Architecture and TOWN PLANNING

TUNIS: ARCHITECTURE AND TOWN PLANNING

from past to future TUNIS: ARCHITECTURE AND TOWN PLANNING

from past to future

Written by Abdesselem MAHMOUD

from past to future

Written by Abdesselem MAHMOUD

FOREWORD

Abdesselem Mahmoud’s book entitled ‘TUNIS Architecture and Town Planning from past to future’ is more than a classic art’s book. The author combines a historian vision and refers to travelers’ literature on Tunis, its monuments and sociological surveys previously led with his students. In fact, the author aim is to clarify the dwelled and lived city within day-to-day life practices through the inhabitant’s interactions; not in its ‘synchrony but rather in its ‘diachrony’. The book interest is when it apprehends a city as a whole: historically and spatially. The overlapping spaces intermingle and give sense to the city. The reader is, therefore, involved in a stroll amongst successive Tunisian architectural styles: ancient and new ones. Though, a feeling of nostalgia was remarkable for the Medina quarter. The suggested trail introduces the space as a reflection of social transformation along a town planning given rhythm by social and political events in Tunisia. "As a text, Tunis is, in the same time, written and read." in a social network impregnated with collective imaginary because lived space is more than a mere social life support. It underpins the city foundations. The suggested method adopted by Abdesselem Mahmoud is based on an itinerary through urban nodes and spatial operators. The Medina with its various social scales (ancient palaces, bourgeoisie residences, popular houses, caravan sites, hostels "Oukalas"... unlike Algiers’ Casbah, wasn’t deteriorated by the colonial authorities. It constitutes the starting place of social and political events in Tunisia. It leads into an architectural space ‘La Porte de France’ (France Gate), rich of meaning, revealing Tunis changes. It is perceived as a shifting place between two urban patterns: the Medina and colonial town. The door is itself, a starting point of France Avenue; an archway of orthogonal lay out. An avenue which owes its beauty to the first constructed building: the French Embassy. The French house, Tunis Cathedral, and Municipal Theatre were the main avenue emblems. The New Art style with its fluid lines of the Municipal Theater is freed from a classic and neo classic styles, in constant confrontation of the built environment between ‘progressist’ patterns which challenge the past, and the ‘culturalist’ temptation which targets to preserve the local architectural culture. Further, along Bourguiba Avenue, which is the core of the city, presents itself to our imagination as a place of memory where intellectuals, film enthusiasts and artists frequented coffee shops, the Municipal Theater, the Palmarium... The main avenue was, also, an arena of riots in January 1978c, and January 1984c. It is presented as "geometric place of life, a mono center where occurred new social movements coupled with urban changes in Tunisia; mainly the right to the city claimed by the new generations." Indeed, the two hotels ‘Africa and El-Hana’ witness the emergence of an international architecture style. Besides, the second urban strategic place of the trail, ‘the ex. 7th November place’ constitutes the second strategic part of the stroll. The edifice is located in the crossroads of two main avenues: Habib Bourguiba and Mohamed V. It marks a transition sign from colonial neo classic to modern shapes such as: the Constitutional Democratic Rassemblement (RCD), ex. ruling party tower, Abu Nawas hotel, bank offices at Med V Avenue. Moreover, the urban transport railways of the northern line, white train, and the blue one prevailed as city actors. On their itinerary, diverse stations are crossed by trains described by the author as ‘No-where’ unfixed crossings points. However, they are compulsory for people and goods transportation purposes. They are full of collective symbolic and are marked the area’s social and spatial identity. On the opposite side of the previous visited places, the statues planted, play the role of spatial and temporal markers: from La Goulette, Bourguiba statue is staring at the West towards The Medina, and from Bourguiba Avenue, Ibn Khaldoun statue is looking at the East, handling his well-known book ‘Muqaddima’ (Prolegomena), (Discourse about Universal History). Then, other works witness Tunis space modernization such as: Olympic City, University Campus Al-Manar, Hilton Hotel, Taoufik Clinic, Radio and Television head quarter…). New impressive emerging centralities and middle classes developed together (Ben Arous, Ariana, Manar, Ennasr…) If this book establishes a connection between Tunis spaces and Great Tunis urban network, it draws nevertheless-with the same relevance- the breaking lines by investing relegated and segregated landscapes. We are nearby Sijoumi Sebkha banks, an area of social and urban ‘anomy’. The inhabitants of this area are lodging in spontaneous housing which perceive as ‘different’ space, structured by The Sebkha imaginary, and by a lived space with strong religious and memorial identity. Usually carried by waterfronts which nourish the city, we arrive to the North Lake ‘Les Berges du Lac’ where high-rising buildings are extended along: offices, residences, and recreational places between Tunis-Marsa highway and lakesides. It is a kind of urban enclave- which was negatively perceived- became rapidly later both professional and recreational islet. Water is, all in all, less present within this space; it exists through its constant evocation in the street names and reminds some well-known worldwide lakes. This quarter brought us to the heart of a collective memory construction, strongly stimulated by the desire and the slogans of modernity. The author perceives in this "laboratory of the new social links’ creations, and the new singular urbanity" a stage of post-modern urban power, a modernity mythology, but with less apparent social interaction. It remains a place of visits which public spaces are deserted during the week. It is a momentary attractive place for upper and middle classes women who come for garments shopping or for weekly couples and families recreation. In order to go back tomorrow, for an ultimate will to reconcile the city with its waterfronts, the dream of a town nearby the water, and the one of ‘Mini Dubaï' surfaced again from the existence of Tunis lake in order to feed in the future a new "representations policy", and consecrate Tunis as a worldwide sustainable turn table of business and tourism. During the beautiful stroll through a lucid text and suggestive photos, we shall recognize, especially, the laudable will of Abdesselem Mahmoud to refuse nostalgia of a city enclosed by its center. The author guided us a new ‘poly morph centrality’ characterized by extended spaces where a big city governs a swarm of agglomerated towns. We will, also, share his great concern to involve us in heterogeneous social and cultural intermingled temporalities. We should, as land-surveyors, and as space users restore Tunis interior, and rebuild its unity.

