Users' Choice City winner of the #GBCSAwards 2016: Cité Tafilelt Tajdite (Algeria)
Tafilelt is the first green city of the Sahara. The project was born, 20 years ago, in the minds of a group of intellectuals, architects and scientists, aiming to make the desert florish and to solve the housing crisis. Today, the city, nestled on top of a plateau above the M’Zab valley in the south of Algeria, presents more than 1,000 houses built in local stone.
Tafilelt is a popular initiative with an ecological and a social conscience, allowing thousands of people with low income to find a home, while preserving the way of life of the mozabite community.
The chosen approach is based on 7 elements: series work, optimal use of local materials, rational management of human and financial resources, implementation of subordinate workshops, teams motivation, coordination between social action and construction, constantly improving the construction processes and design of houses.
Tafilelt is based on the city of Ghardaïa, World Heritage Site by UNESCO, famous for its whitewashed houses pressed against one another, an ecoconstruction and an energy-sober building model.
- Contractor : Fondation Amidoul
- Developer: Dr. Ahmed Nouh, Moussa Amara
- Address : Ghardaia, Algeria