Author(s)

Feran Özge Güven Ulusoy & Berna Üstün

Abstract

In the traditional Turkish house, the relationships of the spatial items are not composed of just inner dynamics. The near environment and the desire to be related to the public space form an environmental dynamic. The relationships between the public and private space do not occur with rapid space differences. There is a good balance and harmony by the help of transition spaces from public to private or exterior to interior. This significant feature is peculiar to traditional houses. For the reason that culture, lifestyles, technology and construction systems have started to change, both houses and these relationships are transformed to a sharper spatial transition. The spaces defined or bordered by a wall or an eave or a projection can be the place of women to be socialized in front of their houses. Within the light of this information, the study aims to reach an evaluation of public–private space distinctions of traditional Turkish house and its near environment by the help of drawings, schemes and photos. in order to reach this evaluation, first the written and visual sources of traditional Turkish house are scrutinized and next, by the help of some main sources and drawings, schemes of the houses in section and plan are drawn. at last, the open–close and public–private space evaluations are revealed in the schemes by the help of colours. The methods to make these evaluations the sources of public–private concept pairs are studied and essentially, the inflexible lifestyle and related usage of spaces in a traditional Turkish house are observed. The decision to make private–public distinctions physical borders such as walls, eaves, projections, fences, windows, the other openings, level differences are made use of within the usage of spaces by the whole family members such as the women, men of the house or kids. This study tries to handle all of the houses widespread in anatolia within the diversifying types in order to emphasize the richness relations, types and combinations of them. it is thought to be applied to any region or type in detail such as West anatolia houses or ankara houses or the houses with open sofa.

Keywords

culture and house, public and private, traditional houses, traditional urban fabric, Turkish house.