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© Copyright 2018 | Abdelaalim Aïssat All Rights Reserved

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SPECIAL THANKS

Before finishing, I would like to greet, by the present, all those who have contributed from near and far for the success of this modest work.I thank my dear colleagues in this case, Bilal ZAGHOU, Zakaria SAKHRI, newly graduated architects, for allowing me the access to their documentation in order to enrich my work. I would like also to thank Amira Moussaoui, passionate about reading and writing in English, for helping me to write this article with a clearer language.In the end, I would like to thank my professor CIDÁLIA SILVA for being a model teacher.Yes, my Erasmus will end in  few days, but one thing that I will always remember and forever, is the hospitality of Portuguese people, their respect of the others, their good mood, and the famous smile not leaving the face of my professor, a smile full of respect and encouragement.I would like to say to my dear teacher, Merci, a big Obrigado, for all  what you have learned me during these few weeks. I would always be grateful to Portugal, to this marvelous country which opened its doors for me, Thank you Universidade do Minho for allowing me to go beyond my limits, and for giving me this chance that I would not have again, please know that, Algiers with its white color and all Algeria with its 2 million km²  will be open for you at any time, "Welcome to Algiers, Welcome to Algeria”.

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Finally, it should be noted that the city and since its creation has never been able to solve all its problems including those related to its growth in first place, all urban studies are done to minimize and prevent and expect what is going to happen. Despite everything, Algiers, like the world's major cities, has known through the centuries, how to develop its territory while offering an adequate way of life to each of its 8 million heads, the territory of any city is a witness of its past, its present and the its future, by developing their territories, metropolises have shown their primordial roles in the development of their country, and Algiers is an example that shows how the urban space can reveal its characters through its territorial dimension. 

The concentration of population and jobs, the dilution, and the urban sprawl Ignites a lot of problems to the metropolises subject in terms of intra-urban organization and social cohesion: disorderly extension of the peri-urban habitat with its repercussions in terms of infrastructures, transport, functioning of public services ..., question of center/periphery relations and appearance of multipolarities, new locations of households and businesses in peripheral areas with increased imbalances between workplaces and residences; functional zonings and increased social segregation ...

Obviously, the realities are different according to the metropolitan areas or the metropolitan areas considered. Not all of them have the same size, the same configuration, and the same extent, so they do not face the same difficulties. Some have based their growth on the specialization of their functions. Their situation with respect to their hinterland is variable. Some have developed at the expense of the rest of their region, other metropolises, on the contrary, carry with them a broad area of influence.

ABDELAALIM AISSAT, GUIMARÃES | June, 7th, 2018.

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Peirce Lewis's with its cosmological metaphor, "the Galactic City", where he debates the content of the empty space between the stars because that content will determine whether the universe will go on expanding forever or eventually collapse back on itself, one of his famous quotes was about Elusive Metropolis, " It is a city where all the traditional urban elements float in space like stars and the planets in a galaxy, held together but mutual gravitational attraction with large empty spaces in between”(Robert e. lang, 1959). Despite their largely indeterminate nature, edgeless cities like Algiers, can be distinguished in part based on where they lie in the region, they could be “In-towners”, “In-betweeners”, “Outposts”, for Algiers It is all of this in the same time, that’s why I prefer to call it an all in one city, this doesn’t fit with just Algiers , but with most of the metropolises, because urban planning policies have changed but they have kept the same principle, we decentralize the city, we create specific cities and balance all, that's why Algiers does not escape this rule, " In-towner edgeless city "in its historic center or the central core where the density beats all records," In-betweener edgeless city "in its suburbs and the poles recently developed, these medium-sized cities tend to fill the space left between theirs and the center one (In-betweener edgeless city), and finally "Outpost edgeless city" with its arteries located at the limits, in this case it is the metropolitan area that covers the entire urban, suburban, and semi-rural hinterland space otherwise called "Le grand Alger".

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Hundreds of hectares of agricultural land have been ravaged by concrete, reducing the agricultural economy which Algiers is rich especially for its location in the rich field of Metidja. the state was envisaged in a program of recovery of the lands not exploited, or badly exploited (city-houses) to optimize this agricultural potential. in the face of this economic crisis, which hits the whole world, the state has been bound to exploit all what it is offered to the economy and the place of agriculture is downright undeniable, that is why dozens of slums have been razed to make new place for new cities turned to verticality for well-exploited space.

