The Marketplace’s Ambiences During the French Colonial Period in an Algerian Oasis: The ‘Al-Gh’deer’ Square in the Oasis of Sidi-Okba (Biskra, Algeria)

This study investigates the traditional life within Al-Gh’deer Market Square, which constitutes a fundamental component of the vernacular urban fabric of Sidi Okba’s old city from a sensorial perspective. This oasis, located in the southeast of Algeria, is currently severely degraded and requires urban and architectural preservation. However, the sensory experiences that once characterised traditional urban life have not yet been systematically explored. The aim of this study is to fill this gap by analysing the historical atmospheres depicted in various literary and iconographic sources created by French and European explorers who visited Algeria during the colonial period. This research highlights each component of the “Al-Gh’deer” market square, which had a sensory impact on writers and photographers during their visit to Sidi Okba. This impact is revealed through the different tangible and intangible signals generated by these components, which were then felt and described textually and/or visually by the travellers. To this end, the thematic content analysis is used as a research technique in order to analyse this textual corpus, whilst the image formatting and staging constitute the method used for the iconographic corpus study. The first method makes it possible to detect the most relayed ambiences by travellers. This is revealed by the identification and computation of the associated words and/or expressions within the considered textual corpus. The second technique consists of the extraction of the elements generating the physical signals that should create a sensory relationship with the people within the scene or looking at it. The identified ambiences among the two corpora are crossed in order to determine the most felt ones in the marketplace as well as the various components generating them. The outcomes of this research work would serve as a basis for revitalisation initiatives within the frame of socio-economic and cultural development projects.