Deciphering spatial identity using space syntax analysis:

The eastern Hodna, presented to the late 1990s a landscape marked by modest rural homes. In the early 2000s, this region was subjected to an accelerated process of economic changes, which had let appear a new domestic architectural framework, commonly called "DiarCharpenti". The goal of this paper is to focus on the internal space layout of this new type of houses and decrypt its identity and emergence. Thus, the key question of this investigation is to see whether, or to what extent, their spatial structure is in consistency with the domestic architectural repertoire of this region. The methodology used for the investigation is based on two different approaches. The first one is qualitative: typology (Panerai, Demorgon, & Depaule, 2002). The second approach is quantitative: the space syntax (Hillier, 1996). The verification of the comparative parameters called upon a new method that we developed ourselves: the counting of the integration / segregation percentage. This research has shown that ancestral models of Hodna are, indeed, the ascendant types of 70% of specimens, which proves that the spatiality of "DiarCharpenti" is therefore rather primitive than original. This article was able to provide information on the architectural elements which have always represented for the Hodni, through generations, a real consensus, and has shed light on the new design preferences which now form the new style of the Hodna. This could help those responsible for the "act of building" to better design and plan residential housing in these rural Algerian regions.