This article attempts to analyse the socio-spatial effects of the forced relocation of the inhabitants of Douar Akrach, a shantytown in the peri-urban commune of Ain El Aouda in Morocco. It questions the evolution of neighbourhood relations in the new relocation area, as well as the forms of territorial appropriation carried out by the inhabitants in both domestic and intermediate spaces in the context of eviction to the metropolitan periphery. It also explores the diversity of situations in which the social ties and urban skills of the inhabitants are con- structed or deconstructed, thus revealing a ‚bottom-up‘ construction of the city through strategies of circumvention, diversion, and silent mobilisation.