Interpretation of de Saharan facade, from traditional to contemporary: Case of individual houses of the Bechar town-Algeria

Abstract

The town of Bechar is one of the examples of Saharan cities that formed from human settlement called "Ksar". It has subsequently been significant urban expansion dating from the colonial era to the present. Thus constituting a diversity in its urban fabric, recalling the traditional fabric "Ksourien", the colonial urban fabric, and finally the urban fabric that came after the independence. One of the representatives of any architectural language materializes in the facade. This element seen from the exterior, it expresses the values and criteria for the architecture used in the design of a fabric. Yet it also determines a real expression of the contents of the building and its architecture from its structure and elements that compose it. The Interpretation of the facade into the architecture of the city Saharan "Bechar" tells us in its development and its components, and this through its three modes of interpretation, that of traditional architecture "Ksourienne", colonial architecture and finally how to interpret contemporary. The traditional facade "Ksourienne" and saw the expression of blindness that we provided, giving way to open another front on the interior of the "Ksar" house. It provides both thermal comfort of the home and the social aspect of intimacy. Its composition shows timidity in the architectural expression, however, reveals a genius designer of Arab-Muslim society in Ksar architecture. The development of the facade was guided by the use of new architectural trends from modernism. In the colonial mode of interpretation, she try to find the appropriate model that can integrate into the nature of the Saharan environment, using the concept from the front which preceded that of Ksourian architecture. The present facade in its content, expresses a composition of two different languages. She calls the elements of modern architecture and elements related to the local building culture, which is a result of reading this type of hybrid facades