A Lived-in Shape Grammar: Parsing the Dwelling Activities in a Modernist Residential Building in Algiers

ABSTRACT:

Residents of a building transform it over time and play crucial roles in making its life cycles sustainable. Introducing formal methods to study the impact of residents’ modifications in existing structures, we analyze Climat de France, a modern housing project in Algeria. Observing the distinction of designed and in-use contexts, we consider the building as it was once intended and as it is now lived in. We parse the south-west facade and define a shape grammar that consists of rules that represent and categorize the changes dwellers made on the original facade over time. We discuss residents’ modifications as tools of autonomy and outcomes of territorial struggles. Findings are both expected and unexpected, such as the issues of climate control and the patterns of knowledge exchange, respectively. The study interweaves some of the social and physical dynamics that trigger and shape the residents’ modifications, pointing out that shape grammars may be utilized to analyze the informal adaptations of a space by its users.

Keywords:

• architecture
• dwelling
• housing
• modern heritage
• shape grammars
• user context
• implicit knowledge
• other modernism

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amina Rezoug

Amina Rezoug is a Faculty Member of Istanbul Bilgi University. Her research focuses on formal and computational methods on one hand and social concerns in architecture on the other.

[email protected], [email protected]

Mine Özkar

Mine Özkar is a Professor of Architecture at Istanbul Technical University. Her research focuses on visual, spatial, and material aspects of design computation, and more recently on their integration to heritage studies.

[email protected]