This course provides fundamental technical knowledge in urban engineering (VRD – Voiries et Réseaux Divers), essential for the training of urban planners. It focuses on the principles of design, dimensioning, and implementation of urban roadways and utility networks, including water supply, sanitation, stormwater drainage, electricity, public lighting, and gas networks.
Through a structured approach combining theory and practical concepts, the course enables students to understand, interpret, and formalize urban development and infrastructure plans while considering technical constraints, safety, sustainability, and environmental impacts
- Teacher: MEBARKI IMANE
- Teacher: SABIHA BELGUESMIA
- Teacher: TAIBI SOFIANE
- Teacher: DJELAD NADIA
Urban planning is a scientific, technical and political discipline concerned with the organisation and planning of inhabited space at all scales - from the individual dwelling to the metropolis, from the neighbourhood to the national territory. Born in response to the crises of the industrial city in the nineteenth century - insalubrity, overcrowding, absence of services - urban planning has progressively established itself as an autonomous field, at the intersection of architecture, geography, economics, sociology and political science.
The discipline rests on a fundamental tension: between description and prescription, between understanding the urban phenomenon as it is and producing visions of what it should be. This tension runs through each of the theories we will encounter - from Le Corbusier's utopias, to Jane Jacobs's critiques, to the resilient approaches that structure contemporary planning.
The urban planner: a mediator of territorial complexity
The urban planner is not an architect working at large scale, nor a practising geographer, nor a territorial administrator. As Lacaze (1995) describes, they are a 'mediator of urban complexity': a professional capable of articulating multiple disciplinary knowledges, of engaging with actors whose interests diverge (State, local authorities, developers, inhabitants, civil society), and of translating a long-term vision into concrete acts and regulations.
In Algeria, the profession of urban planner is governed by Law No. 90-29 of 1 December 1990 on spatial planning and urbanism, supplemented by Executive Decree No. 91-175 of 28 May 1991. The legislative framework distinguishes regulatory instruments (PDAU, POS) from programming instruments (SNAT, PAW). The urban planner operates at all these scales, from the design of national schemes to the drafting of neighbourhood regulations.
Planning tools
Urban planning practice mobilises a range of complementary tools. Regulatory instruments (PDAU - Master Plan, POS - Land Use Plan) define building rights and zoning that are legally binding on third parties. Strategic instruments (SNAT - National Spatial Planning Scheme, PAW - Wilaya Development Plan) set the major development orientations at national and regional scale. Analytical tools (territorial diagnosis, GIS, surveys) enable understanding of the territory before intervening. Finally, consultation and participation tools (public inquiries, participatory workshops, digital models) guarantee the democratic legitimacy of planning choices.
Key references
• Choay, F. (1965). L'Urbanisme, utopie et réalité. Paris: Seuil. - Founding work of urban planning theory history.
• Jacobs, J. (1961). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Random House. - Major critique of functionalist modernism.
• Saidouni, M. (2001). Éléments d'introduction à l'urbanisme: histoire, méthodologie, réglementation. Alger: Casbah. - Essential Algerian reference.
• Merlin, P. & Choay, F. (dir.) (2015). Dictionnaire de l'urbanisme et de l'aménagement. Paris: PUF. - Comprehensive disciplinary dictionary.
• Hall, P. & Tewdwr-Jones, M. (2019). Urban and Regional Planning. Routledge (6th ed.). - Standard international planning textbook.
• Farhi, A. Le phénomène urbain: ses causes et ses conséquences. Université de Biskra. - Urban phenomenon in the Algerian context.
- Teacher: ROUBAI CHORFI NABIL