Lieux et Enjeux #1 (2024/2025) –21&22 novembre 2024 – Housing production in times of conflict

09h30-17h30 – ENSAPVS
Day 1 : Salle d’Expérimentation
Day 2 : Amphi 120
3/15, Quai Panhard et Levassor, 75013 Paris

Organized by: Ahmed El Amine Benbernou (ENSAPVS, CRH-LAVUE), Ana Vaz Milheiro (Dinâmia’Cet-ISCTE), Carmen Popescu (ENSAPVS, CRH-LAVUE), Caroline Rozenholc-Escobar (ENSAPVS, CRH-LAVUE), Filipa Fiúza (Dinâmia’Cet-ISCTE), Francesca Vita (Dinâmia’Cet-ISCTE)

Synopsis

This session of the Lieux & Enjeux seminar aims to discuss the theme of housing production in periods of conflict (such as wars, armed conflicts, uprisings, etc.) in order to question inequalities, mechanisms of power and domination through the notion of conflict and colonialism, as well as the forms of resistance and emancipation practices that emerge from them.
By discussing the interaction between architecture and conflict from a historical and contemporary perspective, the idea is to discuss how conflict mobilizes housing as a tool of counter-insurgency or social appeasement? but also to interrogate the challenges of archival research on housing and geopolitical instability.
By examining case studies from different geographies and time periods, addressed by scholars from the Centre de recherche sur l’habitat (ENSAPVS), the Dinâmia’Cet (ISCTE-Lisbon) and the University Agostinho Neto (Luanda, Angola), the idea here is to understand the impact of conflict on the reconfiguration of the urban and rural environment of the territories concerned, and its export beyond these territories. The question of the debris of post-conflict housing, such as ruins or abandoned building sites, is also an opportunity to reflect on colonial heritage in the making, and the notion of resilience and mobilization of populations in the reconstruction process.

The Seminar is supported and co-produced by CRH-LAVUE (ENSA-Paris Val de Seine) and the ARCHWAR Project together with the ERC*-project ARCHLABOUR hosted at Dinâmia’Cet-ISCTE research centre (Lisbon).

Program

Day 1: November, 21st – Salle d’Expérimentation

09h15 : Welcome coffee

09h30 : Introduction

09h45 : Working session 1: Discussant: Caroline Rozenholc (CRH-LAVUE)

Architectural archives’ struggle: housing, war and gender in a colonial context
Leonor Matos Silva (Dinâmia’CET-ISCTE)
Sónia Pereira Henrique (Dinâmia’CET-ISCTE)

Abstract
This communication examines the conflicts associated with archival research on housing and wartime facilities’ projects related to gender issues. It is within this context that the debates encompassing colonial archival struggles converge. The presentation navigates the lines of historical inquiry represented by the interconnections between housing, war and gender. An examination will be made through the work of architect Alda Santos (1945- ) who was an architecture finalist in Guinea Bissau in 1969 and 1970, and was part of the ‘Urbanisation Working Group’ led by architect António Moreira Veloso. The objective is to draw on material collected at the Overseas Historical Archive and the institutional archive of the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Porto. The pursuit of this historiographic enquiry was confronted with a number of challenges, given that it entails the study of the population resettlement’s implementation records, as the ones encountered at a service commission archive ended in 1971. These included the itinerancy of colonial archives linked to urban planning practices, the difficulty in studying the organic and functional evolution of official services (which encompasses service commissions and their technicians), the physical condition of buildings and archival documents, and others as we will prove.

Keywords: Architecture archives; colonial studies; gender studies; Architect Alda Santos; Guinea Bissau

10h35 : Housing framing rural and peri-urban landscapes during the liberation wars: Portuguese Colonial Agencies and the role of architects (1961-1974).
Ana Vaz Milheiro (Dinâmia’CET-ISCTE)
Filipa Fiúza (Dinâmia’CET-ISCTE)

Abstract
In 1961, with the outbreak of the liberation wars in the Portuguese colonial territories on the African continent (Guinea-Bissau, Angola and Mozambique), the policy of dominating rural and peri-urban areas through architectural assistance programmes, such as housing, was intensified. Integrated into the civil service apparatus, architects played a crucial role in its encoding, design and implementation. However, despite being given the status of ‘experts’, recent Portuguese historiography has emphasised how little influence they had on decision-making (Brites, 2024). After all, how did they act within the protocol framework of the civil service? What was their contribution to strengthening the ‘welfare policies’ that prevailed during the conflict? Based on the professional careers of two architects – a man and a woman – who were part of official bodies based in the colonies and in the ‘metropolis’, this article seeks to establish how these agencies operated during the colonial war, the power relations between the different areas of technical expertise and the way in which mass housing outside urban cores was approached. To answer these questions, we will adopt biography as a narrative, archive material and oral history as a backdrop. The cases described here are linked to actions carried out at the Angolan Provincial Colonisation Board, an ‘agrarian settlement’ agency that dealt with European settlers and displaced rural populations, and at the Ministry of Overseas Territories’ Urban Planning and Housing Department, namely in the suburban operations undertaken in Cape Verde.

