Chapter 4. Algiers: “Rock the Casbah” & Post-Colonial Legacies

Port of Algiers, 1818

This chapter explores the architectural and urban legacy of Algiers, tracing its transformation from a colonial cityscape to a complex postcolonial metropolis shaped by resistance, neglect, and contested modernities. It begins by unpacking the spatial legacy of French occupation—particularly the dual city structure of European quarters and indigenous neighborhoods—and looks at how colonial modernism, through projects like Le Corbusier’s Plan Obus and Fernand Pouillon’s Climat de France, was deployed as a tool of control, surveillance, and assimilation. These architectural interventions sought to remake Algerian society but were ultimately subverted, repurposed, or resisted by the very populations they aimed to contain.

Through film and literature—including The Battle of Algiers, Omar Gatlato, Mariner of the Mountains, and novels by Albert Camus and Kamel Daoud—the chapter analyzes how Algiers has been represented and imagined, revealing the city’s psychological and spatial fragmentation. It also critically engages with post-independence efforts to project a modern national identity, such as Oscar Niemeyer’s visionary but unrealized projects, and recent controversial proposals like Jean Nouvel’s plan for the Casbah, framed as a postcolonial reprise of orientalist urbanism.

By examining historical preservation efforts, informal urban practices, and contemporary megaprojects, the chapter situates Algiers at a crossroads—caught between the inherited trauma of colonial planning, the failures of postcolonial state-led modernization, and the pressures of neoliberal globalization. Algiers emerges as a palimpsest city, where architectural modernism is both a legacy of domination and a contested field for cultural expression, resistance, and redefinition in the 21st century.