Casablanca, 20th century city, crossroads of influences focuses on the products of urban planning and architecture in Morocco’s largest city from the period between 1920 and 1975. It is “a fusion of African culture (more precisely North African culture), European culture and American culture”. Where Rabat leans more towards the neo-Moorish styles of the early 20th century French, in Casablanca the modern movement in architecture and other avant-garde trends such as art deco and brutalism, and urban planning principles such as housing projects were applied. After the French bombarded this port city in 1907, it had almost to be rebuilt from scratch. Therefore, the proposal compares Casablanca with the planned 20th-century cities of Brasilia (Brazil) and Chandigarh (India).

I spent a late afternoon in the city center of Casablanca looking for this 20th-century heritage. No specific buildings are named in the Tentative Site description provided by Morocco. Given the scope as described above, it is unsure whether the Hassan II Mosque (of a later date, 1993) is part of it. I relied mostly on Wiki’s Architecture of Casablanca for suggestions and checked out several buildings on foot. The first one was the Central Post Office, a not-too-noticeable construction in what looks like a mix of Neo-Moorish and Art Nouveau. It lies at Mohammed V square, together with a few more buildings from the same era in a similar style such as the Bank Al-Maghrib and the Wilaya Building.  

From that square, I walked southward to the Liberty Building (pictured), probably the foremost example of 20th-century architecture in Casablanca and one of the first skyscrapers in Africa (completed in 1951). It took a 1.5km hike through the city's unpleasant streets, which reminded me of the big cities in India: too crowded with people, and filthy public spaces. Along the way, I noticed some stores in Art Deco style and the peculiar Jassim Building. I approached the Liberty Building from the backside and it looked in a terrible state. Its front however has nice curves and can be photographed well from a traffic island in the roundabout in front of it.

One must have a great intellectual interest in modern architecture and urban planning to appreciate this site. Other people (including myself) will prefer the 'softer' Rabat.