Borrowings of Neo-Moorish Architecture from Moorish Architecture and their Reinterpretation. Case of the Philippeville Town Hall

Charles Montaland, a french architect who carried out many neo-moorish projects in Algeria. One of his most notable works is the Philippeville town hall (now Skikda), completed in the early 1930s. To create this work, the architect drew inspiration from moorish traditions which are mainly represented by the architecture of the medieval Berber dynasties and the Ottoman Kasbah of Algiers. Based on the architectural description of the town hall, the analysis of the city's archives and the study of examples of medieval and Ottoman mosques as well as patio houses of the Kasbah of Algiers, this article attempts to identify the various borrowings taken up in the town hall and their reinterpretation. Besides architectural and decorative elements, the architect also adopted key organizational features from houses and palaces of the Kasbah, such as the sqifa, the wast el-dar, the shin, the byout and the qbou. To enhance the moorish appearance, he incorporated three distinctive mosque features: the minaret, the courtyard, and the dome. The architect successfully merged these elements and apply them to a work that was new in terms of its function, materials and construction techniques.