Alia Bengana (Algeria, 1975) is an architect, lecturer, researcher and author. For the past fifteen years, she has been exploring natural materials, with a particular focus on rammed earth and fibres. She combines her architectural practice with teaching in Switzerland and France, notably at the HEIA Fribourg, the École d’architecture de Paris-Est and the EPFL in Lausanne. Her writing, which is both specialised and accessible to the general public, stands as a militant commitment to transforming the way we build. Co-author of *Béton, la fin d’une ère ?* (Heidi.news, 2021), she has adapted this investigation into a comic book entitled Béton, enquête en sables mouvants (Presses de la Cité, 2024), an educational and entertaining work that questions our dependence on concrete and explores sustainable alternatives. As a resident at the Villa Medici in 2025–2026, she explored, through drawing and the construction of fragments, understated architectural gestures rooted in local materials. This work draws on the constructive frugality of Roman architecture to challenge industrial standardisation. In collaboration with Tiphaine Abenia, this project will give rise to a book and an exhibition entitled Simplicités: enquêtes constructives.
