The architects of the reconstruction of Agadir
The main architects who participated in the reconstruction of Agadir are drawn largely from the modernist movement. They are called « the breaking architects ».
ElieAzagury (1918-2009):
Moroccan architect, born in Casablanca, he graduated from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. After the independence, he became president of the Order of Architects of Morocco (1958-1971). ElieAzagury played an important role in the reconstruction of the city of Agadir.
Ecochard Michel (1905-1985):
He studied at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. Then he became an architect, archaeologist and planner. Then, he was appointed Director of the Planning Department in Morocco under the French Protectorate. In 1930, General Lyautey used his talents to implement a new modern city center in Agadir, on a horseshoe-shaped route from the waterfront, precisely from General Kettani Avenue, previously called Lyautey.
Mourad Ben Embarek (died in 2011):
Emblematic figure of modernist Moroccan architecture. In 1956, barely 27 years old and freshly graduated from the School of Fine Arts and the Special School of Architecture in Paris, he became the first Moroccan to integrate the Moroccan administration of urban planning and habitat. He is also the founder of the first Moroccan architecture magazine (A + U). Nicknamed « the architect of New Agadir », he is the planner of the city after the earthquake.
Tastemain Henri (1922-2012):
This French architect graduated from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. In 1950, he settled in Rabat where he worked as a consultant architect for the cultural and academic mission in Morocco. Therefore, he is an emblematic figure of the modern movement in Morocco in the 1950s and 1960s.
He designed the building A in Agadir in collaboration with Louis Rioux.
Jean-François Zevaco (1916 – 2003):
is a French architect born in Casablanca, he graduated from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris. He is an emblematic architect of the brutalist style. In Agadir, he created the central post office, the fire station as well as many schools and staff housing.
In 1980, he was awarded for its “band villas” with the price Aga Khan of architecture that distinguishes excellence in architecture in Muslim societies.
Mourad Ben Embarek said of him: « probably the most original architectural work and in the same time the most authentic one of our time. I will insist on the latter if I were not afraid of lessening the qualities properly « modern » in the international sense of this architecture. (…) I think the architect Zevaco is the Moroccan architect who interpret the best the lesson of traditional Moroccan architecture … No doubt, his achievements are Moroccan in shape, balance and in the nature of their volumes. It is this architecture that has the best chance to be a part of the Moroccan urban landscape. »
Other architects also participated in the reconstruction of Agadir as Louis Rioux (Building A), Claude Verdugo (wholesale market), Henri Prost (the « New Agadir » harbor), Pierre Coldefy (wholesale market), Patrice de Mazières, and AbdeslamFaraoui, Armand Amzallag…
If Le Corbusier was not directly involved in the reconstruction of the city of Agadir, he inspired many architects who participated in it.
