Let's go together to discover three neighborhoods in the west of Casablanca: the residential district of CIL, the neighborhood in full restructuring of Oulfa and the city of El Hassani, which constituted in the 60s, just after Independence, the first experiment of social housing led by Moroccans for Moroccans.

Four kilometers from the city center, at the foot of the Anfa Hill, the CIL district is one of the residential areas of Casablanca the most popular. It was built under the Protectorate, from 1952 by the "Comité Interprofessionnel du Logement", a real estate consortium which gave its name to the district. The district was renamed "Hay Essalam" in the 80s but the inhabitants continue to call it by its old name.

The neighborhood is organized around a school of the French Mission, the Georges Bizet School designed by the great Casablanca architect Jean-François Zevaco, and a small covered market. Around it, radiate many small villas with gardens, with neat architecture.

On the other side of Boulevard Sidi Abderahmane, the current district of Hay Hassani was before Independence a predominantly rural area. Most of this area was originally covered by agricultural land where European settlers were able to practice their peasant activities on large farms. One of these farms gave rise to the Ferme Bretonne district from 1948.

The district only experienced its true urbanization at the end of the French Protectorate when it was structured to replace the Derb Jdid shantytown. The latter grouped together an estimated population of 20,000 inhabitants on an area of 80 hectares. On June 11, 1958, a huge fire destroyed nearly two thirds of the shantytown's barracks, killing three people and injuring several hundred. More than 20,000 people were left homeless. The Moroccan authorities launched a gigantic social housing construction project that was inaugurated by the late Mohammed V. It was one of the largest rehousing operations since Independence.

Today, the Hay Hassani district is very densely built, its population exceeds 100,000 inhabitants with 400 inhabitants per hectare. Its urban structure is in a checkerboard pattern, organized by parallel axes. Social and urban diversity is increasingly important there thanks to the installation of a tramway line. Let's discover it together with CitizOn !