Urban and architectural ambiences’ complexities in the nineteenth-century colonial markets: The case of the Saharan city of Biskra, Algeria

In Algeria, the adoption of colonial markets (halles) highlights how various environmental parameters created a distinctive architecture in which daylight, ventilation, and acoustics were centrally based on sensorial relationships. Using thematic content analysis, this research aimed to explore human-centred sensorial features that were intrinsic to colonial markets in Algeria. These sensorial dimensions were determined from a collection of travellers’ diaries and postcards containing stories and iconographies describing and illustrating the halles in Algeria. The chapter presents an investigation of a specific aspect of these buildings regarding the multiple ambiences they radiated from within to inspire a dynamic, urban setting. In this context, a case study was investigated of a colonial market in the city of Biskra, built in 1855, in northeast Algeria in the Sahara. This building differed from the usual European steel-framed model, presenting a large, covered, shaded arcade, around an open courtyard. Although the market itself was demolished after a fire in the 1970s, visualizing its atmosphere was made possible by the precise descriptions collected from various travellers and local diaries. These descriptions were cross-checked with a selection of old postcards of the market to substantiate the authenticity of the environmental perceptions of different users and provide further confirmation of the sensorial atmosphere described in their written accounts.