Pierre-Noël DENIEUIL Tunis, November, 19th, 2009 (Translated from French by Abdesselem MAHMOUD) CONTENTS PRELIMS: Dedication and acknowledgment……………………………………….. V

Lists of plates: Maps, Plans, Photos, Graphics, Interviewees' drawings VII Foreword……………………………………………………………………. XIII List of abbreviations…….……………………………………………….. XVII

INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………..…. 1

PART ONE

CHAPTER 1: Tunis Anchors…………………………………………………………...…….. 9 CHAPTER 2: Pre-colonial city………………………………………………….……………. 17 CHAPTER 3: Colonial or Modern Urbanization…………………………………...….…. 39 CHAPTER 4: Bab Bhar Sea Gate: a case study………………………………………...... 45

PART TWO

CHAPTER 1: The Main Avenues………………………………………………………….… 53

CHAPTER 2: Architecture which Identity?...... 79 CHAPTER 3: Post-Independence Architecture………………………………………..…. 89 CHAPTER 4: Bourguiba avenue…………………………………………………………...… 95 CHAPTER 5: "7th November place" Present 14th January place……………..……... 99

PART THREE

CHAPTER 1: A TGM as urbanization Preamble………………………………….……. 109 CHAPTER 2: Sijoumi Sebkha and peri urbanization…………………………….…….. 119 CHAPTER 3: Space perception in daily life…………………………………………..… 131 CHAPTER 4: Towards new urbanity?………………………………………………….…. 147 CHAPTER 5: Spatial identities images………………………………………………….... 151

PART FOUR

CHAPTER 1: Lake North: Third center?...... 157 CHAPTER 2: Tunis urban changes ……………………….……………………………..… 185

CHAPTER 3: From "la petite sicile" to "Mini Dubaï" …………………………….….. 189 CHAPTER 4: Urban prospective ……………………………...... 195

CONCLUSION REMARKS……………………………………………. 201

END MATTERS: BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………….… 203 TUNIS ARCHITECTURE STYLES TABLE……………………... 213 INDEX………………………………………………………………………… 000 INTRODUCTION