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To return to Algiers, the policy of decentralization has lessened this effect and the growth begins to be mastered, some embassies and banks have been relocated towards the periphery and their former spaces have been recovered to serve as a public space. To sum up, Algiers has gone from a monocentric city to a single center, after colonization, the center has doubled, then move to an edge city and it ended up being without limits, without edges. The features of edgeless, borderless city are certainly presents, but the subject facing Algiers is more than a subject of density, but rather a subject of value, all the world's metropolises seek to make from this density a value, an identity, because today's Algiers has become an elusive metropolis, we cannot measure it. Elusive, in the sense that this city has left its initial compact character, to have another that tends to the random. the city of Algiers is a group of other cities dispatched on both sides.

Figure 14: To decongest the capital, and in the context of its development, the government has decided to build a road network that aims to meet the large flow of cars circulating in the Algerian metropolis. For that, 2 highways were built, the first ring road north of Algiers, with the sea, was like a double edge to the urban planning of Algiers, however, the south ring road of Algiers is built for the purpose of limiting population expansion and facing the overbuilding of agricultural land, something that was not respected. Another highway will see the day, it is the second ring road south of Algiers, built to retrace the new limits of the Greater Algiers, a metropolis where we continue to build and build. This one is like a belt of the city, it surrounds it and serves to connect the two ends of the city.

Figure 17: The maps above, show, the changes introduced after the realization of this new road infrastructure. In the first map, the population of Algiers is located on the sea fringe, a high density adjacent to the sea has seen the creation of an artificial boundary, it is the northern ring road of Algiers, mainly supposed to unclog the capital by connecting it with its eastern suburbs. Then in the second map where it is visible that the city of Algiers has grown extending over a wider territory, which has led to the creation of a second ring road south of Algiers to limit the territory of the city. This is not over yet, because despite efforts, a third ring road will be created ,the second ring road south of Algiers, the last border of the capital and a junction point for its both ends, the government is in the process of waging a battle with the organizations to stop this phenomenon of demographic expansion which threatens the agricultural land, but once devastated by the concrete, Algiers will join the neighboring districts and will become in the near future a megalopolis in the image of Asian cities, something that we try to avoid, whatever it costs.

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This map demonstrates Le Corbusier’s superimposition of modern forms: the long arching roadway that includes housing — his viaduct city — connecting central Algiers to its suburbs and the curvilinear complex of housing in the heights that accesses the waterfront business district via an elevated highway bypassing the Casbah. This was one of the most up-topic project on earth, but Le Corbusier believes on this project, his vision of this new Casbah took the layered domestic spaces of the medina and stacked them as if sweeping up a scattered deck of cards. Obus, which means shell, is often taken to refer to the spiraling form of the plan, but could also reference its infrastructural “shell,” within which homes would be constructed. The plan was a modernist mega-structure to be laid directly over the Casbah, with its elevated highway and bridges allowing high-speed travel over the prohibitively narrow and complex streets below. Plan Obus was conceived as a collision of the idealized dwelling, mythic feminine and romantic landscape offset by modern technology in the service of colonial needs. It was during the war, in 1942, that Le Corbusier was forced to finally abandon his plans for Algiers, which was clearly for the best. Twelve years later the Algerian revolution exploded out of the Casbah and by its end in 1962, European colonialists had fled to France. It is true that this project which was born from utopia could not see the light of day, but through this idea of the barrier on which Le Corbusier based his conception, he was able to predict that one day, Algiers would become a metropolis, and with the idea which he has proposed, we confirm the logic of Edgeless city that would be one day in Algiers.(Le Corbusier’s Algerian Fantasy, Blocking the Casbah).9

[Le Corbusier’s Algerian Fantasy, Blocking the Casbah, Brian Ackley, https://bidoun.org/articles/le-corbusier-s-algerian-fantasy]

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Illustration 4: At the base, Algiers or the “Casbah”, was fortified to resist in front of the various attempts (English, Spanish and French) conquest of Algiers. This construction, which ended until 1542, made it possible to encircle the ancient city which extends over 70 ha of a wall from 11 to 13 meters high. A vestige of this wall facing the “Serkadji stop house” can still be admired. The wall is the first edge of the city which defines its territory and separates it from the outside.

