[1] The development aimed to create utopian "habitats" that would provide alternatives to slum life for working class residents of the city.

[2] Carrières Centrales, a site in the Hay Mohammadi district of Casablanca, was the first project to test Écochard's design.

[2][3] In 1952, Georges Candilis, Shadrach Woods, and Alexis Josic—the architects Écochard assigned to the project—designed a series of utopian modernist modular complexes for the site that additional educational, administrative, and religious facilities.

[2] Influenced by Le Corbusier's Unité d'habitation and the communal nature of slum life, the resulting mid-rise complexes featured highly collective multilevel living exemplified by myriad balconies.

[4][5] The site's buildings became known by the residents as Semiramis and Nid D'Abeille as references to their visual similarities to honeycombs and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon respectively.