THE ARCHITECTURE OF PUBLIC BATHS OF TUNISIA: A TYPOLOGICAL ANALYSIS

The Punic, Roman, Byzantine and Islamic civilizations contributed with their architectural knowledge to the development of different public baths design. Based on previous historical work on the collective baths in the Mediterranean basin, and in particular Tunisia, this study aims to explore and analyse the hammāms (Islamic public baths) of Tunisia. This study uses a semantic and representative approach to help defi ne the components of the historic public bath, and to reveal its integration modes in the urban fabric of the medina, and eventually represent the functional diagrams of bathing practices. It clarifi es how the functioning mode of the bath is in direct relation with the evolution of the society (its lifestyle, its culture and its own paradigms) and classifi es these building types according to a semantic division of the architectural places. Hence and in order to analyze the hammām spaces, a matrix of incidence [An analytical tool which quantifi es the relations existing between the spaces of the same building] has been used. As a result of this analysis, three typologies of Tunisian hammāms have been identifi ed