Alia Bengana (Algeria, 1975) is an architect, educator, independent researcher, and author. For the past 15 years, she has been exploring natural materials, with a particular focus on earth and plant fibers. She combines her architectural practice with teaching in Switzerland and France (EPFL Lausanne, HEIA Fribourg, Paris-Est).
Her writing—addressed both to specialists and a wider audience—reflects a committed stance toward transforming the way we build. Co-author of Concrete, the End of an Era? (Heidi.news, 2021), she recently adapted this investigation into a graphic novel, Concrete, An Inquiry into Shifting Sands (Presses de la Cité, 2024), an educational and playful work that questions our dependence on concrete and explores sustainable alternatives.
In 2025–2026, she will be a resident at the Villa Medici in Rome. Her project explores, through drawing and the construction of fragments, how to reinvent modest, locally grounded architectural details as a response to industrial standardization, inspired by the constructive frugality of Roman architecture.
