular reference to Morocco. In these contexts, affected by strong and fast metropolisation process, intervention on urban fringes mostly match new big urbanisations that substitutes or, more rarely, complements pre-existing settlements with urban renewal intents. Often these interventions are labelled as “grands projets” and they are produced by national neoliberal politics linked with global capitals that see in outskirts of the city especially investment occasions. This paper examines conditions that make grand projets possible in terms of public policies and planning tools and shows principals critical issues in terms of environment, urban morphology (creation of insular textures strongly decontextualized), social conditions (additional marginalisation of weakest population groups). Final remarks invite to reflect on an integrated and contextualised urban project notion as a working path for the construction of coherent new settlements that they are also more adequate to the Moroccan population’s demand of city.