Keywords: Angola, Cape Verde, Portuguese colonial agencies, Colonial Public Works, colonial/liberation war, housing.

11h25 : Housing migrants, exporting the conflict? The case of France in the 1960’s
Laura Guérin (ENSAPVS, CRH-LAVUE)

Abstract
This communication analyses the architecture of housing dedicated to migrants, called foyers, created in the 1950s and the 1960s. It aims to compare two types of foyers, one dedicated to mainly Algerian male migrants and the other housing male migrants from the Senegal Valley River. This communication examines how the decolonial conflict taking place in Algeria appears in the architecture of foyers dedicated to Algerian male workers as an extension of the population colonial control.

Keywords: Housing Migrant, Controlling Practices, Foyer, Population colonial control

12h15 : Lunch

13h15 : Presentation and visit to the exhibition accompanying the seminar from 21 to 29 November

Architecture + Infrastructures. Questioning the contemporary landscapes. 2010-2024

13h45 : In conversation with António Gameiro by Ana Vaz Milheiro
This conversation between Ana Vaz Milheiro and António Gameiro will focus on the personal and professional experience of housing policies undertaken in Angola from the independence to the period of civil war (1975-2002).

14:45 : Coffee break

15h00 : Working session 2: Discussant: Carmen Popescu (CRH-LAVUE)

The neighbourhood. A research site for questioning the multiple agendas of colonial housing in Angola and Guinea-Bissau
Beatriz Serrazina (Dinâmia’CET-ISCTE)
Francesca Vita (Dinâmia’CET-ISCTE)

Abstract
During late colonialism in Africa, the so-called “neighbourhoods” for African workers were often conceptualised by the European apparatuses as pivotal sites for “modernisation” and control, especially in response to (times of) conflict. Their location close to larger core settlements, predominantly populated by white settlers, set the ground for ambitious “urbanisation” and “civilising” plans/programmes, under the guises of “labour welfare”. This communication will examine two case studies of neighbourhoods in Angola and Guinea-Bissau, with very different settings and timeframes, to question the agency of housing in sustaining or contesting colonial rule and rhetoric. How was housing used as a means of endurance or contestation by both colonising and colonised subjects? What was the impact of such conflicting agendas on housing plans, building materials, and later transformations?
Combining both archival material, oral histories and fieldwork, this communication seeks to use the neighbourhood as a research site to discuss how colonialism operated through housing and its mobilisation within the concepts of “development,” “modernisation” and “civilisation” in colonial and contemporary times.

Keywords: colonial neighbourhoods, housing, colonial rhetoric, modernisation, labour welfare

15h50 : Housing as an instrument of counterrevolutionary warfare. Project development and political instability in the Algerian decolonisation process
Ahmed El Amine Benbernou (ENSAPVS, CRH-LAVUE)

Abstract
In 1958, General de Gaulle launched a huge development project for French-ruled Algeria, with the aim of pacifying a country that had been embroiled for four years in a liberation revolution that the French authorities at the time described as a civil war. To achieve this, a major reform programme was launched with a number of objectives, including the goal of housing 1 million people over the next 5 years. This was to be achieved by building 250,000 houses, increasing the annual construction rate from 18,000 to 50,000 houses per year. The aim of this presentation is to analyse the reality and feasibility of such a project, especially at a time of great political and security instability. We’ll look at how much construction has actually started and how much has been achieved. We’ll also look at the colonial propaganda nature of the project and the true role of housing as an instrument of counter-revolutionary warfare.

Keywords: Colonial propaganda, Development plan, Building sites, Housing, Pacification

Day 2: November, 22 nd – Amphi 120

09h15 : Welcome coffee

09h30 Words of welcome by Nathalie BLASCO
Director of Strategic and Partnership Research at ENSAPVS

09h35 Introduction by the organizing team

09h45 : Working session 3: Discussant: Carmen Popescu (CRH-LAVUE)

Unpacking the role of housing cooperatives in the production of the late colonial landscape in Luanda and Maputo
Patricia Noormahomed (Dinâmia’CET-ISCTE)
Inês Lima Rodrigues (Dinâmia’CET-ISCTE)

Abstract
This article delves into the construction of Middle-Class Mass Housing (MCMH) complexes in Angola and Mozambique during the last phase of the Portuguese colonial occupation by exploring the role of housing cooperatives. As the public apparatus failed to respond to the increasing housing demands, the colonial state encouraged the private market to fill the gap with housing cooperatives emerging as meaningful players, despite the Portuguese dictatorial regime’s attempts to repress cooperativism.
This paper explores the modernisation and urbanisation strategies that housing cooperatives introduced in late colonial urban production by unpacking the cooperatives “Alegria do Trabalho” in Luanda and “COOP” in Maputo. It discusses how they were financed, who their target audience was and their impact on the development of middle-class neighbourhoods. It also investigates how the colonial rhetoric, the economic context, and the legislative framework influenced their activities. The analysis is based on different sources such as architectural records, oral histories, newspapers and magazines. It reveals that housing cooperatives significantly shaped the urban landscape and colonial housing experiences after the end of the Second World War and the political upheaval that led to the beginning of the anti-colonial struggle in 1961, promoting a new lifestyle and urban identity for the emergent middle class.

