Berber earthen architecture is rooted in the pre-Saharan landscape, defining a precarious balance between built environment and natural space. While the nomad inhabits the infinite space of the desert with the ephemeral lightness of their tents, the oasis and the settlement represent rootedness, defence, and permanence. These settlements, persisting despite their vulnerability, are at once refuges and vital nodes along the caravan routes that connected the Maghreb with the Sahel, guardians of trade, culture, and knowledge transmitted orally and manifested in architecture and decorative artefacts.
Earthen architectures emerge as expressions of a fragile balance between protection and openness, bearing witness to ancestral building wisdom. Their fascination is manifested in the material remains and numerous earthen ruins that vanish alongside new urban expansions, evoking centuries of commercial and cultural wealth in their connection to the landscape.
The possibilities offered by digital documentation represent a powerful evocative and communicative tool, capable of codifying and conveying the features and complexities of an architecture destined to disappear, opposing the cultural and formal disintegration unfortunately imposed by this time.
