In 1951 the “Carrières Centrales” developments were built next to one of the largest Bidonvilles settlements to house growing numbers of rural immigrants in Casablanca. The “Cité Horizontale” was tested as a series of low-rise patio houses, while the “Cité Verticale” was tested as a series of high-rise patio houses. The idea behind this field study was to create homes for factory workers and local employees who worked in the Phosphat Factory nearby or for european housholds. However, the rent of this new housing projects was too high for most of the people living in the Bidonvilles that few could afford a flat that was “built for them.” And a the new settelments were erected, the french military became increasingly present in everyday city life. and on the constrcution site itself.

In 1952, an important march organized by the Istiqlal Party, the national liberation movement, and other anti-colonial forces took place from the Bidonvilles of Carrière Centrale, and was brutally suppressed by the French rulers. Besides the high presence of military forces, tanks and machine guns, the local police was taking part in their role to repress and terrorise the emerging independence movement. On the morning of 16 December 1952 fivehundred houses were searched in a raid of the police in the Carrières Centrale. Many people were killed. Thus, the construction of the new housing plan took place in the midst of military actions with tanks and heavily armed troops, arrests and killing.

Morocco gained its independence in 1956.