Algiers from the Medina to the European City: Identity Loss.

After 1830, the French presence in Algiers brought significant changes to the architectural landscape of the city. The dominant feature of this transformation was the construction of European houses. The first models were constructed mainly within the Ottoman city, especially in its lower part. This paper attempts to explain certain aspects of this type of housing. To do so, it relies on three tools necessary to the study of minor architecture, namely the plot of land, the template, and the scheduling. And how the colonial cultural heritage shaped perceptions and references. This resulted in the dismantling of the original architectural model in city of Algiers represented by the "old" city el-Casbah with its time-established functional, artistic and social divisions and new political-social divisions that respond to the needs of the colonizer rather than the needs of the indigenous population, in addition to technical and value distortions in the general architectural fabric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]