Identity marker and transmission vector: architecture in toub, a heritage in danger

Abstract

Algerian Saharan society is fundamentally conceived as a traditional society where architecture stems from a crystallization of social values. With reference to the past, it perpetuates memory and transmits knowledge. This contribution aims to define the determining factors in the design of this built heritage which tends to disappear. Based on an urban, architectural, and anthropological study, it confirms the importance of the building material (toub) in the constitution of the  cultural model. The material gives shape to popular  architecture custom made to man, for man, through  which the culture of a people (of a society) is materially  transcribed. Environmental built, often a reduced  reproduction of the cosmic order, the traditional  Saharan habitat establishes a balance between man,  the environment, and his culture.