The Kabyle house or the genius of the ancestors 
Axxam taεrict meble, meble am Taddart taqcict
Building a house is for the mountaineer Kabyle, a self-fulfillment, a realization of one of the foundations of his identity: Axxam, Enif, el Horma. He can not imagine life without building its own roof! Axxam is a multidimensional concept Amazigh. It refers to both the housing in the physical sense, the household as a social and economic sense, refuge, shelter, protective psychological dimension in her family and finally, in the broadest sense, a cell in a social group, with all obligations and parental relationships and vertical and horizontal branches.
marry without constructing a house is a nonsense for the Kabyle citizens, so it has its place in the assembly peasant village as done after having built his house, however modest elle.Le Axxam term is a reference that comes up in the Berber oral literature very often. Thus, to qualify the extrovert who handles the affairs of others it says "Our Syezmir Axxam-is it AADT Yedem Amez" or "Unable to clean his house, he goes to clean the mosque." Describing the lag slackers who lives in the effort of his brothers and sisters or under the authority of his apprentices is said: "thaxxamt sedaw wexxam" or "the little house in the great".
The Kabyle house ancestor duplex
The architecture of the habitat in Kabylia has known since independence a fundamental transformation from the Kabyle house ancestral village part of a harmonious, total and functional, an individual building Modern multi-level, with intermediate forms, as the court mas with the Turkish house in the courtyard or chalet terrasse.Il is more typical architecture Kabyle. The villages are evolving into anarchy in outgrowths concrete soulless, it is the building on two levels, a ground-to shoe garages and a second level of the home familial.La philosophy that has always underpinned the habitat in the Kabylia region, was little changed by cons or very peu.La Kabyle house was designed in a spirit of 'extreme usefulness. It's much more work space and a place of creativity and rest détente.Autrefois the barn that housed the animals were attached to the great hall, now the garage that serves as a shop, or coffee shop is under the same roof as the family home. The logic of utility always trumps that of pleasure. Ancestor of the duplex apartment on two levels in the same living space, home of the mountain of Kabylia been handed down such ancestors is now a tourist attraction an object of study for architects, sociologists and social anthropologists.
It has more functionality today originelle.Ighil Laqrar is the first village of Ait common Melikèche encountered going up the valley Soumam. A small hamlet of two hundred souls, model village Kabyle mountain with his mausoleum (Sidi Lebsir), the agora (tajmaat), its source (tala) female space par excellence, gardens (timizar). All houses built on both sides of the single lane have been rebuilt after independence in a new scheme, new standards. Only the remains of the late Hadj Salah is still standing, original as it was built in the early siècle.Une heavy wooden door crude two-part, manually produced by artisans Ighil Ali opens onto a courtyard shaded by a fig and treille.C east entrance of the house expresses its identity and social status of owners. Also grant your special attention to the facade. Afrag, the courtyard female space par excellence is divided into two functional parts. The sunny side reserved for the storage timber, drying clothes, canned annual figs, olives, peppers and other spices and herbs. The opposite side, shaded under the vine or the olive more in demand during the hot season, is in the rest of the animals during times of heat wave azal punctuated by daily tanalt taste. A backdoor thakharadjit overlooks the rear of the house where is located the dressing room and warehouse fumier.L barn (adaynin) is the first level of the house, it holds the wealth of the peasant and working facilities. A pair of oxen, donkeys, the Kabyle peasant sober friend, the goat and its young one to two sheep. The barn overlooks the large family room with a small stone stairway that cuts a stone wall riddled with deadly separating the two spaces - the barn serves as the central heating for the whole animal heat maison.La back in the big room then to invade the attic and the upper chamber Tissi taghorfets. At the back of the barn, a chancellor lemdaoud dérobée.On is built to house the logs, the logs dry, the feed (straw, hay, barley, oats, carob and leaf ash). Taxxamt, distributes the large common room on the upper house, the loft, yard and barn. It serves as lounge, kitchen, bedroom and bathroom for children in domestic work and accomplishment ménagères.Tasga spots, the day part lit facing the entrance door is bounded by the single wall which serves the blind mountain loom. El Kanoun, the kitchen is organized around the hearth juxtaposed to the altar-stone tadoukan - which are stored in the kitchen and the usual food (olive oil, semolina wheat and barley, beans crushed, condiments). Adoukan is a bed of stone built on a meter in height against the day, left the large room from the entrance. This is the master of the house layer. It serves, stair climbing wall in the loft where rows provisions canned fruit (figs, pomegranates, olives), dried meats achedlouh, grains of the year (irden, timzin, ahvacha, ivawen ...) . Only the hostess has access to the store and keeps the key from his belt sewn.
