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whether a second phase would be able to do more than just
promote a physical implant of a few new houses. The response
over the past decade has been spectacular. The second phase
has not only successfully confounded the skeptics, but also
won the unique distinction of a second Aga Khan award for
Architecture in 1995.
In an amazing amalgam of public and private, the Muni-
cipality of Tunis, the ASM and the ARRU have succeeded in
reducing the enormous population densities in the old wekalas,
dealing with the displaced through a sensitive resettlement
scheme. Rehabilitation of the structures through credit schemes
have worked extremely well in all but the rent-controlled non-
owner occupied structures. The success of the project in 1995
in nudging the government to finally remove the rent-control
law has effectively lifted the remaining obstacle to comercially
financed rehabilitation of these non-owner occupied rental
units.
Hafsia II is a financial, economic and institutional suc-
cess. Cross-subsidies have made the project financially viable
as a whole. The rates of return on public investment have been
high. The multiplier effect of private to public funds has been
of the over 3 to 1. All of this has been accompanied by a
sensitive treatment of the urban texture, and an integration of
the old city with its surrounding metropolis. It is a project
worthy of study and emulation.
The case of Fez
The project for the rehabilitation of the old medina of Fez
is an example of how a carefully designed operation can weave
the different strands of all the various aspects discussed in this
essay. It represents the most comprehensive effort to date to
deal with the problems of a dense medina, one that is on the
World Heritage List.