Riad Kherdeen to present “Cold War Architecture and Urbanism in Agadir: Modernism, Decolonization, and Catastrophe” at UPP seminar series Urbanisms of the Global South: Nuances, Particularities, Implications
Introduction
This research explores the reconstruction of Agadir, Morocco, after the 1960 earthquake as a pivotal moment in the
entanglement of modernism, decolonization, and Cold War geopolitics. It analyzes the competing masterplans—one
by the American firm Harland Bartholomew and Associates and another by Pierre Mas and Jean Challet for the
Moroccan Service of Urbanism—framing the city’s rebuilding as a site of ideological and architectural struggle. This
work argues that technocratic modernism, shaped by seismic risk and state authority, perpetuated colonial planning
legacies under a postcolonial guise, raising critical questions about power, design, and the politics of reconstruction
in twentieth-century Morocco.