Alia Bengana

Alia Bengana (born 1975 in Algiers) is an Algerian-French architect, teacher, independent researcher, and author. For the past fifteen years, she has explored natural materials, with a particular focus on raw earth and plant fibers. Her work weaves together design practice, research, and pedagogy. She has taught in Switzerland and France, notably at EPFL Lausanne (2021–2024), HEIA Fribourg, and the École d'architecture de la ville et des territoires Paris-Est. A fellow at the Villa Medici – Académie de France in Rome in 2025–2026, she is developing there, together with Tiphaine Abenia, a research and representation project on constructive simplicity conceived as a realignment of building practices with contemporary urgencies: frugality, reversibility, clarity of systems, and territorial grounding.