A double impulse is behind the study of colonial and contemporary architectures: on one hand, because of a remarkable lack of studies on this topic; on the other hand, the study of the colonial’s era seems very relevant for a better understanding of the architectural modernization process in Tunisia. Researchers from a wide range of disciplines focused their studies on Medina1 urban and architectural fabric. However, colonial architectural heritage in Tunisia had been, somehow, neglected. In fact, colonial architecture constitutes a noticeable shift of architecture landscapes towards modernity. Tunis is a city located on the southern bank of the Mediterranean basin. The Medina (Historic Town) inherited Carthage2 where Phoenicians coming from East had settled. The town was previously surrounded by its lakes. Guy de Maupassant, the French writer, having travelled through the region, described the lagoon as follows: "Arab people compared Tunis to a stretched burnous. The ancient city is slightly raised on a plain surrounded by three lakes: 'Bahira' (Lagoon), or North Lake, and ‘Sijoumi Sebkha3’ (salty water hollow), ‘Ariana Sebkha’ under oriental sunshine like crystal rays." (Maupassant, 1993). Romans chose Carthage as capital of their Empire in North Africa. Tunis replaced the previous important berberian village under Hassan Ibn Nooman’s reign (681 A.C), and the Sanhajite4 princes Beni Khôrasan. Tunis, as many Mediterranean cities, was surrounded by ramparts. Historically, Ramparts surrounding the Medina were perforated by doors. Tunis profited from the destruction of Carthage and became, in

1 Médina: Ancient Town.

2 Carthage was the capital of Ifriqya (North Africa). The Phoenician leader Elissa (cf. Fawzi Mellah cited above) founded Carthage 814 B-C. Carthage became "Rome Cellar" "Grenier de Rome" under Roman Empire occupation.

3 Sebkha: salty hollow of water which dries in hot season and floods in winter.

4 Sanhajite: Dynasty that reigned Tunis and North Africa at that time. the eleventh century, one of the most important cities of Ifriqya (old name of the region). Al-Bakri, the Andalusian historian drew up a legible draft of Tunis edges. The drawing leads at 18 closed doors, and is extended by two main peripheral quarters: Bab Souika in the North, and Bab al Djazira in the South. From the seventeenth up to the nineteenth centuries, Tunis didn’t undergo any noticeable changes. Surrounded by a belt of ramparts, the Medina and its suburbs (Bab Souika and Bab El Djazira) are located on a downhill and directed towards the East. The Great Mosque Zitouna which means (Olive) constitutes the ancient religious town center. Only gardens and cemeteries exist in the peripheral area of the Medina of Tunis Later, Andalusian, Moorish and, after them Turkish, Greek…flew their countries from which they came, and settled in Tunisia. The Jewish dwelled in their special quarter, The Hara5 in the Medina. However, they were not isolated from Moslem citizens, but rather integrated with them; myriads of ethnicities dwelled together in Tunis. Since the Nineteenth Century, Tunis grew up, and overstepped the ancient town edges. Before French colonial settlement, several European communities dwelled in Fundouk, wide houses with many rooms surrounding a central courtyard. Commercial and diplomatic relationships were developing with Europe. The ‘Quarter Franc’, near La Porte de France hosted consulates and embassies of foreign communities (English, Dutch, Danish, Swedish…). New colonial urban pattern emerged in the neighborhood of the Medina. If this one had an organic growth characterized by the opened and closed forms with a Moslem religious centrality, the new colonial town has a geometric well lined master plan. The new city is built on a swampy marshland across the sea; that’s why we call the door opening on the sea side Bab Bhar6 (Sea Gate). We notice that the European city was established on the water area, a swampy and marshy land. This phenomenon evokes the urban development of Tunis as a floating city.

