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Framing the Afropolis Michel Ecochard and the African City For Luce Beeckmans 076 Tom Avermaete 077 elkaars belangen steunden. Het is in dat opzicht sche droom van een nette en monumentale projected on a variety of terrains. The trajec- betekenisvol dat Frankrijk een geprivilegieerde stad zoals belichaamd in de Franse en Belgische Framing the tory of Michel Ecochard will illustrate that partner van de Congolese overheid bleef, stadsplanning, meer dan ooit te leven onder these new urban experts not only developed a ook toen Mobutu begin jaren zeventig Congo’s de Kinois. Afropolis new toolbox of attitudes and approaches, but economie nationaliseerde in een poging om Vertaling: Johan Lagae moreover redefined the meaning of existing zich te ontdoen van het nog steeds grote aantal concepts and instruments against the back- buitenlandse handelaars en ondernemers, dat Michel Ecochard ground of their transnational development in het land actief was.29 Frankrijk was sterk practices. betrokken in het financieren en optrekken van and the African diverse gebouwcomplexen voor de president Developing a New Toolbox for en zijn entourage, ook al zou Mobutu zich niet City for the Urban Planning altijd een even betrouwbare partner tonen, Though Ecochard had already been interna- door bijvoorbeeld ook belangrijke bouwcontrac- Greatest Number tionally active since the beginning of the ten te gunnen aan China. De MFU van haar 1930s (among other places in Syria), the kant verloor in de loop van de tijd haar statuut main breakthrough in the development of his als een transparant instrument voor stadsplan- toolbox of instruments and approaches came ning en een actor in het opbouwen van lokale Michel Ecochard’s biography reads as a in the 1940s and 1950s within the context expertise. fascinating tale of events, people and places.1 of the French Protectorate of Morocco. From In de tijdspanne waarbinnen de MFU actief Ecochard was educated as an archaeologist, its establishment in 1912, the development was in Kinshasa, groeide de stedelijke bevolking architect and urban planner in France, prac- of the Protectorate was inextricably bound aan van 700.000 in 1965 tot 2.500.000 in 1977. ticed in such places as Morocco, Senegal, to the creation of ten villes nouvelles. The Deze verstedelijking voltrok zich nagenoeg Pakistan and Syria, played an important role planning of new cities such as Casablanca, volledig zonder aansturing via een effectieve in the formulation of ‘habitat’ policies for the Rabat, Fes and Marrakech was a key element stedenbouwkundige planning, maar werd in United Nations, and collaborated with well- in the ‘valorisation strategy’ that Resident realiteit aangedreven door een massale toe- known designers, among them Le Corbusier, General Lyautey devised for the Moroccan ëigening van de ruimte door de inwoners van Constantine Doxiadis, Maxwell Fry and Jane territory.2 This particular understanding of de stad. Toch betekent deze afwezigheid van Drew. Though at first glance this professional the role of the city within the larger colonial een planning van bovenaf en het achterwege trajectory appears quite exceptional, I argue political project continued to exist until the laten van een officieel beleid op het gebied van in this text that the figure of Ecochard is middle of the 1940s when the availability of landeigendom nog niet dat deze ontwikkeling representative of a new sort of urban expert 1.1 billion dollars under the Marshall Plan ‘informeel’ valt te noemen, of dat ze compleet that became active on the African continent in triggered Resident General Erik Labonne to chaotisch was. Het koloniale stadsgrid werd the period between 1950 and 1970. This new 1 vaak door lokale chefs uitgebreid, niet zelden in figure no longer plays the role of the local An introduction to the work of (master’s thesis, University Michel Ecochard can be found of Ghent, 2004); César Vabre, overleg met landopzichters en lokale besturen. designer working in the field of well-known in the articles by Eric Verdeil, Michel Ecochard : L’influence Op die manier werden grote gebieden aan cultural, social and political forces. Rather among others: ‘Michel du climat dans la démarche Ecochard in Lebanon and du projet architectural de rand van Kinshasa geparcelleerd. Tegelijk he is an international development expert Syria (1956-1968). The spread (Paris : Ecole d’architecture hielpen dergelijke chefs bij het optrekken van that operates in a variety of geographical and of Modernism, the Building of de Paris-Belleville, 2007); woningen en publieke voorzieningen zoals cultural contexts and engages relentlessly with the Independent States and the Marion Leclercq and 30 Rise of Local professionals of Marie-Jeanne Dumont, markten, scholen en kerken. In afwezigheid new fields of actors and energies. One of the planning’ (to be found on L’autre – Michel Ecochard, van een overkoepelende planning, versterkte most important characteristics of this novel Internet) and also in Joe Nasr 1905-1985 (Paris: Ecole deze verstedelijking ‘van onderuit’ opmerkelijk type of urban expert is that he – by necessity and Mercedes Volait (eds.), d’architecture