The Ottoman House: Papers from the Amasya Symposium, 24-27 September 1996

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BRITISH INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY AT ANKARA Monograph 26

THE OTTOMAN HOUSE Papers from the Amasya Symposium, 24-27 September 1996

Edited by

Stanley Ireland & William Bechhoefer

Published by The British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara and The University of Warwick

British Institute ofArchaeology at Ankara c/o British Academy, 10 Carlton House Terrace London SW1Y 5AH University of Warwick Coventry CV4 7AL

This book is available from Oxbow Books Park End Place, Oxford, OX1 1HN

ISBN 1 898249 12 1 ISSN 0969-9007

© The authors

All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the authors.

The front cover shows the riverfront houses ofAmasya The back cover shows a frieze from the Y1ldrz Palace, Istanbul

Typeset by S. Ireland and G. Coulthard Printed by Stephen Austin & Sons Ltd, Hertford

PREFACE

The present volume is in many respects the offspring of a chance meeting in Amasya in 1994 between one of its editors, the then Acting-Director of the British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara and one of Amasya's architects, a meeting that within hours was to involve the city's governor and a host of local officials. The subject of that meeting centred upon the efforts being made within the city to preserve its heritage of traditional housing. The outcome was a proposal for an International Symposium both to celebrate Ottoman house architecture, which has had an important influence upon many western architects, and also to underline the dangers faced by established urban patterns within the area that once formed the Ottoman empire. The organiser was happy to accept the offer of the city authorities to hold the Symposium in Amasya, which lies well to the east of Ankara, not only because this is one of the few urban foundations left within Turkey that still possesses a relatively intact quarter of traditional domestic architecture, including a magnificent river frontage, but also in recognition of the efforts being made to restore and maintain this as a living entity. Traditional domestic architecture the world over has attracted increasing attention over the past decades. This interest, however, has often been powerless to halt or even to slow the pace at which such historic areas have disappeared before the onslaught of modem redevelopment, which all too often replaces the unique with the uniform, and buildings adapted to local conditions with those that take no account of their environment or the comfort of those who inhabit them. A prime aim of the Symposium, therefore, was to demonstrate the diversity and adaptive nature of traditional Ottoman architecture, to emphasise its still valid, contemporary potential for providing humane living space, and to underline the importance of preserving what remains, both within Turkey and in a wider context, not simply as islands of existence to amuse the tourist, or exhibits in some kind of museum theme-park, but as real neighbourhoods where modem life can continue to evolve. The efforts being made in Amasya to discover a way of preserving the living essence of traditional domestic architecture, therefore, provided the catalyst for a gathering in September 1996 of some twenty architects and scholars from three continents whose work covered a vast range of topics. This in itself demonstrates the interest that Ottoman architecture generates, but ifthis is all the Symposium achieved, its organiser would count his efforts wasted. The enthusiasm that was so evident in those September days must now be disseminated to a wider audience, one that encompasses both the world of scholarship and the amateur in the best sense of that word, those many individuals who, in this age of mass transport, have come to value the diversity and humanity of vernacular architecture. It is the editors' hope, therefore, that within the papers which follow readers, of whatever type, will find material both detailed and general that will be of service to them. For ease of production line diagrams have been placed at the end of each paper. Plates, in contrast, have been located together at the end of the volume.

Stanley Ireland University of Warwick

William Bechhoefer University of Maryland

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

On behalf of those who took part in the Symposium the editors first and foremost wish to express their warm appreciation for both the assistance and hospitality so generously provided by the city authorities and people of Amasya, in particular the Governor Kemal Nehrozoglu, the Mayor Ahmet