5 Hara: Jewish quarter.

6 Bab Bhar: means Sea Gate, one of the Medina gates which opens on the sea. Tunis paid never attention to its waterfronts. The area located between Bab Bhar (Sea Gate) and the North Lake was neglected and didn’t serve for habitation. Only some Khandaqs, hollows opened to the sky, serve as defense belt. They were used as main sewers. The colonial authorities had to work hard in order to infill up the marshy land and build the first French Residence headquarters. The problematic of Tunis urban shifts could be dealt in term of urban policies that, only recently, took into account the relationship of Tunis city with its water fronts. It seems today that Tunis tries to reconcile with its lakes: Bouhaïra (North Lake), in the East ‘Sijoumi’ in the West, and Ariana, in the North. However, the new urban development strategy aimed to create a metropolis, a global city of business, finance and leisure. Is it just a rupture with ancient traditional urban core, the Medina? This might be a sort of discontinuity of the former architectural and urban fabric in the new international architecture that spreads all over the country, mainly in the new suburban quarters of thrive social classes. Is it the end of the urban and architectural patrimony? Is that urban shift which targets the development of a metropolis, a global city that would be mainly for the benefit of local populations in Tunis? Is it, much more, for the benefit of off-shores businessmen, for Tunisians who are working in foreign countries, able to purchase real estate, or to invest in the emerging new high standing areas? To better understand this urban syndrome in Tunis, the appropriate way would be dealing with different historical backgrounds of Tunis urban growth through historical process. The city is not only understandable in its synchrony, but also in its diachrony. In fact, it is a space-time (Siegfried, 2004). Moreover, it is not merel a territorial space. Even geographers conceive urban space as a social and cultural construction. They evoke urban ‘conurbations’, some mushrooming urban growth. All around Tunisian cities emerged spontaneous buildings without any previous master plan. They became increasingly a dysfunctional huge urban network. Therefore, it is neither a town, nor an agglomeration; it is not a metropolis at all. (Chabbi, 2004). There is no pure physical urban space. The city is a projection of the society (Lefebvre, 1968). Urban space is not only produced, but it is, also, perceived and conceived through the daily life practices. According to Henry Lefebvre, the space production process includes three components: Isotropy which means homogeneous spatial identity. Sameness and uniqueness characterize the suburb. The heterotopy and the heterogeneity characterize the town center. The latter is a place of utopia, symbolic dimension, expressions of city fictions. So, place of utopia, the city center is reflected in the daily life imaginary. This question will be analyzed within urban space users' perceptions. We made up psycho-sociological surveys, and analyzed literary discourses on Tunis (Bornaz, Mahfoudh, Ben Becher, Chalbi, Khlifi...). Our aim is to demonstrate, as much as possible, both relationship between architectural and urban space and the inhabitants. To which extent dweller’s perceptions are dominated by a Dominant Interpretative Discourse (D.I.D) (Touraine, 2007:30) of modernity, identity, development, sustainability, and so on. Urban Development of Tunis started with architectural and urban fictions of European engineers, urban planners, and architects. Colonial authorities altered the Casbah of Algiers; the Medina of Tunis wasn’t modified or damaged in its urban and architectural fabric. Even though, the French colonizers targeted to cross the Medina; they planned to create a new axis that would prolong the Avenue ‘Promenade de la Marine’ (modern Avenue de France) until Casbah7. Colonial authorities attempted to implement this project which faced a huge opposition from both French Municipal responsible and local ones. Finally, it failed. Nowadays Tunis urban changes occurred at all several scales. Whereas, the capital was strangled by colonial edges: Civil prison and Charles Nicolle hospital in the West, Barracks in the South, Belvedere Park in the North, and the Lagoon Bouhaira8 (North Lake) in the East. Nevertheless, the urban growth went beyond these limits with the emergence of outskirts: Bab Souika in the North, and Bab al Djazira in the south. Moreover, new luxurious suburban quarters, developed all around Medina and peripheral spontaneous ones developed in a mushrooming way. A speedy urban growth was linked to a demographic decrease due to a various factors such as birth planning policy, new modern daily life

