Life after mining
Context:
Nowadays, where urbanization and population rates are multiplying while leading to an increase in cities and metropolises. On the other side, there are several cities and regions that are facing an opposite trend, of serious urban decline, which leads to an increase in vacant land and abandoned structures, with many urban, social and economic damages.
This is what the Oriental region of Morocco has experienced, with in particular the city of Jerada, a border territory created mainly by the mining industry, which has considerably weakened its economy and currently constitutes a serious threat to its future.
By the way, Jerada is the first in terms of its size, it is the best-known mining city in Morocco, with the greatest impacts, its mine closure problem is not limited to economic and financial issues. It is also a social, political and ecological problem. Perhaps Jerada has more damage, but it also has the best chance of being ‘revived’.
Project:
The reconversion of Jerada should not be reduced to a simple architectural reconversion of a wasteland, but must act on several gradual and complementary scales, from macro to micro: first with an intervention at the regional level, which aims to open up the city and reconnect it to its regional context not just at the level of infrastructure but as an area of interest for the oriental region, followed by an intervention at the city level with a restructuring plan that will focus on:
An economic development program, the improvement of the city’s housing stock, public spaces and mobility, and the rehabilitation of some wastelands of the mining industry. Then an intervention at the neighborhood level with an upgrading program. The goal of these interventions is that they are complementary to each other, in order to succeed in regeneration.
Beyond these territories already in decline, we must also remember that we are a country that is called upon in the coming years to close other similar cities.