The Kabyle house grows with the family. Before marrying the son, he built a house next to the father. Over time and generations, the villages were formed. Houses solidarity that build on each other, communicate their heat, their sounds, their pain, their lives. The children copied to parents who had reproduced the ancestral home without modifier.Après independence, the rural exodus has emptied the villages of Kabylia that emigration has been significantly reduced. New ideas came disrupt the old houses of their forefathers. It was demolished by necessity, as land is scarce, to reconstruct large buildings, Copies sometimes successful but often missed, and houses of Europe! The emigrant brought back in his memory a new vision. Kabyle well in a competition, it has engaged in the construction of buildings on several floors that are occupied only during the summer period the year remaining empty During.the.Camera.Setup.step.of.the.installation clay, stone and wood is hardly meets Additionally, builders can build a house on the old model with stone Azrou Gross, mortar clay tikhmirt a wood frame, and tile ijga Roman aqarmoud as cover.
Realizing this
duplex with lower house, an extension in height with a separating floor and a basement for the team and the stake is not within reach of anybody. Mason craftsmen nowadays prefer the easy to lay concrete block, cement and sand as mortar and concrete slab for cover. All good square, unadorned, without flaws, but also and often unattractive, unappealing. If The Hacen, who has kept intact the home of his ancestors explains the philosophy Kabyle in construction: "It's a natural need to build. The Kabyle who does not realize his house is not a man.
Edifier his home, earn bread for her children, to protect his wife, enhance its properties and participate in the collective effort tiwizi, that among other values that underpin those kabylité. The nif is everything that goes into relationships with others, pay its debts, redeem the land of their ancestors, defend the village, to honor the region, save the orphan and the widow or protect the disabled! Horma is the key to everything inside, filling his wife, to protect her daughters through education, defining its territory, home and preserving privacy. Be ready to defend his people against any predator. The gun is a defense of nif and Horma. The peasant needed all this explanation Kabyle values to support the "defensive character" of the Kabyle house. "Axxam is a whole, it must be closed, secure and inviolable.
The Kabyle house in form and performs utility sécuritaires.Elle has no windows, it has loopholes cons who control all the aisles around. An emergency exit is provided, thakharadjit. The upper chamber taghorfets, allows a vision of a circulinaire part of the village where the assailant may arise. "No peasant built his house. It is a time of great solidarity. If, climbing walls and requires just a mason apprentice, foundation and roof require the participation of all village.La laying of the ridge beam, ajgou Alema, is a special time. This is a rough-hewn tree trunk that is transported from the forest with ropes and the elevation of force of arms on the top of the walls. "Bring ajgou Forest is a holiday, remember, El Hacen the mountain. A procession of young lads going on the hand and take turns in large load across the fields. Children accompany the procession of singing, choirs. Some even bring exuberant drummers idebalen all ends clearly a couscous. "The materials used in the construction of the Kabyle house are those found on site. Strong waterproof, easy to work, they provide perfect protection from heat and cold.
The stone is abundant in Kabyle. The option, granite, basalt, limestone of various colors are prepared in terraces aghalad during the long days of spring. It draws the quantities needed to construction as needed. - The clay or marl, mixed with water and straw, giving a thick paste using a mortar binding the stone wall. The roof is tiled Roman. It is built up on both sides separated by the ridge beam. A bed of poles Tassara based on the two intermediate purlins and wall plate on each side of the roof tile .- The round is placed on the coating of marl fill the frame as a woven reed clissage perch on the bed. Each round tile installed on the back gets two tiles in his stomach and the tightness is guaranteed. A row of large stones ensures immobility! Conduct a roof is an act of village solidarity. Three teams were mobilized. This prepares the mortar tahourt, which lays the tiles, and the group that provides the link between the two teams. Everything takes place under the watchful eye of an experienced master-cons, a leader of men who defines the tasks of each and ensure their proper implementation. Abenay, the builder puts his hand on the dough, check the consistency of mortar, clean the tiles, the strength of the reed frame and especially the start of laying tuiles.De the laying of the tile depends on the harmony of the work. Building stone land and land covered with wood and tile (clay), the Kabyle house squat, crushed, ensures maximum protection against cold and chaleur.Cette still meets the hygiene conditions in all known civilizations. Built on high ground, away from swamps and rivers, it is always oriented so that the sun visits and désinfecte.De such houses tend to disappear. We built differently nowadays. For reasons of comfort, space and convenience you copy the Europeans. Often mal.La Kabyle house is the physical control of a lifestyle, an environment and culture that exist plus.Dans every village in Kabylia, one of these old houses still defies time, they are kept for nostalgia, memory is the testimony of the genius of our ancestors.
Source: Rachid Oulebsir,
"La Depeche de Kabylie" 07 August 2004.
