RIBA PART 1 ARCHITECTURAL ASSISTANT

How Colonial Architecture was used as a method to categorise the people of Algiers and its effects it has on Algeria today.

My dissertation explores the various impositions made to the built environment of Algiers, with particular interests in the Casbah. I compare how the Ottomans and French shaped the city, and deduce its immediate and long-term impacts on Algiers’ infrastructure. Along side these comparisons, I introduce observations from; the film, ‘The Battle of Algiers’ directed by Gillo Pontecorvo; an interview conducted by myself with a resident of the Casbah, Chouki Traiki and Le Corbusier’s proposal for a new fantasised city, Plan Obus. The observations aim to synthesise various perspectives and interpretations, of the Casbah which will indicate the ‘reality’ of how Algerian people lived and continue to live in the city. I then deduce whether the shaping of the Casbah during its colonised years has left a positive or negative impact on the infrastructure of Algiers and its people.