Inhabited space, generativity and conservatism

The case of El Kantara, Biskra

Abstract

the house in El-Kantara has known for centuries, transformations of spatial orders in response to the demands of daily life and to economic and technical development. With these new demands the practices of space change and the spatial forms change too. These practices have undergone exogenous (French colonialism) and endogenous influences according to local customs. By analyzing these transformations and evolutions in Kantari housing, it was noticed that linings of traditional spaces exist in modern housing. Despite the upheaval in the architectural conception of El Kantara, the practices at the level of certain spaces such as the sguifa and the haouche still persist, marked by the symbolic search for intimacy and centrality.