La Maison, une édification consensuelle entre affects et intellect La Maison contemporaine d’Alger comme expression d’une dissonance cognitive identifiée au travers de l’architecte

Abstract

The house is a consensual object par excellence. It reflects society socio cultural level in which the one who built it has been evolving. This house has been “living” its long and rich history since thousands of years. It expresses itself according to the context in which it is grounded while crossing glory and disgrace periods. Its evolution, based on a linear process is punctuated with evolution and (or) stagnation periods. Those are not always recognizable. Basic traces that are necessary for their introspection are related to materials and techniques that were used in building process. Specialists have held forth on technical, aesthetics and morphological aspects and talked about them in different ways. But what are its fundamentals? In our opinion they are based essentially on added up affects and feelings that feed it without a deciphered and describable logic. Those houses, built each one with its own way, reflect an intimate link between Man and Earth/Universe. According to variety and superabundance of models we had to approach the house first through interested persons. They could be famous scientists or people who searched on it for a while and fixed it in a book or an artwork. This perception is elaborated in order to drag it from rigid vision. Technical specialists have limited its concept. We decided to redefine it in enlightening its strong interactivity with Man. To reinforce this relation we got interested with the precise case of the House that makes our environment. In order to concretize our approach we got closer to architects which opinion about its understanding seems to be essential? To get away from the risk to face disconnected from lived reality talks, we got closer to architects who built their own house. We thought that our opinion would lead to a more “real” and “constructive” way of thinking. It would push architects to face themselves and our study subject as designers and users. Their exhibit of facts would distinguish which of the two basic aspects of human being personality (affects and cerebral), would lead the reflection in the act of building its own house. Their exhibit of facts will also make us locate the level of confrontation of these two aspects in a setting of cognitive dissonance that adjusts the house evaluation. Also architects contribution will set house edification through a global process which “makes” it and pushes it towards a strongly criticized image and morphology as well as a denied typology