7 Casbah: a tour on hillock where existed the Bey castle.

8 Bouhaira: Lake. rhythms, women access to public space thanks to modern education and new legislations of women’s rights in Tunisia. The social movements, during post-colonization era, witnessed a discernible tendency towards a development of the individual housing. All over the world, the new rhythms of social changes involved a remarkable retirement to home. The family changed from wider to nucleus one, but it remains strongly anchored in the society. Bernard Haumont pointed out in this issue: "An individual house is more easily suitable than an apartment in contemporary post industrial societies." (Haumont, 2007: 40) Since the European settlements, the Medina profited from modern urban services such as water adduction, sewage network, and the use of new building materials: reinforced concrete, tailed stones, marble, and wrought iron. (Revault, Jacques, 1978). Thanks to the electrification, the telecommunication, and the Internet; the Medina is actually connected to the global urban network via these new information means. Since the sixteenth, a considerable awakening had grown among new elites concerning the Medina preservation and renovation. This is why the Association of Safeguard of the Medina was created. It achieved successfully the Hafsia project. The A.S.M undertook in collaboration with Tunis Municipality and UNESCO the renovation of the Hafsia quarter which had been fallen into decay. The Medina became an important place of retail and wholesale commerce; craft, artistic, and cultural activities flourished in the ancient town. Each year, in Ramadan (many practicing Moslem people fast during the day in this ‘holy’ month); many cultural activities animated the Medina in the evening. In 1960s, the State experienced a sort of socialist policy which failed, but it was followed by liberal ones and involved the emergence of new middle social classes. However, the actual and the upcoming Tunis urban development tendencies are actually in favor of the off-shore investments. The plethoric congestion of the main center of Tunis nearby the main Avenue Bourguiba was due to the development of many commercial, financial, and touristic activities. This important urban axis of colonial and modern architecture buildings constitutes the hyper center of Tunis. The urban development strategy of Tunis municipality, in the eleventh development plan, focused on the off-shore investments in order to promote the national economy, and to make of Tunis a global city of business, finance, and leisure. In consequence of the acute competing between worldwide cities to attract investors and tourists (Short, 2000), Tunis tends to become a metropolis on the horizons of 2030. Will it really reach this aim? In our opinion, it could be possible if the urban governances pay much more attention to the urban question in order to develop clear democratic urban policies. The real urbanity requires the implementation of urban institutions that should be applied by different actors who intervene in the construction of the ‘Humane Metropolis’9. (Platt, 2008:10). That means making of Tunis fun, green, and wealthy city.

9 ‘Humane Metropolis: this concept is more than a semantic counterpoint to the Exploding Metropolis (Platt, 2003; 2006). It represents paradigm shifts in thinking about urbanism and its possible outcomes. The Humane Metropolis was launched as the focus of 2002 symposium in New York City supported by the Lincoln Institute, Laurence S. Rock-Feller, and others.’ (Platt, 2003) and documented in the book The Humane Metropolis: people and nature In the 21st Century City (Platt, 2006). CHAPTER 2 SIJOUMI SEBKHA and PERI URBANIZATION

As it is written, Tunis is also read. In the post-colonial era, Tunis was perceived in the closest relationships with its environmental surroundings. Many natural components constituted obstacles to its harmonious spatial expanding. Jellaz Cemetery hills, Belvedere Park, Sijoumi Sebkha (West), Sebkhet Ariana (North), Lake of Tunis (East). They were traditionally wet areas, strangling the urban growth of Tunis. One can assert that the urban space is mainly a social network. It is, indeed, a representative sociological construct, full of a collective imaginary. It allows social interaction between people and their physical environment, as well as interaction between each other. This is why we have opted to study ‘Sijoumi Sebkha’ as an urban space. Source: Urbaconsult Introduction

The spatial representations are intimately linked to day-to-day life. This one does not only identify the physical practices but also the image constructed by its urban actors. Michel De Certeau pointed out: "Discursive practice accessible to ethnographic observation, constructs alternative images and boundaries of urban space." (De Certeau, 1984: 4). In other words, lived space is conceived as well as perceived. Henri Lefebvre once explained that space: "represents a person’s actual experience … in their everyday life. Lived space is not just a passive stage on which social life unfolds, but it represents a constituent element of the social life." (Lefebvre, 1991: 39). Conception and Realization P. A. Barthel, CNRS-UMR5600 http://cdlm.revues.org/docannexe/image/1513/img-1-small480.jpg consulté le Jeudi, 15/10/2009 à 11: 43 Urbanized space of Great Tunis Introduction

It is, indeed, a social and cultural construction. And so it is the case of Sijoumi area in Tunisia. The Sijoumi Sebkha is located in the west bank of Tunis. Its inhabitants are immigrants who come from the interior of Tunisia and settle there for various reasons. The most significant ones are the rural land ownership dismantled by the expropriation of many small peasants. This fact coupled with the low cost of land in Sijoumi and the regional affinities with the initial settlers. All these factors played a large part in the settlement in that area. One wonders how the inhabitants of this area perceive, live and conceive this urban space.

