Abstract
This work undertakes a study of the colonial architecture produced in southern Algeria during the 19th and 20th centuries. The comparison of the colonial architecture as it is manifested in public buildings in the north and south of the country will make it possible to grasp the specific characteristics of the architectural language developed in Saharan cities during the colonial period from 1832 to 1962. More precisely, the research endeavours to reconstruct, in a chronological manner, the conditions of production, the modalities of evolution of this architecture and the diversity of its formal attributes. To this end, a historicalanalytical approach has been applied to a sample of buildings representative of the French presence in Algeria. In particular, the analysis focused on their architectural features with the intention of characterising the French imperialism formal and stylistic expressions which are rooted in eighteenth-century orientalism. The results show that the emphasis on 'indigenous' culture promoted by Governor Jonnart in the early 20th century, which was crowned by the adoption of the architectural orientalism as an official style often emanated from a concerted policy to symbolise France's presence, power, and domination in the colonised territory. Additionally, the study highlighted the features related to the stylistic expression of the public facades through the identification of the architectural and decorative elements used in their design. Finally, it appeared that official architecture in the north was generally expressed through a single style that was successively neo-classical, art deco and neo-Moorish. In the south, however, colonial architecture was more nuanced and clearly influenced by the local Saharan context and the vernacular built environment, although the concept of vernacular architecture has been implemented just as mere rhetoric. Therefore, the colonial architecture generated in the southern territories cannot be considered as strictly imported or exogenous, as was the case for the north, but rather as the result of crossbreeding between vernacular, occidental and sub-Saharan African architectures. Introduction After more than a century of French colonization, Algeria recovered its independence while inheriting an impressive architectural legacy. This rich and diversified colonial heritage dating from the 19th and 20th centuries was mainly located in the northern urban cities of the country. It has been especially expressed in public buildings where architecture was a tool used by the colonial authorities to show their dominance against the locals. In general, the colonial institutional buildings were designed with an "orientalist" approach in a spirit of compromise and rapprochement between the two Western and Arab-Islamic cultures [1] . Furthermore, most studies that have investigated the stylistic identification of this architecture have underlined its neo-Moorish attributes [2] , [3] . They have identified the colonial architecture by a set of formal characteristics of the neo-Moorish style which derives from the local North African architecture. As the neo-Moorish style has been elevated to an official style; it was displayed in prestigious and emblematic public buildings such as post offices, hotels, town halls, and train stations. Accordingly, the architecture of these buildings was expressed in a particular stylistic register-based, on the re-employment of architectural elements used in local architecture that were combined with Western exogenous models both historical and modern. In this point, it is worth to indicate that the French presence on Algerian territory was not limited to the northern cities. Indeed, it annexed the whole southern regions including the Sahara. However, if several studies have been devoted to the examination of the colonial architecture in Algeria, the majority of them have focused on colonial buildings in the north of the country. In return, there is a lack of knowledge relating to the colonial achievements in the southern regions that have not really aroused a scientific interest comparable to those of the large coastal cities. As such, the question of the stylistic identification of the Saharan colonial architecture remains open. Has the neo-Moorish style been adopted on the whole national territory in an exclusive way? Does the colonial architecture produced in the south of the country also refer to this style? Or was it characterized by its own style? If so, what were the sources of inspiration and the formal references used by the French colonial authorities to develop an architectural style proper to the Saharan regions of Algeria? Given the extent of the Saharan territory, is it possible to find a unique dominant style, or do several styles reflecting multiple influences coexist? This research attempts to clarify the subject through a comparative study of the colonial architecture as it has been expressed in public buildings in the north and south of the country. This comparison makes it possible to grasp the specific characteristics of the architectural style developed in the Saharan cities. Accordingly, the research endeavours to reconstruct, in a chronological manner, the conditions of the elaboration, the modalities of the development of this style and the diversity of its formal attributes. To do this, a historicalanalytical view will be carried on some representative buildings of the French presence in southern Algeria during the colonial period from 1832 to 1962. It is particularly interested in their architectural aspect and tends to characterize their formal expressions. More precisely, it deals with the public colonial architecture of Southern Algeria, with particular attention to three Saharan cities namely: Biskra, Oued-Souf and Ouargla. In order to bring out the stylistic aspects of the built-up forms, the analysis will refer to the façades of selected examples. By keeping in mind the issue of clarifying which architectural models have been used by the French colonizer, the main objective underlying this study is to identify the formal characteristics that can be read in the facades of colonial public buildings realized in the south of the country, and then to compare them to the dominant styles adopted in the north as well as in the vernacular architecture of southern Algeria. This work will also attempt to trace the formal historical evolution of the institutional architecture in Algeria during the colonial period. It is interested in the cultural syncretism that took place between the knowledge and local architectural styles used by the natives and the exogenous contributions of oriental and African (sub-Saharan) influences the result was the creation of a new architectural language. This same language was recovered and exploited by the colonial administration to express, in particular, regional identities and value their specificities.
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