A Pedagogical Approach to Landscape Reading, Interpretation and Heritage Valorisation
Saida Hammami Habibi
Using Sidi Bou Saïd as a living, open-air laboratory, Saida Hammami Habibi explores how observation, interpretation and landscape design can help students understand cultural landscapes and develop sensitive, context-aware approaches to heritage.
Sidi Bou Saïd is an emblematic Mediterranean cultural landscape, where architecture, topography, vegetation, spirituality, and the sea come together to create a unique sense of place. Its iconic white-and-blue architecture, winding streets, gardens, viewpoints, and relationship with the Gulf of Tunis express a strong cultural identity shaped by centuries of interaction between people and their environment. Its inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage List on 25 July 2026 recognizes the outstanding universal value of this living landscape and highlights the importance of preserving both its tangible and intangible heritage.
Heritage as a Living Landscape
Sidi Bou Saïd can be understood as a living cultural landscape, where historical layers interact with contemporary uses, natural structures, social practices and cultural representations. This perspective considers both material heritage and the meanings associated with the landscape.
In a partnership between the Sidi Bou Said Youth Center and the Lella Salha Art & Craft Workshop-Gallery, artistic workshops were organized under the guidance of artist Kamel Khechana from Lella Salha.
This upcycled artwork was created by young people from the village of Sidi Bou Said using only plastic waste, paper, and other discarded items found on the ground—in the village, forest, on the hillside, and at the beach. We collected, sorted, and used these materials to create the piece, basing the design on a 1966 postcard view of the village
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Landscape Design as a Pedagogical Approach
Within the Landscape Engineering program at the High Agronomic Institute of Chott Meriem, Sidi Bou Saïd serves as a living, open-air pedagogical laboratory. The site enables students to confront theoretical knowledge with the complexity of a real cultural landscape through a progressive and experiential methodology based on observation, description, analysis, interpretation, conceptualisation, and design. This approach encourages students to develop a sensitive understanding of place while learning to translate landscape values, spatial relationships, and heritage characteristics into meaningful and context-sensitive design proposals.
Sensory Perception and Landscape Reading
The process begins with direct sensory observation. Students explore spatial sequences, atmospheres and significant landscape elements. Individual perceptions are encouraged as a means of revealing the diversity and complexity of landscape readings.
Observation Filters as an Analytical Tool
Observation filters guide students through key dimensions such as topography, urban morphology, architecture, vegetation, materials, colours, circulation, uses, historical traces, visual relationships and symbolic elements. They transform perception into structured observation and facilitate comparison between different readings of the same territory.
Fig. 4 Landscape perception and reading (2022)
From Analysis to Interpretation
Analysis identifies spatial structures, continuities, ruptures and landscape values. Interpretation connects these elements with historical processes, cultural meanings, social practices and collective memory. Students move from “What is present?” to “How is it organized?” and “What values does it express?”.
A Holistic and Multiscalar Approach
The methodology combines territorial, urban and architectural scales, examining relationships between the village, topography, coastline and Gulf of Tunis, as well as streets, gardens, public spaces, façades and visual sequences. The landscape is thus understood as an interconnected system.
From Landscape Diagnosis to Project Concept
The diagnosis identifies landscape values, potentials, vulnerabilities and issues, providing the basis for a landscape intention and structuring concept. The sequence Observe | Describe | Analyze | Interpret | Conceptualize | Design ensures that project decisions emerge from territorial knowledge.
Landscape Design and Heritage Valorisation
Landscape design becomes a mediating tool between heritage, territory and society. It combines heritage conservation with the interpretation of landscape dynamics and the development of interventions compatible with local identity.
Understanding in Order to Act Effectively
The Sidi Bou Saïd experience demonstrates that landscape design can be simultaneously a method of territorial knowledge, an interpretative process and an instrument of heritage valorisation. By placing understanding before intervention, students develop sensitive, critical and context-aware approaches to cultural landscapes.
Keywords: Cultural landscape; Landscape design; Heritage valorisation; Landscape pedagogy; Sidi Bou Saïd.