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by Vincent Battesti

Chapter the exhibition catalogue: Earthen architectures. The example of Siwa.
Original title: Architectures de terre, l’exemple de Siwa.
in the Exhibition catalogue “Berbères, de rives en rêves” (Berbers, from shores to dreams)
edited by Mireille Jacotin and Salem Chaker.
Éditions Sépia (Saint-Maur); Chemins du patrimoine en Finistère, Abbaye de Daoulas (Daoulas); Musée des civilisation de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée (Marseille), p. 31-41.
PDF File: https://hal.science/halshs-00310102/en/

 Exhibition “Berbères, de rives en rêves” (Berbers, from shores to dreams)
from May 16th 2008 to Jan. 4th 2009
at the Abbey of Daoulas (near Brest, France).

http://www.abbaye-daoulas.com

 Organisée par Chemins du patrimoine en Finistère:
http://epcc-cheminsdupatrimoine.fr

 Introduction:

The space of the tamazgha extends from the Canary Islands to the oasis of Siwa, over thousands of miles and thousands of opportunities to diversify the techniques of construction, for housing and habitat. This notion of an architecture Berber nevertheless intuitively senses, but it is difficult to identify its essence, a thousand times stirred up with allochtonous contributions over thousands of years. To present this earthen architecture, sometimes majestic, often described as architecture of the poors, but always falling into disrepair for lack of maintenance and neglect, a two-step approach is proposed: a quick overview of Berber architecture of North Africa, then a case study on the oasis of Siwa (Egypt), emblematic East flagship of the Berber speaking aera.

La vieille ville oasienne fortifiée, Shâli.
Siwa, le 17 février 2006 © Vincent Battesti

 To go directly on he exhibition web site: http://www.abbaye-daoulas.com/fr/ex....
 ... or to the page dedicated to the catalogue: http://www.abbaye-daoulas.com/fr/ex...

 Download the article in pdf :

Architectures de terre, l’exemple de Siwa
in “Berbères, de rives en rêves”, Éditions Sépia (Saint-Maur), Chemins du patrimoine en Finistère, Abbaye de Daoulas (Daoulas), Musée des civilisation de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée (Marseille), p. 31-41.
https://hal.science/halshs-00310102
Vincent Battesti