Architectural quality through the integration of users' viewpoints in architectural design: Case study Pouillon's Diar Es Saada

Abstract

After the Second World War, the housing production processes went through industrialisation in order to deal with the quantity crisis. Since then, the housing quality management has been inspired by the manufacturing industry approaches. Several approaches have been proposed to ensure this quality through the control of the design process. These approaches quantify the quality and make it measurable according to indicators. Consequently, the quality management concerns the building much more, as an industrial product, rather than an architectural object. This problem affects the housing sector more than services buildings. In the 1950s, Fernand Pouillon handled this housing crisis with the construction of housing estates by opting for a quality of the architectural object. This was through a new interpretation of the architectural composition, which takes into account the pedestrian viewpoints (viewing angles). It was inspired by the arrangement principle of the buildings of the Acropolis of Athens. In this paper, the goal is to consider the possibility of a new focus on the architectural quality of housing estates by the integration of the users' viewing angles in the architectural composition. It will be through the analysis of the housing estate in Algeria, "Diar Es Saada" of Pouillon.