Algeria is one of the most important countries in North Africa. Its vast territory and its ethnic and cultural background have favoured the creation of a diverse urban and architectural heritage, offering a variety of expressions of identity. From Tell to the Sahara, this heritage has forged Algeria’s cultural identity. The Sahara has long been described as a place of passage and a barrier separating the Mediterranean world from Africa proper. It presents a space that obeys very specific social and cultural representations, which have certainly been reflected in the built environment. In fact, sedentarisation in Algerian Saharan areas has inherited human settlements called ksour (plural of ksar), which perfectly reflect the ingenious relationship between the ancestral culture of social groups and the geographic constraints of the site. Indeed, the natural safety of the site (such as the difficulty of accessing the terrain by enemies as a strategy of self-fortification), water supply (location on wet site), and trans-Saharan trade, are the main conditions influencing the creation and multiplication of human settlements. People’s representation in the area of the Sahara has given many ksour a local identity that they have maintained throughout history. Today, and because of the cultural, economic, and technical transformations that have affected the majority of contemporary Saharan societies, the question of identity expression is more topical than ever. The issue that emerges in the light of this situation concerns the “means” that may express identity and cultural benchmarks for these societies, particularly since they are constantly evolving. Identity, by its nature, is difficult to pin down with concepts and definitions, although many of its features are apparent. It is used in many fields of research and has a wide variety of meanings. In architecture and urbanism, identity is linked to the environment, including tangible and intangible components. It covers a set of values, images, and meanings that define the local particularity of the context. This context is geographically delimited and socially occupied by social groups who share certain cultural characteristics. On this basis, it was interesting in this paper to search for the relevant “means”used to express the physical identity of the built heritage. This research axis is very promising, considering that the affirmation of people’s identity is often related to their heritage and transmitted from generation to generation. In this regard, vernacular houses, as a human product belonging to a specific cultural sphere, are expected to become a source of and even a “means” for understanding local identity. It is thus possible to recognise the specific identity features of social groups. The present research attempts to understand how and by which “means” the vernacular houses would be the expression and affirmation of the identity of a social group located in a given region, and what would be the essence of that identity and its relationship to place. To achieve this objective, the Souf region seemed an appropriate area for investigation. This Saharan region in south-eastern Algeria has a particular and noteworthy built heritage. What distinguishes the Souf vernacular architecture from other Algerian Saharan regions are its houses with central courtyards and arcades, and above all, the exclusive and widespread use of an original roofing system dominated by domes and barrel vaults. This is why El Oued, the capital of the Souf, was called by the writer and journalist Isabelle Eberhardt “the city of a thousand domes”. It should be noted that this expression, which betrays Eberhart’s admiration for the exotic landscape of the city of El Oued, is poetic and is intended to express the large number of domes observed in this Saharan city rather than an exact count of these covering elements. Isabelle Eberhardt’s expression is of major importance for the object of the present research, as it reinforces the heritage value of the locality of El Oued and can be attributed to all the settlements of the Souf. From this, other secondary questions can be raised; for example, if the physical aspects that gave rise to the signs of local identity are primarily limited to the curved roof (domes and barrel vaults), why did the inhabitants of the Souf adopt precisely this system of roofing for their houses to distinguish themselves? And how do physical aspects express local identity, group identity, and, by extension, place identity? What are the origins and references of identity?
ISSUES IN THE EXPRESSION OF LOCAL IDENTITY IN THE SAHARAN REGIONS OF ALGERIA: IN SEARCH OF REFERENCES TO VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE
alessandra cirafici;Sami Zerari
;
2022
Abstract
Algeria is one of the most important countries in North Africa. Its vast territory and its ethnic and cultural background have favoured the creation of a diverse urban and architectural heritage, offering a variety of expressions of identity. From Tell to the Sahara, this heritage has forged Algeria’s cultural identity. The Sahara has long been described as a place of passage and a barrier separating the Mediterranean world from Africa proper. It presents a space that obeys very specific social and cultural representations, which have certainly been reflected in the built environment. In fact, sedentarisation in Algerian Saharan areas has inherited human settlements called ksour (plural of ksar), which perfectly reflect the ingenious relationship between the ancestral culture of social groups and the geographic constraints of the site. Indeed, the natural safety of the site (such as the difficulty of accessing the terrain by enemies as a strategy of self-fortification), water supply (location on wet site), and trans-Saharan trade, are the main conditions influencing the creation and multiplication of human settlements. People’s representation in the area of the Sahara has given many ksour a local identity that they have maintained throughout history. Today, and because of the cultural, economic, and technical transformations that have affected the majority of contemporary Saharan societies, the question of identity expression is more topical than ever. The issue that emerges in the light of this situation concerns the “means” that may express identity and cultural benchmarks for these societies, particularly since they are constantly evolving. Identity, by its nature, is difficult to pin down with concepts and definitions, although many of its features are apparent. It is used in many fields of research and has a wide variety of meanings. In architecture and urbanism, identity is linked to the environment, including tangible and intangible components. It covers a set of values, images, and meanings that define the local particularity of the context. This context is geographically delimited and socially occupied by social groups who share certain cultural characteristics. On this basis, it was interesting in this paper to search for the relevant “means”used to express the physical identity of the built heritage. This research axis is very promising, considering that the affirmation of people’s identity is often related to their heritage and transmitted from generation to generation. In this regard, vernacular houses, as a human product belonging to a specific cultural sphere, are expected to become a source of and even a “means” for understanding local identity. It is thus possible to recognise the specific identity features of social groups. The present research attempts to understand how and by which “means” the vernacular houses would be the expression and affirmation of the identity of a social group located in a given region, and what would be the essence of that identity and its relationship to place. To achieve this objective, the Souf region seemed an appropriate area for investigation. This Saharan region in south-eastern Algeria has a particular and noteworthy built heritage. What distinguishes the Souf vernacular architecture from other Algerian Saharan regions are its houses with central courtyards and arcades, and above all, the exclusive and widespread use of an original roofing system dominated by domes and barrel vaults. This is why El Oued, the capital of the Souf, was called by the writer and journalist Isabelle Eberhardt “the city of a thousand domes”. It should be noted that this expression, which betrays Eberhart’s admiration for the exotic landscape of the city of El Oued, is poetic and is intended to express the large number of domes observed in this Saharan city rather than an exact count of these covering elements. Isabelle Eberhardt’s expression is of major importance for the object of the present research, as it reinforces the heritage value of the locality of El Oued and can be attributed to all the settlements of the Souf. From this, other secondary questions can be raised; for example, if the physical aspects that gave rise to the signs of local identity are primarily limited to the curved roof (domes and barrel vaults), why did the inhabitants of the Souf adopt precisely this system of roofing for their houses to distinguish themselves? And how do physical aspects express local identity, group identity, and, by extension, place identity? What are the origins and references of identity?I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
