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This paper seeks to define a theoretical model for the urban regeneration of mass housing areas based on citizen initiative, self-management and self-financing in the form of the neighbourhood cooperative. This paper aims to identify mechanisms for economic resource generation that enable the improvement of the urban surroundings and its buildings without assuming disproportionate economic burdens by the local residents based on two principles, the economies of scale and service provision.

The research is structured in three phases: a literature review of the different trends in self-financing for urban regeneration and the conceptual framework for the definition of a cooperative model; the definition of theoretical model by analysing community ecosystem, neighbourhood-based services and the requirements for its economic equilibrium; and the discussion of the results and the conclusions.

The results show the potential of the cooperative model to generate a social economy capable of reducing costs and producing additional resources to finance the rehabilitation process. The findings show not only the extent of economic advantages but also multiple social, physical and environmental benefits. Its implementation involves the participation of multiple actors, which is one of its significant advantages.

The main contribution is to approach comprehensive urban rehabilitation from a collaborative understanding, overcoming the main financing difficulties of the current practices based on public subsidy policies. The model also allows an ethical relationship to be built with supplier companies by means of corporate social responsibility.

This study aims to present the uniqueness of the mountain oasis at the High Atlas (Morocco) and is part of a more extensive study about the landscape, the architecture and the tourist development in the Mgoun Valley. Several natural and anthropogenic factors, such as new environmental conditions and socio-cultural realities, are testing the balance of the system and its adaptive capacity. A sustainable use of water, a key element of the oasis and source of life in the region, and an optimal management of farmland will allow this culture to be perpetuated. The study of the values of this territory and its transformation vectors constitute a first step for valuing this ecosystem and being able to establish management and conservation policies.

The research is based on the fieldwork carried out over six campaigns, between September 2011 and January 2020, when interviews to the local population and graphic and photographic records of the Aït Mrau oasis were carried out. The work started from the literature review and the study of the origin of the settlement, analyzing the transformation processes, both in the cultivated plots and in the built habitat, where the urban evolution of the settlements and the characteristics of the architecture have been analyzed.

The study has revealed the existence of social, environmental and economic imbalances that affect the status of the oasis, the landscape and the architecture of the study area. The research has characterized the habitat and has identified those elements that must be preserved to guarantee the permanence of the heritage values in a way that the future development of the region was not conditioned.

The research delves into the study of a case that is paradigmatic in the context of the Moroccan High Atlas, since it shows the dynamics of transformation of a region directly affected by the climate change and by the abandonment of the traditional habitats.