Alia Bengana, a young architect born in Algiers, took charge of the project to build a guest house in Timimoun in the Algerian Sahara. The production of a ton of cement is equivalent to a Paris-New York flight in terms of pollution.
This shocking and argumentative album calls into question our dependence on this material which was so adored in the 20th century. The realization is violent. We don't even realize it anymore. It is quite magical in itself, which emerged at the dawn of the 20th century to unleash the creativity of legendary architects such as Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright, and Oscar Niemeyer. We surprise ourselves by no longer looking at the buildings we see while walking in the street in the same way. This is exactly what Alia Bengana thought when, having just founded her own agency, she took charge of building the guest house.