From Colonial Tool to a Nation-Building Instrument: The “Service de l’urbanisme” in Morocco

Morocco’s postwar urban planning history is closely tied to the “Service de l’urbanisme” (SU), established in 1947 by the French Protectorate and initially led by the French architect and urban planner Michel Écochard. This paper shifts the focus from Écochard’s overlighted contributions to the SU as an institution, examining its role from its foundation during the Protectorate to its evolution through and beyond Écochard’s tenure and after Morocco’s independence, as a tool for empowerment and a testing ground for innovative housing projects and a first generation of local architects and experts. Drawing on unpublished local sources from Morocco and private collections (correspondence, textes juridiques, archival drawings), as well as interviews with key figures from the SU’s post-independence period, this paper analyzes correspondence, legislation, and archival drawings to shed light on major urban planning projects, housing initiatives, and official publications. These materials are critically examined in relation to the agency’s evolving role, from a colonial instrument of pacification to a tool of emancipation in the state’s nation-building project.