Illustration 5: The enclosure, forming the fortifications, of the old city of Algiers had a length of 2,500 meters formed a triangle having for the summit the citadel of the Casbah. It consisted of a wall resting on a base of tufa(stone), and even sometimes on the old Roman wall. The role played by this wall is not limited to separation or defense, but, it has a social point, this means people who are inside the city are automatically different from those of outside.

Illustration 7: This illustration shows a part of the wall that has survived until nowadays. In this photo, we note that the edges of the city have been crossed, and this is the case of all the cities intra-murus (Paris, Rome, Porto ....), now It becomes just a ruin in an open-air museum...

Illustration 8: Similarly, for the paths and lanes drawn outside the wall, they served as edges to the city, once exceeded, we are no longer in the city, thanks to our Roman ancestors who introduced us the first notion of "road ".

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Figure 12, From a single center and the neighboring regions of Algiers, Algiers urbanism begins to lose its brightness and clarity, illegal constructions grew like mushrooms everywhere, agricultural lands are scatted, to become a camp, a village and then a slum-city, and the situation became uncontrollable, the thousands of families who lived there are multiplying day after day, Algiers takes the image of the multipolar city.

Figure 13, Algiers has become the capital of all problems, a metropolis that its urbanism plan hiding and still lurking in a very shady corner, a town’s planning that does not say its name. At the beginning of the current century, the country faced a social economic crisis, and a housing crisis especially, because housing is one of the many human needs. Algiers loses its balance and loses its brilliant whiteness so much spoken, but the hopes remain there, Algiers embarks on a pharaonic project, it is to build a million of housing, yes, this was a program that spans several periods and several forms, a program that aims quantity instead of quality, a program that aims to create urban centers across the territory of the district, new cities will be created, smart poles are expected to see the day but the result was far from promises, dormitory cities, Algiers passes from a monocentric city to a city without limits, without edges. Then, a revision of the PDAU, in French (Plan Directeur d’Aménagement et d’Urbanisme) is called for, this map outlines the main lines to follow for the sustainable development of the Algiers’s metropolis, and anticipates the changes that will occur, the road infrastructure has sucked the attention of governance and it had the lion's share, the capital is metamorphosed, with 3 highways which will serve as edges of the agglomeration, but a new problem seems to emerge, because of mismanagement, the 1 million of built housing was not enough, and new slums-cities will be created near these ring roads that cross the two ends of the metropolis, the state tries to clear them but without surprise, they grow like fake grass. Algiers is confronted with a problem of overpopulation, the agricultural lands will then be invaded by the concrete and the limits traced by the built by-passes will be finally crossed, the land is no longer available, and the few green parks that counted Algiers will be scatted immediately and without the least reflection. Algiers is finally moving towards verticality, but that was too late, but as we usually say, “Better late than never”, the district of Algiers has gone from 38 to 57 municipalities in just 20 years, the poles created in the municipalities will become competing centers to the original one (Algiers Center), full cities with all the services of first necessity, but the centrality of Algiers is still a hot topic, there was the battle! The state begins to think about decentralizing the capital and creating a territorial balance, but Algiers has already lost its edges, a dislocation has emerged between the office space and the public space and the habitat area, the quotas are downright indisputable.

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Since independence, the government has been trying to move this capital that stretches to the center of the country south of its current location, a location that suits it perfectly, but this project has not emerged due to many political conflicts and a black decade of civil war in the country but it did not stop there, during the black decade, Algiers experienced a flow of exodus and exile, thousands of families had left their bordering regions and moved to Algiers, they were in seeking of security. At that time, Algiers has experienced a growing demography from 2 to 3 million inhabitants in just 10 years, these families settled near the capital by creating cans cities far from the center, we could not even count their number because it was obvious, the situation begins to worsen and grow, still for a country that has trouble to find a solution for this people in distress ......

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With these boundaries, the downtown was extended where it took on another Haussman form, more extensive, with broad avenues, the main center contained both the ancient city and the new one by forming a single unit, "Algiers center", where all the services were grouped around this new center, the governance buildings (embassies, business district and headquarters of the major companies and banks), this center looks like It is surrounded by two circles, surrounding the central core with two territorial dimensions that can be easily distinguished. The density of office space that existed was almost 50% of the total space of this downtown, this generated a huge road traffic, all the services of the state (ministries, embassies, international banks ...) were located within from the center, in a radius not exceeding 10 km.

