During the French colonial period (1830–1962), Algeria saw the introduction of modern architecture and urban planning, particularly in Algiers. In the late colonial period, however, the most pressing issue was the coexistence of the ‘Colons’, who had lived in the country for several generations, and the original habitants ‘Muslims’. The late colonial period pertains to when Jacques Chevalier, who was elected mayor on the promise of ‘coexistence’, was in charge of the city of Algiers from May 1953 to May 1958 and promoted the type of urban planning he had assured. The French architect Fernand Pouillon was invited for ‘coexistence’ urban planning and realised the ‘three districts’ of Diar es-Saâda (1953), Diar el-Mahçoul (1954), and Climat de France (1959). One of the concepts of the three districts was ‘Moorish architecture’ (hispano-maurisque )—a fusion of Roman and Islamic elements —which developed in the Iberian Peninsula and the Maghreb region. Indeed, Pouillon tried to reflect on the unique spatial characteristics of the region as a living space for Algerians, including Muslims. However, such attempts have often been criticised for their limitations.
The purpose of this study is to clarify the characteristics of the three districts of Algiers, as officially advocated by Pouillon, by critically examining the location of each district, spatial composition, urban architectural elements such as ornament, the idea of symbiosis, and the process from planning to realisation. This study is a historical research. Primary sources include the minutes of the city council meetings of the time, texts, photographs, and drawings published in the city's public relations magazines and articles in architecture magazines. Additionally, several magazine articles by the Japanese Banshoya Gyoji, who was in Algiers at the time, will be used as the primary source for this paper.
First, I will summarise the existing studies on Moorish architecture, especially the book, ‘Moorish Architecture in Andalusia’ and construct and present an analytical concept for the evaluation of the three districts (Chapter 2). As for the process from planning to realisation, I will use the minutes of the city council meetings published in the Bulletin Municipal de la ville d'Algers, articles on urban planning in the Bulletin and its successor, Alger Revue, as well as architecture-related sources such as Chantier and other architectural magazines (Chapter 3). This is then supplemented by Pouillon's autobiography, ‘Mémoire d’un architecte’, which is rich in content and contains his subjective but more concrete spatial ideas and value judgments (Chapter 4). As for the planning analysis, based on the above-mentioned primary data, the plan of each district is modified to create a base map, and then the photographs of each part are compared and analysed item by item (Chapter 5). In conclusion, it is clear that Pouillon advocated ‘Moorish Architecture’ in the three districts of Algiers. The planning theory was conceived based on this thought, and it was reflected to a certain extent in the realised space. The view from the slopes affronted by the Mediterranean Sea was liberating. The stone was massing, the spatial organisation of the square, the colonnade, and the market were organised on a small scale, the water and the planting were well equipped, and the human scale space and the diversity of the district were assured.
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