Socio-Spatial Practices of a Community Living Beneath the Land in Beni Zelten, South-Eastern Tunisia

Houda Driss analyses ancestral ways of occupying and appropriating space within the ‘troglodytic’ dwellings in the village of Beni Zelten, located in southeast Tunisia. Her research examines this architecture with respect to its natural environment and historical longevity, before identifying and analysing the socio-spatial practices inside these living spaces. The combination of theoretical and practical aspects of troglodytic spaces enables her to enumerate the activities practised in this context, which she then classifies according to the user type, degree of privacy and frequency of practice. In this way, she demonstrates how the underground dwellings in the Tunisian village of Beni Zelten reflect and respond to the natural environment, social factors and cultural values.