HERITAGE REQUALIFICATION PROCESS THROUGH SOCIAL PERCEPTIONS: THE CASE OF "HALLE VOLTA" IN ALGIERS

Abstract

Urban industrial sites in Algeria constitute a colonial heritage that often undergoes a process of degradation and abandonment, leading to ruptures in the urban fabric. The question of their preservation is conditioned by their integration into a contemporaneity useful to the community to which they represent the heritage. Therefore, their future cannot be dissociated from the physical and social context they are part of, emphasizing the relationship between the object and the subject. Engaged in their epistemic posi-tions, this article proposes expertise on the heritage potential of Halle Volta, one of the industrial architectural structures from the late 19th and early 20th centuries in Algiers. This expertise makes it possible to understand the appreciations and perceptions engaged by a community towards this relic of the past, with the perspective of its management and transformation. This approach highlights the connection between the social and urban dimensions that can be raised by a heritage requalification project. The knowledge gained from this aims to address the issue of the requalification of Halle Volta, and, to a larger extent, the future of urban industrial heritage in Algeria.