TABLE 2 RESULTS OF THE 2004 CENSUS Internal Migration Inter-governorate Migration by district (1999-2004)

Net Entering Outgoing migration Net migration immigrants migrants (1999- (1989-1994) 2004) Grand 200,3 141,8 58,5 47,8 Tunis North 41,5 37,0 4,5 -0,3 east North 25,2 70,5 -45,3 -35,9 West Eastern 106,6 57,0 49,6 18,6 central Western 22,1 74,6 -52,5 -23,9 central South 32,7 37,2 -4,5 -2,7 east South 16,2 26,5 -10,3 -3,6 west Total 444,6 444,6 0,0 0,0 Source: National Institute of Statistics (PHGC 2004)

Tunisia has a rich multicultural heritage including Phoenician, Carthaginian, and Roman, Arab, Muslim, and Andalusian ancestry. In the previous century, many local and global changes have occurred. But, among these changes, remnants of the cultural heritage are still prevalent in Sijoumi. It seems that the new cultural centralities could not be realized independently of the initial ones. This evokes the question of urban identities in relation with the sense of space. Now, compare these social changes to the evolution of the lake. Since the pre-colonial era, the configuration of the lake has changed. Besides, Tunisia is reconciling with its watercourses. The urban policy focuses on the development of the lake banks. Will the process of developing the waterfronts of Tunisia ensure an equal urban network? Could one presume that the current and future urban changes could be explained by the emergence of the peripheral mushrooming quarters? Could one think that the lake has so Introduction much impact upon its residents that they consider themselves as belonging more to these marginal quarters than to the city of Tunis? Sijoumi was a spontaneous, and a mushrooming urban area. However, it has recently gained its own administrative and political underpinning. The Tunisian state created a municipality in 2003. Since then, the Sijoumi landscape did undergo many urban changes.

Spontaneous quarter called ‘Hay Hellel’ in Tunis The Sebkha quarters are often presented as a dirty area, smelling bad, and made up of half built houses, red color brick-clay and many other syndromes linked to poverty. The appropriation of the space is subsequently a dark image of the social, economic and cultural position of its inhabitants in the urban network of Tunisia. Does this mean that these social anomies are often due to the suburb inhabitants? Bourdieu equally explained: "Talking about suburbs problems or ghettos conjure up almost automatically, some experiences lived elsewhere." (Bourdieu, 1993: 159). According to the author, the social agents had already inherited and embodied the material and the symbolic structures of their social classes. But, in our opinion, the urban syndrome is really due to the social movements and to the urban participants’ actions through the urban changes. In fact, the situation of the suburb could be explained by the urban governance concerning the whole political urban process in Tunisia. Our choice of studying the lake joins the understanding of the development strategies of Tunisia. In the same issue, Rennie Short, American Geographer argues: "The lake is important in the construction of the city. First, it highlights some of the pressure from the non business leaders and civic elite, their perception and their influences… Second, the lake has been central to the image of the city, not only as a body of water whose transformation into an isolated space is vital to a number of development schemes, but also as the whole city symbol." (Short, 1996: 446). Short’s thesis clarifies the view of certain space users in Tunis regarding Sijoumi quarters. By analyzing the perception of this urban space, we try to understand the sense of the space as evident through the everyday practices of Sijoumi quarters residents. We should, however, be aware that Kevin Lynch approach must be linked to the historical imaginary of the Tunisian society. In order to grasp an unbiased conceptualization of the Sebkha as an urban space, we must, also, get rid of some of the prejudices spread among the common opinion of Tunisia. Introduction

