| Summary: | This paper undertakes a fractal analysis of spontaneous self-built neighbourhoods within Algerian cities. It focuses on a city called Batna and situated in the East of the country. Three phases structure this research work. First, the fractal analysis of the morphological identity of four spontaneous self-built neighbourhoods; second, the verification of the hypotheses related to the morphological characteristics of spontaneous self-built neighbourhoods in comparison to two planned self-built neighbourhoods; and finally, the comparative study of morphological identity between spontaneous self-built neighbourhoods and two other traditional self-built agglomerations. Correlation and dilatation analysis methods have been used in this research in order to study the built-up areas and their urban boundaries.The results showed that spontaneous self-built neighbourhoods have a distinguishing morphological identity that reflects the existence of distinct elements: the correct adaptation to the land relief, the hierarchy of public thoroughfare as well as the complexity of the urban blocks forms. Those elements constitute a specific morphological system. This morphological identity is the result of the communities’ lifestyles and the pragmatic logic of construction. The research could figure out that fractal features of spontaneous self-built neighbourhoods represent a median between the ones of planned self-built neighbourhoods and the ones related to traditional self-built agglomerations. This research is a preliminary study about the fractal features of spontaneous self-built neighbourhoods in Batna city. Future researches will aim at extending this study to other morphological features of neighbourhoods from a larger number of Algerian cities.
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