de Paris- Urbanism: Imported or Belleville, 2007); Nathalie genoeg het belang van de koloniale infrastruc- – makes use of a set of specific concepts, Exported? Native Aspirations de Mazieres, ‘Homage’, tuur, alsook de ruimtelijke logica van de raciale methods and instruments that allow him to and Foreign Plans. Environmental Design: Journal (West Sussex, England: of the Islamic Environmental segregatie die langzamerhand werd vervangen 29 30 perform within these altering contexts. This Wiley-Academy, 2003) and Design Research Centre, no. 1 door een economische en sociale stratificatie. Over deze nationalisatie van Dit proces van verstedelijking not only encompasses approaches by which Eric Verdeil, ‘Une ville et ses (1985), 22-25 (to be found on Congo’s economie, die bekend in Kinshasa wordt besproken in: Vandaag, op een moment dat de rol van de knowledge can be established about a variety urbanistes : Beyrouth en the Internet). staat onder de term ‘zaïrianisa- Marc Pain, Kinshasa: La ville et reconstruction’, Strates, no. 11 2 officiële stadsplanning nagenoeg helemaal lijkt tion’, zie: Isidore Ndaywel è la cité (Parijs: Orstom, 1983) of conditions, but also planning methods that (2004). As well as in: Joos Van Other cities were Meknes, uitgehold en er een alomtegenwoordig gevoel Nziem, Histoire générale du en De Maximy, Kinshasa, Ville allow for the engagement of local decision Den Dool, Le rôle profession- Ouezanne, Port Lyautey Congo. De l’héritage ancien à la en suspens, op. cit. (noot 19). nel de Michel Ecochard en (now Kenatra), Sefrou, heerst van stedelijke crisis door een voortdurend République Démocratique makers, architects and constructors, as well architecture, archéologie et en Settat and Taza. falen van de stedelijke hardware, lijkt de utopi- (Parijs: Duculot, 1998), 729-730. as architectural types and models that can be urbanisme français à l’étranger Tom Avermaete 078 Een kader voor de Afropolis / Framing the Afropolis 079 aannemers èn om bouwkundige prototypes en appoint Michel Ecochard to develop a firm characteristics of the terrain and a critical Een kader voor de modellen die op allerlei locaties kunnen worden urban policy.3 positioning of these within a broader political, neergezet. De loopbaan van Michel Ecochard It was especially the perception of economical, social and cultural context. Afropolis illustreert dat deze nieuwe stedelijke experts niet Casablanca as a ‘potential center of nationalist Their important role in Ecochard’s planning alleen een nieuw instrumentarium aan opvattin- fervor’4 that drove Erik Labonne to support practice becomes clear from the large amount gen en methoden hebben ontwikkeld, maar dat Ecochard, name him the director of the Service of surveys that were performed by the Service Michel Ecochard en ze via hun transnationale ontwikkelingspraktij- de l’Urbanisme, and endow him with ‘virtually de l’Urbanisme. Examples can be found ken bovendien de betekenis van bestaande dictatorial powers and . a generous budget’.5 in the various articles of Ecochard, in the de Afrikaanse stad concepten en instrumenten opnieuw hebben Ecochard and an acclaimed team of architects book Casablanca. Roman d’une ville (1955) gedefinieerd. and planners from France were instructed to and in the large presentation given at the voor het grootste study the urban structure of Morocco and the 9th Congres Internationale d’Architecture Nieuw stedenbouwkundig problems with informal housing – the so-called Moderne (CIAM) in Aix-en-Provence in aantal instrumentarium bidonvilles – in ‘the heartland of the colonial 1953.13 At this CIAM meeting Ecochard, Hoewel Ecochard al sinds het begin van de jaren enterprise’,6 that is Casablanca. Between 1952 together with the architects of ATBAT- dertig van de twintigste eeuw internationaal and 1960, the population of Casablanca had Afrique, offered a detailed investigation of actief was, onder andere in Syrië, vond de grote grown by 41 per cent. By 1952, rural immi- the situation in some of the urban poles in De biografie van Michel Ecochard leest als een toepassing van zijn instrumentarium en metho- grants constituted 75 per cent of the city's Morocco and its underlying rationales. spannende roman van gebeurtenissen, mensen den plaats in de jaren veertig en vijftig van de population, creating a range of urban prob- It is typical for Ecochard that a variety en plaatsen.1 Ecochard studeerde archeologie, twintigste eeuw, tijdens het Franse protectoraat lems.7 Industrialization and the refusal of the of methods is used to come to terms with the architectuur en planologie in Frankrijk, oefende van Marokko. De ontwikkeling van het protecto- Protectorate government to improve rural urban condition. A first method that is applied zijn beroep uit in uiteenlopende streken als raat was, sinds zijn instelling in 1912, onlosmake- living conditions led to an increasing urban in the survey consists of a quantitative analysis Marokko, Senegal, Pakistan en Syrië, speelde lijk verbonden met de creatie van tien villes immigration.8 of urban phenomena like the distribution of een belangrijke rol bij de formulering van het nouvelles.
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