casablanca

ho chi minh city

crossed portraits

Daydream. On one of these rainy and cold West-European afternoons, as a good little child in her room, I am keeping

my imagination busy. I suddenly stumble upon a worrisome vision. In my ten-year-old head, towers rise at an impressive

pace. In a dark and oppressing atmosphere, those ghosts draw a gloomy skyline. From my ten-year-old eyes, those

thousands of concrete pillars symbolise the end of culture. Where am I? There are no clues to tell; no specific shape,

smell or colour that would recall to somewhere. Could this be the City of London? Manhattan? Maybe Dubai or even

Singapore? Each and every world city has its own lot of indistinguishable skyscrapers - and this innocent vision I had

could be an image of any of those metropolises.

Since this very afternoon, every tower that I come across announces me that this dream - or nightmare - is bluntly

coming true. Nightmare. This city has no soul, no taste. Who can dream of a town drained out of its life? Who wishes to see empty

streets supplant places built out of exchanges, feelings, words and hopes?

Every time I travel to a new city, I find them again - with a slight variation on the shapes and shades - massive and

dazzling. And at their feet, the same void failing to be filled and worn by life. All these cities echo this question in my

mind: who wishes for these places?

PROLOGUE

ThE ciTy: sOUL Of a ciTizEn’s idEnTiTy

this vision reminded me that people are proud to claim they are from a city, that they belong to it and influence its culture. the shapes, colours, smells of a city are the fruits of this passionate conversation between the population and its built environment. and people are deeply attached to the specific image of their city.

amongst my travels, i never felt what “being from a city” really meant as much as in casabLanca, morocco and hO chi minh ciTy, Viêt nam.

here and there, towers and modernist urban dreadnoughts impose their aesthetic canons derived from international best practices to both landscapes and citizens. but there and here, local identities are fierce, backed by citizens’ attachment to the soul and image of their city, and their resilience to dramatic changes is materialized in surprising reappropriations of places.

this is not another indictment of the smart-city and its skyscrapers. yet, it is necessary to both address the reproduction of this concept notwithstanding the vernacular morphology of cities, and question the tangibility of its effects for urban populations.

because, to you, Bidaoui, what makes casablanca; its modern but decaying buildings, its harbour or its medina? maybe its population - street vendors, night workers, white-collars all rubbing shoulders but carefully avoiding each other? you, bidaoui, where do you feel bidaoui? When freeing your mind on the rocky shores behind hassan ii mosque or finding your way in hay hassani? if you could change something to casablanca, what would it be?

and you, Saigoneer, what makes your city’s identity: its fragmented colonial heritage or the steady presence of the bitexco tower in saigon views? What do you share with the other 8 million souls that wander its streets? Where do you free your mind after hours of commuting: at the crescent mall or along nhieu loc-thi nghe canal? you, saigoneer, what city do you imagine for your children?

“casablanca ho chi minh city - crossed portraits” aims at penetrating the intimacy of cities under critical urban change and which alarmingly rediscover their urban heritage.

by initiating a conversation between two metropolises that are subject to the same hopes and fates, the project intends to compare urban issues and solution and to view them from the citizens’ experience.

exploring the two cities through the citizen’s eye will enable this project to seize their diverse identities and understand the complexity of the dynamics founding them.

While current urban policies seem to reorient developments away from the spontaneity of life, it is important to remind urban makers that citizens are not just consumers - of goods, places, services or experiences - but real actors in city-building processes. because they give life to casablanca and ho chi minh, their voices deserve to be heard more.

Furthermore, in a context of increased territorial inequalities due to spectacular urban growths, isolated initiatives led by concerned citizens endeavour for causes that appear vital for both cities’ future. casamémoire is at the avant-garde for inventorying, saving and promoting

Why & hOW

The exhibition will propose Casaouis and Saigoneers an opportunity to rediscover their city.

Meetings will bring together actors from Casablanca and Ho Chi Minh in each city in order to examine comparisons and think of future cooperations.

The book will be conceived as an exhibition catalogue. It will develop the main highlights of the project.

All along the project, urban explorations will help diversify the perspectives on both cities.

casablanca’s urban heritage. Vietnamese prominent architect Vo trong nghia is striving to green ho chi minh.

this project is resolved to promote these innovative ideas amongst cities of the « global south ». building bridges between them will contribute to drawing the public’s attention on the necessity to take action for the common good that the city is.

the starting point of our exploration will be the fertile grounds where these initiatives root. From places, streets, piazzas and other urban objects designed by political decisions, we will stride along both cities with their inhabitants and users (passers-by, street vendors, artists). We will listen to their stories; we will observe the modalities of the re-appropriation of spaces to understand their relation to citizenry.

