مختارات من عمارة العالم العربي 1914-2014 (ص 43)

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عنوان

مختارات من عمارة العالم العربي 1914-2014 (ص 43)

المحتوى

Libya
A. Kassou
The landing of Halian troops on the shores of Tripoli in 1911 was the
start of the Italian occupation of Tripolitania and Cyrenaica, unified
in 1934 as Libya. On this vast territory, the politics of fascist power
would leave their mark, mostly in the 1930s, with monuments sym-
bolizing new ideologies. Thus, if the architecture of the 1920s was
somewhat similar to what was being built elsewhere at the same
period, with relatively clear references to Art Deco or Arabisance,
in the 1930s there was a significant break with the past and with the
architecture of neighboring countries. Architecture at the service of
the fascist regime is probably most starkly epitomized by the eques-
trian statue of the Duce with his sword drawn. This is in addition to
the Triumphal Arch on the coastal road built by Florestano di Fausto,
an architect representative of the fascist regime who had conceived
in Libya, among other monuments, the Grand Hotel in Tripoli. One
of the major acts of Italian colonization in Libya was the creation
from scratch of many agricultural villages aimed at housing settlers.
These villages, housing between 1,000 to 1,500 inhabitants, were
built around a main central square bordered by buildings such as a
church, the Casa del Fascio, the office of the chief of Police, a school,
and a cafe. Among these is Gioda, al-Krarim Rural Settlement in
Tripolitania built in 1938 by Umberto Di Segni.
Libya was the first of the Maghreb countries to achieve independ-
ence in 1951, but in 1969, a military coup toppled the Monarchy, and
a dictatorship was instituted in this vast country, rich in oil and gas
reserves but with a tiny population of less than two million in the
1960s, and less than six million at present.
The welfare state followed by a police state achieved a lot in
the 1970s and 1980s: housing, schools, health-related buildings,
and infrastructure, some of which born out of nowhere. Among the
remarkable major projects of the time is the Garyounis-Benghazi
University designed by James Cubitt and Partners and built between
1968 and 1978.
With the exception of some important buildings in the Capital and
less so in Benghazi (both of which were bases for national companies
and administration), little remarkable architecture was produced.
The progressive removal of the embargo in the 1990s gave the oppor-
tunity for French, British, and Italian companies to win commissions
for large-scale projects funded by oil revenues. The overthrow of the
Gaddafi regime in 2011 has plunged Libya into uncertainty; this makes
it hard to speculate on future architectural production in the country.
Texts translated from French by Georges Rabbath
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مختارات من عمارة العالم العربي 1914-2014

تاريخ

2014

المنشئ

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