Between mass-market conventions and everyday life: The domestication of dining furniture in urban Istanbul

Abstract

Although dining tables and chairs function as the main furniture stereotypes valued for hosting in traditional Turkish households, this practice has been subject to changes and challenges in contemporary urban life in Istanbul. This qualitative study of dining furniture brings insights into the design, production, purchase and use of furnishings from a broad review of literature and from semi-structured in-depth interviews undertaken in the homes of young urban professionals in Istanbul between the years 2013 and 2016. Prescribed as indispensable stereotypes in the furniture retail stores and considered as essential domestic units by the interviewees, dining tables and chairs are found out as not fulfilling their intended hosting functions efficiently or being often replaced by centre tables or coffee tables, because of an increase in casual rather than formal occasions. Domestication of the dining table as an open buffet was considered a practical way to help hold the food and drinks that were also on couches and coffee tables. In addition, the dining table was used for completely different functions unrelated to eating, as study desks or as surfaces for folding and ironing laundry, whereas dining chairs were used as places to drape coats or clothing. Interrogating the disconnect between the consumption and use context of the dining suites yields deeper discussion about the level of intellectual capital of Turkish furniture industry and the consumer culture which advices the enactment of norms. Insights in these complex, changing and sometimes contradictory patterns may influence the design of domestic furnishings in Turkey. Therefore, more user-based design research and a further examination of contemporary patterns of use in urban households are needed to activate this potential for the Turkish furniture design industry.