Alger au 19e siècle, croissance par fragments : Histoire d’une Formation urbaine

Algiers in 19th century, growth by fragments: History of an urban formation

Abstract

This article focuses on the history of the formation of the city of Algiers in the 19th century. It explores the transformations at work in the structure of the city at this historical moment, which corresponds to the beginning of the colonization that Algeria experienced, with the adaptation of urban forms to the changes that occurred. Through the morphological analysis of the urban fabric of the city in its first extension, it questions the fragment as a new unit of intervention in the production of urban space. It shows the modalities of articulation between the units to ensure, a posteriori, the coherence and organicity of the overall level of the city.

In fact, the novelty in the formation of the city is in the introduction of the fragment as a unit of intervention, regulation and production of urban space. Historically, it was during the 18th century that the transformation of urban form emerged and the theoretical research of the Enlightenment on architecture and the city began. In the various writings of this century, fragmentation is often evoked as a loss of organicity of the city and any collective meaning. Aesthetically, the fragment is a concept that concerns literature, poetry, philosophy, and architecture. Present in every work, it imposes itself through its dynamism by articulating itself with other fragments. It becomes the seed of a future work. The assembly and montage of fragments allows the constitution and development of a homogeneous whole. How did the fragment shape the city of Algiers in the 19th century? Is what we will try to understand throughout the work. The hypothesis of our research is that the urban formation of Algiers in its expansion during the 19th century occurred through a series of operations spread over time. The coherence and structural continuity of the city at the global level is not thought of a priori. It is obtained a posteriori.

Through the analysis of five samples, our work consists of reconstructing the process of city formation. This is carried out through an analysis of graphic and photographic documents (maps, plans, dated postcards, etc.) and various studies and bibliographic sources on the subject. The selection of examples is made starting from the first extension of the city which represents, with its monumentality, the perfect image of this 19th century. The sequence proposed to capture these changes has an element of arbitrariness. It is neither linear nor chronological. It is linked to the vagaries of the management of the city by the military, to territorial constraints and according to the documents at our disposal.

The analysis also revisits the historical and theoretical origins of the emergence of the fragment as a means of producing the city. Our approach consists of cross-referencing the results of the analysis of the plans with the written sources and the built reality. The aim is to establish the different moments in the shaping of the city that alternated and the logic underlying the combination of fragments to reach the global level. The research concludes by showing that the fragmented city of the 19th century can serve as a matrix for creation by combining it with representations of heritage and the modalities of the act of building today’s cirties.