Between modernization and identity: colonial social housing as a specific theoretico-practical corpus of colonial architecture – the case of Tetouan (Morocco, 1912–1956)

From the beginning of Spain's occupation of northern Morocco (1912–1956), the urban planning of the colonial government gave rise to an urban periphery of slums and squatter settlements outside the planned city. Aware of its responsibility, the Spanish colonial government developed a social housing policy which aimed to ensure decent housing for all families, while acting as propaganda that symbolized the modernization promoted by the colonial power. The colonial housing was reserved for Spanish and Moroccan officials and for families unable to access decent housing within the private system. In the case of Spain, technically and financially limited as a colonial power, this action cannot be regarded as a comprehensive state policy responding to all real social needs. Nevertheless, it did constitute a major theoretical and practical advancement in thinking about the modernization of Moroccan housing, and a corpus of the colonial architecture in and of itself. This was a unique development when compared with that of other colonies, particularly French Morocco, with its noticeably smaller and less rational development. In order to analyse the colonial social housing in northern Morocco, the case chosen is that of Tetouan, the political and economic capital.