Meet the Author
Alia Bengana
Alia Bengana is a French-Algerian architect, teacher, and author. For almost fifteen years, she has explored sustainable materials, with a focus on raw earth and natural fibers. She combines her architectural practice with teaching at the EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale) in Lausanne, the HEIA (Haute école d’ingénierie et d’architecture) in Fribourg, Switzerland, and at the EAV&T Paris-Est (École d’architecture de la ville & des territoires Paris-Est) in Champs-sur-Marne, France. She co-authored Béton, la fin d’une ère ? (Concrete, the end of an era?, Heidi.news, 2021), which was recently adapted as a graphic novel entitled Béton, enquête en sables mouvants (Presses de la Cité, 2024), an educational and entertaining book that questions our dependence on concrete and puts forward sustainable alternatives. She is a regular contributor to the French-speaking Swiss architecture magazine Tracés. In 2025–2026, she will be a resident at Villa Medici in Rome, where she will lead a project on architectural details and the simplification of construction methods, integrating proximity, natural materials, and temporality.
