André Ravéreau architetto viaggiatore : Scoperta, indagine e proiezione dell’"altro Mediterraneo"

The travel experiences proposed in this essay were made by an architect, André Ravéreau, who, motivated by the search for differences between the architectures of the world, arrives at the discovery of a “formless dust that crosses the Continents”. The analogies and differences between the cities visited by Ravéreau are fuelled and conveyed by his mental projection through his work. André Ravéreau (Limoges 1919-Aubenas 2017), a French architect virtually unknown in Italy, travelled along the Mediterranean coasts as far as the Sahara Desert, looking for opportunities to establish himself in his profession. From the 1960s he moved to Algeria, where he worked for about twenty years, also holding important positions: from 1965 to 1973, he was ‘Architecte en chef des monuments historiques d’Algérie’ (Architect in charge of the superintendence for the architectural and historical heritage of Algeria). This essay aims to highlight how Ravéreau’s numerous journeys correspond to important moments of discovery and acquisition of a plurality of information and images of the places he visited. These were reinterpreted and transferred into his projects and theoretical work.