ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book analyzes the rise and decline, in some cases, of markets as well as their future role in developing a collective local identity, providing a place for social equality and diversity, and shaping sustainable community practices in place making. It presents the Attaba Vegetable Market Hall in Cairo, a case where the market hall reflects a changing hegemony, a shift in the established urban grid, and the continuous evolution of the social and commercial life it creates both inside and outside its walls. The book explores Algeria’s La Lyre Market, a less researched market, to analyse its urban, architectural, and social roles, where it creates a trading location embedded in the cultural differences of the city’s residential communities. It also explores the complexity of urban and architectural ambience in a demolished nineteenth-century colonial market in the Saharan city of Biskra, Algeria.
