Clay pots in Ottoman architecture: A discussion on their acoustical employment

Abstract

The employment of the clay pottery as an acoustical element first appeared in Vitruvius’s texts in the antiquity. Up to this date, their precise contribution to the acoustic quality of the space has remained vague despite many studies examining their employment as cavity resonators in medieval liturgical architecture throughout Europe and Near East. They are also observed in the substantial number of structures that belong to the Classical Ottoman Architecture, some of which were designed by Sinan, the architect laureate of Ottoman Empire. One of his works, Suleymaniye Mosque, which contains substantial number of pots in its grand dome exhibited significantly high reverberation times especially in the low frequency ranges in the recent acoustic measurements. Such long decays set forth the question whether the clay pots were designed to act as Helmholtz resonators that would control the low frequencies in their original state. Thus, this study aims to exhibit the state of the art of the clay potteries utilized as cavity resonators in the Ottoman Architecture and set a ground to compare their utilization with their contemporaries around the world as well as initiating further studies on the working principles of the cavity resonators in Ottoman Architecture.