The Medina of Constantine

The study of the recovery of the Medina of Constantine has been undertaken due to a collaboration between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Algerian Ministry of Housing and Urban Development which have entrusted this assignment to the University of Roma Tre and that of Constantine. The following phases have been accomplished: • Acquisition of the general data, with reference to the particular region of Constantine and acquisition of specific data and details about the city of Constantine; • Typological analysis of a zone of the city and its building history; • Definition of development interventions and verification of their compatibility with given resources. From a more profound understanding of the work done, it emerges that the historical and cultural value of the complex settlement of Constantine, as a whole, is clearly larger than its single parts. In fact, a part from a few, sufficiently protected major buildings, a large part of the real estate patrimony of the antique city is comprised of residential buildings which if taken alone does not present particularly interesting characteristics, and for the relative poor construction techniques utilized, and for the scarce monumental value. On the contrary, there appears to be particularly rich the wide range of variations and of the declination of the same theme of the house, both in its minor types, designated to the middle class, and in the case of beautiful residences, for differentiated and complex nuclear families. The model of the aggregation of single buildings is worthy and important to form the urban context together, with its rich and articulated hierarchy of both public and semi-private spaces. -