“Behold the new Algiers: instead of the leprous sores that have marred the bay and the slopes of the Sahel, now there is architecture... the masterful, precise, and magnificent play of forms in the light.”
In 1930, coinciding with the centenary of French rule in Algeria, Le Corbusier began developing an urban plan for Algiers. The Swiss architect believed the city was destined to become the capital of North Africa and an international Mediterranean hub on par with Barcelona or Marseille. This urban project would occupy him for eleven years, from 1931 to 1942, resulting in six proposals that sparked widespread public debate but were never realized.
The Plan Obus was structured around two main elements: a new financial and commercial district—to be built by demolishing part of the Casbah—and a curved coastal highway, connected to six lower and twelve upper levels, where individuals could design their own homes. Overall, the structure could accommodate up to 180,000 people.
Conceived as a linear city, the new Algiers responded to the four fundamental functions identified by Le Corbusier: living, working, cultivating body and spirit, and circulating. However, in seeking a solution to universal urban problems, the Plan Obus radically transformed the landscape, reinforced the separation between workers and European elites, and minimized Algerian social and cultural traditions. While Le Corbusier expressed enthusiasm in his writings of the time for Algiers’ vernacular architecture, gardens, and terraces, he ultimately favored a rational architecture that abandoned any pursuit of “poetic primitivism” in favor of integrating preindustrial buildings into the urban fabric.