We will also meet the makers of the city - those who are entitled to play this role - in order to have a glimpse of how they conceive the construction of the metropolis.

at the different scales of the city, we propose a discovery of the silent forces that move and organize the society in casablanca and ho chi minh city.

this exploration will be based on written tales, photo and video reports, all accessible on the Website. as a conclusion to this project, we will set up an exhibition by the spring 2017 along with the edition of a book and the organisation of meetings.

casablanca and ho chi minh are singular cities in their respective regions. both of them are unique urban creations of the 20th century. places of experimentation for French and international town planners and architects, their spectacular growth were firstly correlated to the colonial presence.

conceived as economic capitals, they continue to assume this role today and concentrate financial flows alongside with jealousy from more traditional cities that bear the national identity. as such, they are rarely considered for their urban heritage in front of marrakesh, Fes, hanoi or hue. in the end, casablanca and ho chi minh struggle to captivate interests: their fates seem sealed as they are stray cities on the modernist path that no one can - or want to - stop.

casablanca and ho chi minh belong to two different geographical and cultural areas. at first glance, they have nothing in common. yet, we see this original comparison as a way to both diversify urban experiences and break with alarmist visions. Why not listen to the cities’ whispers, look for their silent mutations and, maybe, come upon parallel melodies? in both cities, our senses find their bearings: images, sounds and smells echo from one place to the other and invite us to explore the roots of these resonances.

bridges can be built between these two territories, these two civilisations which histories are rich of conflicts, exchanges and syncretisms. exploring their differences, casablanca and ho chi minh can learn from each other.

WaLTz fOR TWO ciTiEs

province de ho chi minh

municipalité

10 kmbasemap © Google 2015

basemap © nasa

basemap © nasa

basemap © Google 2015

10 km

municipalité

Wilaya de casablanca

With more than 7 million inhabitants, casabLanca is comparable to european metropolitan cities. located on the atlantic front, it is an ideal step in exchanges between europe and africa. yet the city paradoxically struggles to balance its development and endures it with much difficulty.

its exponential demographic growth, the spread of informal housing together with real estate speculation and road traffic congestion all lead to the city’s economic paralysis.

casablanca becomes a city of crude antagonisms where the cohabitation of the very rich with the very poor only generates social tensions.

in the south east asian archipelago of world-cities, with its 8-million souls, hO chi minh ciTy (still called saigon) has a similar place to casablanca in the mediterranean.

the renovation policy - Doi Moi - introduced in the late 1980s was mainly based on urban renewal, taking inspiration from singaporean, Korean and Japanese neighbors. the so-called « transitional city » is today engaged in a modernisation process that affects its urban morphology and associated traditional uses.

however, some announced measures to liberalize the economy bode the reinforcing of socio-spatial inequalities. as international stories have shown, these growth opportunities also have pernicious effects that should be anticipated as soon as possible.

Fed with images of the smart-city where an all-technology closes off the road to coincidence, romance and poetry, casablanca and ho chi minh are at a milestone. Further choices in urban policy will be decisive for the future of the cities and their populations.

While today’s world is marked by a merciless race towards « modernity », which model do casablanca and saigon choose? that of post-modern cities, or palimpsest cities made out of ancient structures superposed the ones to the others with no logic, no horizon line? Will these cities be designed for the citizens or only for commuters? What is the meaning behind the regular replacement of old buildings that marked the history of cities by glowing towers? What do casablanca and saigon do of their complex heritage; how do they integrate it into their urban projections?

at the smaller scale of the street, how do citizens live their respective cities and their transformations? What are their representations of the cities, how do they dream them, what do they expect from them?

these round trips between casablanca and saigon, between the metropolitan and human scales, between the different groups of actors, between the experience and the dream, will grasp the multiple identities of the cities. breaking with the strict replication of trending models, this project will participate in asserting these identities’ central role in the future development of the cities.

ThinkinG TOmORROW

abOUT ThE PROJEcT

beside working on a comprehensive understanding of the cities, we will orientate the conversation between casablanca and ho chi minh on specific themes.

ciTiEs and haRbOURsFor both these cities the port is the historical driver of

growth. the sea for casablanca and the river for saigon have been - and still are - essential elements of the urban landscape and the popular representations of the cities. yet, urban renewal plans privatise the littorals and redraw these relations. Where do the population transfer their activities and relink with the water?

URban GREEnERiEsGreening the cities has never been so trendy in Western

countries. its virtues are praised in regard to citizens’ well-being or resilience to climate change. in casablanca and saigon, urban strategies are not yet that green. here and there, parking lots and roads behead trees and replace parks. Who’s fighting against the domination of concrete in the cities?

ThE niGhT’s GLORiEsnighttime is a forgotten subject of studies. yet it is

overflowing with life. in the dark, women and men are busy preparing the next day - or forgetting the last one. Who are the night’s lovers? What is the metamorphosed scenery of their life?

