Along the canal, a new city is born

The colonial city turns the back on a 3000-year-old city. A city in miscellaneous stratifications who develops, also, along a port. The old harbour, a small fishing port that pene¬trates into the old town and divides it, having the Byzantine fort “the Kasbah” on its north side and a small fortification in the South, “the Ksiba”. Both fortifications, the houses, the small boats of the fishermen, coloured and accosted in the quay, offer to the port a picturesque aspect. Which explains the interest and the importance that gives Bizertin People to this privileged space.

However, a project of a big tourist port “Marina Cap 3000” along the Est-coast throws these last years. The project in-cludes quays for mega-yacht, a commercial part and ends with the arrangement of a residential tower in the entrance of the old harbour. It was the reason of conflict between the inhabitants of the Ksiba and the projects entrepreneurs and even brought into conflict the political parties of the region. With this last point, I would have evoked the three protagonists of the Bizertes urban landscape. Indeed, the centre of Bizerte is constituted by an old town “the Medina”, a colonial city and by contemporary architecture “Marina Cap 300”. My thesis articulates around two important chapters. At first, I will analyse the evolution of the urban form of the city since its origin. I will focus on the Medina (precolonial city) and on the colonial city demonstrating their specificities and highlighting the conflicts generated by their oppositions. This first part ends with the post-colonial city where I will quote the episode of Marina Cape 3000, project which was very much talked about and on which the notices are debated in Bizerte. Secondly, I will propose an experimental project, which represents an intervation on the heart of the fabric tissue of the old district the Ksiba.