The restoration of the Casbah of Algiers with the traditional techniques and the most advanced laser procedures

Casbah is the historical site of highest cultural and symbolic value in the city of Algiers. UNESCO World Heritage Site, suffers from a severe degradation situation accentuated by the recent earthquake that struck the city. At the top of Casbah there is a citadel where in a fortified complex of splendid courtyard buildings, mosques, Turkish baths, harem and gardens, he lived with his officials, Dey, the sultan of the city. Here is now the Casbah restoration training school, established by the IPOGEA Center for Traditional and Local Knowledge Studies, based in the Sassi of Matera and the Algerian Ministry of Culture thanks to a project that has the contribution of the Italian Ministry of Business Foreign.

The objective of the Project is to train Algerian technicians, officials and professionals through field teaching in direct contact with local issues.

Hypogea’s specific competence, directed by Archi. Pietro Laureano, a UNESCO expert and realist of the inclusion of the Sassi of Matera in the World Heritage List of Humanity, is the restoration of architectures, ecosystems and landscape through ancient practices and their innovative use.

The objective of the Project is to retrieve the traditional Casbah construction techniques for their restoration. This is characterized by an ancient environmental wisdom made of accurate water collection and distribution, passive energy saving architecture for cooling and heating, and amazing technical expansions that make the architectural structures flexible and resistant to oscillations And earthquake stresses.

To understand this complex architecture, the most advanced survey and survey techniques will be used.

IPOGEA team along with ARCHEOMETRA team will make a Dey Palace relief with 3D laser scanning technology. This innovative practice used in other sites of the World Heritage as Santa Sofia at Instambul and the Church of Health in Venice is based on a laser beam that, hitting the surface of the monument, returns a cloud of points analyzed by a special application software . In addition to the relief of the monument, the computer also provides analysis of the materials and hidden features of the building. Diagnosis will always be completed by non-invasive methods through georadar and thermography.

The important experience gained for the first time in Algeria will be followed by the local and international press and will see the presence of the Italian Ambassador in Algiers Romualdo Bettini and Algerian Minister of Culture Kalida Toumi Messaud