ThE PLayabLE ciTyUrban populations of both cities are mostly young, but

what do we know of their experience? how do the kids take possession of their environment to form themselves? how do they entertain in places designed exclusively for working adults?

ERRaTic ciTizEnsWhen the image of the future city looks alike George

orwell’s 1984, we can turn to the people and places that disrupt common rules to discover the reality of a city profoundly hostile to some parts of its population.

TakE acTiOn!

currently in the research phase, our main efforts are concentrated around the gathering of previous works done on both cities. now in ho chi minh, we are starting to explore the city’s daily life.

during this period fertile for new meetings and experiments, we are open to all those who, sensitive towards their urban environment, can join forces and help us compose an accurate portrait of the cities.

• artists whose working material is the city. Whether you are photographer, film-maker, writer, poet, musician, plastician, your aesthetic lens on the urban is interesting to us;

• Researchers, journalists: your knowledge is precious to understand how historical, economic, social and political forces shape the cities;

• Locally involved organisations, your implication in the improvement of citizens’ well-being will be taken into consideration. everyday, you are confronted with the hardness of the urban realm that also composes the identity of cities;

• Local governments, town planners, architects, engineers, landscape architects, real estate agents, your experiences as « makers » of the cities are essential to this project;

• Lovers - or haters! - of the cities, why don’t you tell us what makes casablanca and saigon so special to you?

• eventually, private or institutional organisms, you can get involved in the future of the two cities of casablanca and ho chi minh by financially supporting us: you can help us cover our running costs, our working material acquisition costs and our communication strategy expenses.

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myriem alnetUrban plannerdate of birth: 06/03/1989citizenships: French & moroccan

role: project managercurrent location: ho chi minh city, Vietnamphone number: +84 122 874 9816email: myriem@anordinarycity.com

in short: arab revolutions bursted while i was finishing a masters in international relations. reading an invitation to travel, i started my journey across the middle east, halting in the cities where it began. i then enrolled in a town planning masters in london eager to better apprehend our cities. after a collaboration with an architecture practice, i decided to involve myself in this original project. i wish to bring a sincere, realistic and humane perspective on two cities seemingly so different but which, i believe, have so much to share with one another. i the meantime, i will build my own vision of the city on the field, inspired by its people, daily life and soul.

PROfEssiOnaL EXPERiEncEsaWp office for territorial reconfiguration - Urban planner. paris, France 2014

eGis France, research department - research intern. lyon, France 2012

the Jerusalem post, French edition - intern Journalist. Jerusalem, israel 2010

areVa - intern communication officer. la hague, France 2009

PROJEcTs & OThER acTiviTiEsblogger for ‘an ordinary city’ - anordinarycity.com 2014/15

young architects competitions “smart harbor: pesaro” 2013

Founding member of tatallu’ât student association - sciences po toulouse 2010/12 association promoting urban cultures from the mediterranean region in toulouse

EdUcaTiOnUniversity college london, bartlett school of planning. london, UK. 2012/13 msc planning, design and development

toulouse institute of political sciences. toulouse, France 2007/12 masters in international cooperation and development 2010/12 bachelor cycle in political sciences 2007/10

PROfiLEs

PROfEssiOnaL EXPERiEncEsGroup3 architectes - architecte. rabat, morocco 2015

défi_expansion design - intern designer. Geneva, switzerland 2014

eckert eckert arkitekten - intern (competition). Zurich, switzerland 2012

212 conception - intern (competition). casablanca, morocco 2012

design to Users - intern (competition). milan, italy 2011

PROJEcTs & OThER acTiviTiEsmena region communication officer for “iGlUs” 2014 research & educational project on the governance of urban infrastructure systems

epFl - assistant in building physics to the first year students 2013/14

member of the “ingénieurs et architectes du monde” association 2012/2014

home 2.0 epFl - analysis of the digital home exhibited at the shanghai 2010 eXpo 2010

EdUcaTiOnswiss Federal institute of technology (epFl), lausanne 2007/14 master of science in architecture 2012/14 architecture cycle: bachelor of science in architecture 2008/11 special mathematic course 2007/08

Kamil haJJiarchitectdate of birth: 26/10/1988citizenship: moroccan

role: delegated manager in moroccocurrent location: casablanca, moroccophone number: +212 696 43 67 78email: kamil@anordinarycity.com

in short: as a Bidaoui, i have always had a love-and-hate relation with casablanca. i grew up with mix feelings of irritation towards its absurdities and attachment for its unique bursts of life. yet, i left the city for switzerland for about 7 years. now back in casablanca, i rediscover the city with the eyes of an architect and find it even more captivating. this genuine comparison between casablanca and saigon is a true opportunity to explore alternative ways for their future development.

a proJect FeatUred by

‘an ordinary city’

For FUrther inFormation, please contact:

myriem alnet

myriem@anordinarycity.com

anordinarycity.com