EMPIRICAL SURVEY

1. METHOD

1.1 Study areas In Tunisia, there was no farmland policy to protect green space, as it exists in France. The 1992c Act neglected the real problem of land speculation and the degradation of the countryside. In France, the Countryside Action Plan, or CAP’s main objective was to promote landscaping of farmland. The principles were set in a way to preserve a modern image of farming, protect the regional heritage, arrange roads with landscaping as well as integrate new buildings into their sites, develop the waterfront in the urban landscape, create new areas and pathways, and mould the landscape during the urban development process. Moez Bouraoui defines the CAP as follows: "The CAP has essentially become a land-use development project that reconciles agricultural production, land-use management and preservation and enhancement of the rural agricultural environment. It has, thus, become a project generated by local urban policy which does not seek to remove farmland for parks and public gardens, but rather encourages city dwellers and farmers to work for their mutual benefit, giving farmland a new role in the land-use organization of the peri-urban environment." (Bouraoui, 2000 online). Bouraoui’s view, however, is glaringly contrasted in Tunisia. According to Hafedh Sethom: "The latest urban planning documents being prepared for the Greater Tunis region such as the development plan of the Sebkha (saltwater lake) in Sijoumi, and the master land- use plan of the Greater Tunis. Both envision urbanization for almost all the farmland on the plain which will be only partially offset, embellished by new urban green space, such as parks and public gardens." (Sethom, 1992: 162) Introduction

Panorama of North Urbanized Sebkha zone (Hay Helel, Mellassine, Ez Zouhour, Harayriya… quarters)

In fact, Tunisian State had implemented several projects around the Sebkha such as: the highway connecting Sousse10, the southern areas, the city center and the Lake North of Tunisia. Flushing out the sebkha and its banks requires a great amount of investment and time. Rafik ben Charrada and Jan Vandenbroak pointed out on this issue: "To solve the pollution disaster of the lakes of Tunisia, an important project was started by the Society of Southern Lake Promotion. Their project consisted of creating a seawater flushing system by the construction of an overflow outlet driven by natural tidal forces." (Vandenbroak and Ben Charrada, 2001, online).

Disastrous floods (Sijoumi Sebkha, 2003)

In 2003, many houses were damaged by the floods Sijoumi Sebkha. Thus, the local authorities faced serious difficulties in pumping water out of the Sebkha. The strategy of Tunisian State is to integrate the area into the new urban network of Greater Tunis. As for the greenery, many areas will be eventually divided into real estate and not used as farmlands.

1.2 Hypotheses 1.1.1 Both, the inhabitants of Sidi H’sine and of Saïda Manoubia quarters of Sijoumi, perceive the lake surroundings in the same ways, although their quarters are located on the opposite sides of the lake.

10 Sousse is a coastal city in the North-East of Tunis. Introduction

2.1.1 How do the inhabitants perceive and convey their experience of their urban space through their view of the sebkha as a hollow of salted water? How do the inhabitants envision their lived urban space through the lake image? To better verify these hypotheses, we conducted a questionnaire.

2.2 Questionnaire design We designed a questionnaire related to our hypotheses. The questionnaire is composed of eighteen multiple-choice questions (QCM). The 32 subjects of the questionnaire were chosen at random and handed out to persons between the ages of 20-30 years. The questionnaire is divided into four sections. The first one is inspired by Kevin Lynch method in his city’s image study. Lynch tried to deduce the mental image perceived by the citizens of three American towns: Boston, Jersey City, and Los Angeles. We applied this method in order to explain the lake environment perception by the inhabitants of two quarters: Sidi Hsine and Es-Saïda Manoubia.

Sidi Hsine 1974

Sidi Hsine 1997 Introduction

Sebkha's banks infilling

In the second section, we focused on the visual identification of Sebkha dwelling space. This section involves both the appreciation of the elements, and their importance for the constitution of a spatial hierarchy, and for the demonstration of its various significations and evocations. In the third section, we attempt to expose the human scales, and the space-time perception influence. Finally, we place the socio-demographic variables at the end of the questionnaire to avoid, as much as possible, the interviewee’s reticence.