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Edge cities are easy to find, to be understood, with their images and suburban landscapes, that's why Algiers is a good example to show that image, this city seems to have many centers, the old city Casbah made the city by which rushed heterogeneous constructions. 

Originally the word "Casbah" referred to the citadel overlooking the city "the medina", it was built close to the sea with its fortifications, an old medina characterized by the superposition of its houses, a labyrinth of alleys and dead ends, the stairs, very numerous and very varied (broad, narrow, high ...) and so practical to cross. Through time these fortifications that protected the city's core, were its own edges and after being demolished, they leave the place to a hausseman urbanism, “Building their Casbah, the elders had reached the masterpiece of architecture and urbanism," said Le Corbusier.7

7.[L'urbanisme est l'expression de la vitalité d'une société.... « Ceux qui ont construit la Casbah avaient atteint au chef d'œuvre architectural et d'urbanisme », Le Corbusier.]

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The history of Algiers is summarized in 5 distinct periods, each one is characterized by the passage of one or more civilizations/dynasties, where each one knew how to impose its living and was able to be enlisted in the construction of its territory. 

There are 5 distinct periods: 

Punic-Roman.  Arabic/Berber.  Ottoman/Spanish.  French. Post-independence.

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This figure 1, shows a proposed model for the life cycle of an edge city, although, it’s not the case of all edge cities necessarily, this model is more applicable in biggest ones but, it can be used with others. 1. In the first stage, the city tends to limit itself with a major road, it develops a low density. At this stage, the road network includes direct exits and accesses to the city which are developed independently, here, the city is formed around the central nucleus/core. 2. The city continues to expand towards the open space and some formerly adjoining areas, its development continues, it will know new achievements, and some lands will change their identity, in this stage, the city begins to find itself faced with a lot of problems mainly related to its growth, and the road network begins to choke and cannot respond to this new growth, suddenly the traffic will become infernal and the situation will worsen. 3. Finally, Edge city tends to extend in addition to the space reserved, (previously limited), and its growth becomes forced, thereafter, sometimes we notice the presence of some isolated and disconnected places of the city center, even if they are in few kilometers from the center, but this is another subject, in the language of urbanism, we refer this to the urban neglect. So, the use of space becomes a subject of topicality, and we will have a problem with the land, as for traffic road, it becomes a daily calvary especially during peak/crowded hours , the value of the edge city diminishes and even tends to disappear.

In this figure 2, which shows the repartition of downtown in different scales, by analyzing this figure we can easily distinguish between the edge city and the edgeless one, where the scale plays a primordial role for both, and by changing the scale, the reading changes, and basically, most of time the road infrastructure is one of the basis of this difference.

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DEVELOPMENT

Nowadays, metropolises are becoming more numerous, whereas, in the last century, they were counted on the tips of the finger, this word did not even exist before and it did not enter to the annals of the urbanism until after being introduced by the German sociologist Georg Simmel saying, “Metropolis has always been the seat of the money economy” (Georg Simmel, 1903)5. with his work on the metropolis, Simmel was a precursor of urban sociology, symbolic interaction and social network analysis, and this is one of Simmel's most notable essays, which is originally one of a series of readings on all aspects of city life by experts in various fields, ranging from science and religion to art. When we talk about biggest metropolitan areas, we talk about density. But first, let's take a look at the vocabulary. First, edge cities mean that density is back ... (Joel Garreau, 1991)6, however, edgeless cities have almost twice the space edge ones. Both are almost everywhere, they are easy to locate, but they are difficult to identify or even to chart.

Portrait of Georg Simmel

https://www.waggish.org/2014/georg-simmels-philosophy-of-money/

5.[(Georg Simmel, “The Metropolis and Mental Life,” in On Individuality and Social Forms: Selected Writings. Edited and with an introduction by Donald N. Levine. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 1971, pp. 324-39)].

6.[(Edgeless Cities: Exploring the Elusive Metropolis Robert E. Lang, Brookings Institution Press Washington, D.C.1959, page 1)].