Keywords: mass housing, middle-class, housing cooperatives, Angola, Mozambique

10h35 : Deconstructing Ariel (West Bank): a longitudinal approach to the territorialization of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
Caroline Rozenholc (ENSAPVS, CRH-LAVUE)
William Berthomière (UMR Passages)

Abstract
The Israeli colony of Ariel was founded in 1978. In 1998 – only 20 years later – it acquired city status (only three other colonies located in the West Bank have such status: Modiin Illit, Maale Adumim and Betar Illit). Today, it has about 20,000 inhabitants. It is both one of the most developed Israeli settlements and one of the most deeply established in the Palestinian occupied territories. We propose to discuss it, here, following a longitudinal approach to contribute to a better understanding of the territorialization of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

We will discuss Ariel through what we call “different determinants of action”: from a spatial point of view (a geography of action in the Palestinian territories occupied by a segment of the Israeli population – but which one? – and by the Israeli authorities), from a cartographic point of view (the representation of the territory and the representation of the possibilities and/or obstacles to the geo-spatial resolution of the conflict; A. Dieckhoff showed, as early as 1987, the role of “separation of Samaria” that this entity was called upon to play), from the point of view of the commitment of researchers in a field whose sensitivity is only growing from the 1990s, as evidenced by the corpus of data produced by Palestinian and Israeli NGOs denouncing the construction of a colony embodying the socio-spatial dynamics of the conflict.

The essential questions of housing and population (origins and diversity), but also of territorial planning are at the heart of the bundle of structuring actions which add to the complexity of the analysis. Ariel is, in fact, part of a road and public transport network which connects it to a whole set of “outposts” of colonization, but also to the economic and cultural capital that is Tel-Aviv. It became, for many, a suburb of Tel-Aviv where to live and where from to commute. More so over that Ariel is also a major “spot” for higher education with a well-endowed Israeli public university (twenty-six departments, three faculties, three schools). The recent territorial extensions of Ariel, implementing planning elements defined in 1991, demonstrate the relevance of a longitudinal approach to the determinants of action to understand what does Ariel tell us – its existence, its establishment, its deployment over more than forty years, its changes in status, the services from which it benefits, its housing policy – about the Israeli and Palestinian territories and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Keywords: Ariel, Occupation, City building, Housing production, West Banks, Population policies

11h25 : Urban planning and habitat under the French protectorate in Morocco. Ethnographic study of urbanization in two cases in Morocco, Casablanca and Berrechid (1912–1956)
AbdelMadjid Badaoui (ENSAPVS, CRH-LAVUE)

Abstract
The protectorate treaty, from France to Morocco, is the basis of a new urbanization, in fact from 1912, “open” European style cities appeared juxtaposed with the old intra-muros medinas, the case of Casablanca, – the same colonialist urbanization policy is practiced in Fez, Meknes and Marrakech -, while other new cities built ex nihilo and ad hoc, the case of Berrechid. In both cases, the different architectural styles were experimented with: in the city center, the orthogonal urban plan of streets, avenues and various spaces, squares and gardens, the buildings in the art deco, Moorish and hybrid style; on the other hand, on the outskirts it is another world, from working-class housing, social housing, private construction to slums; archipelagos group together, most of which without any development, because they are considered outside the urban perimeter.

Keywords: Colonial town planning, European city, Working-class housing, Slum, Casablanca

12h15 : Community Participation in Post-Disaster Reconstruction Projects: Insights from Research and the Syrian Experience
Wael Naaseh (CRH-LAVUE)

Abstract
This presentation addressed the challenges facing reconstruction projects in Syria, particularly the “Marota City” project, which highlighted the lack of coordination with the local community, financial transparency, and the centralized decision-making process. It also examined how the war deepened the gap between the economic elite and marginalized groups, leading to the exclusion of affected residents and neglect of their basic needs. The presentation concluded with the need to enhance community participation, achieve social justice, and establish transparent and inclusive policies for sustainable reconstruction that reflects the needs of all. 

Keywords: Community Participation, Damascus, Post-Conflict Reconstruction, Social Justice, Resilience, Marota City, Participatory Decision-Making

13h05 : Closing of the seminar and lunch time

14h30 : Study Visit (to be confirmed)
“Exporting the conflict to mainland France – the example of workers’ housing”.

Fundings

“ArchLabour – Architecture, Colonialism and Labour. The role and legacy of mass labour in the design, planning and construction of Public Works in former African territories under Portuguese colonial rule”
(ERC 101096606)
“ArchWar. Dominance and mass-violence through Housing and Architecture during colonial wars. The Portuguese case (Guinea-Bissau, Angola, Mozambique): colonial documentation and post-independence critical assessment”
(PTDC/ART-DAQ/0592/2020)
UMR – LAVUE (CNRS n° 7218)

*Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the granting authority. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them

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