Revaluation of Ksar El-Haouita in Laghouat, Algeria

Abstract

Algeria has a rich urban and architectural heritage, which presents regional specificities. Once the ksour was a symbol of balance and perfect harmony with its environment, unfortunately today they no longer reflect their former function. The Ksourian architecture, including that of Laghouat is a prestigious heritage of high value; it is the testimony of genius knowledge and the capacity of their occupants to adapt to the difficult environment. The housing is considered the essential core of this architecture it represents the entire composition of the ksar, its design is inspired by the immediate environment and respects ancestral social values. It is characterized by a simple architecture and simple construction techniques which are based on the construction in load-bearing walls, the construction materials used are local materials of great resistance and less expensive. This study addresses the theme revaluation of heritage, particularly our case study ksar El-Haouita which has experienced a neglecting and depopulation due to several factors. The ksar El-Haouita is among the most famous ksour located in the south of Algeria and exactly in the region of Laghouat. It is built with simple materials and techniques of construction. The construction materials used are local materials like stones and lime found in the environmental surroundings of the ksar. The aim of this study is to identify the major causes of the degradation of ksar, also to preserve ksar El-Haouita through specific operations and to improve the tourist attractiveness of ksar El-Haouita in order to promote heritage, to convert it back into sustainable Saharan tourism. Our study based in the first place; on a theoretical underpinning which contains the notions that have a relation with our theme, the problematic and the envisaged objective, then a presentation of ksar followed by a morphological analysis accompanied by identification of the problems to identify the phenomena of damage and its disfigurement. The last step is to treat an aspect for the development of ksar, this aspect is devoted to the restitution of the defensive system (doors, ramparts, ramparts of houses and towers) of the ksar, through a diagnostic and several operations like (rehabilitation and reconstruction). The aim result of this study is to show that the revaluation of the ksar is a very vast operation and proposes interventions that allow the preservation of the ksar and also to understand the elements that help the success of interventions and to put some of the parameters considered as reference elements and basic principles for the operations on the ksar and among these operations it is (the case study, which is the restitution of the defensive system of ksar El-Haouita).