THE IMPACT OF COLONIAL ARCHITECTURAL AND URBAN PRINCIPLES ON HOUSING AND URBAN PLANNING OF THE CURRENT ALGERIAN CITIES. CASE OF M’SILA
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Date
2013
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Abstract
Architecture is the mirror through which we look at a society, its specificities, culture and identity. However in Algeria, like
everywhere else in the Arab world, urban architecture generally and the domestic architecture in particular are at the
crossroads, between the anvil of the cultural identity and the hammer of modernity. Due to the colonization, the Indigenous
urban and domestic models of Hodna region, specifically the city of M'sila- considered to be like antiquated, exceeded and
retrograde by the political elite- have evolved to give models similar to those of western colonial culture - currently recognized
as contemporary and international in the direction of modern and modernistic. However, domestic models transmitted from the
French colonial civilization did not reflect the identity of the Algerian user and his way of living. The spatial practices were in
disagreement with the social practices.
The present paper aims to show the imprint left by the colonial city on the current Algerian city. It also attempts to show with
which conceptual gymnastics, M’silis adopt these colonial architectural spaces so that they answer as well as possible to their
way of life, their culture and their modern aspirations
Description
Courrier du Savoir scientifique et technique – N°17, 61-70, Décembre 2013
Keywords
Domestic architecture, colonial architectural model, modernity, urban principles, Hodna area, Algeria