Restoration and refunction problems of Diyarbakır traditional houses

Abstract

Abstract The traditional urban texture of Diyarbakir is founded in the city walls. The traditional Diyarbakir houses have their own architectural properties, which are shaped with the effect of family structure, economical structure, cultural interaction, city walls, climate, geological structure and building materials. They also take an important place in the cultural heritage context due to their distinctive architectural characteristics. These independent houses that are isolated from the outside are located in a court. The traditional Diyarbakir houses, which are designed as summer, winter and spring places regarding to the effect of climatic factors, are generally formed of a basement, ground floor and the first floor. The basement is the area where the fuel (wood and coal) and foods for winter are stored. The service and living spaces are found at the ground and first floors. The wide entrances (ivans) and the rooms with their sliced, flat arched, quadrangular windows with columns are the building elements, which give movement and richness to the courtyard. While the walls built by basalt stones, the authentic flat roofs of the houses are covered by earthen materials. During the recent years, restoration works are conducted on monumental buildings and traditional houses in Diyarbakir by some state institutions and organizations, and, private enterprises, which enable them to be utilized in today's needs assessment. The most of the traditional houses offer a wide range of usage possibilities take an important place among them. The authentic textures of many of those houses have been destroyed due to the renovation works since 1960s. In these works, mostly additional floor and space constructions conducted by the owners. Deterioration and degeneration of the structures of the houses have increased because of the lack of proper control mechanism and incompetence of the technical staffs, working in this field. A few traditional houses have been restored to reuse with a new public functions by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, governorship, municipality, non-governmental organizations and individuals. While restoring these houses, same of the wrong implementations have been damaged the authentic texture. As a result of the inspections that have been performed, it has been seen that the new function is directly related with the destruction that may occur. It is understood that the authentic values and cultural persistence are preserved when the functions not forced the original design, comfort level and construction techniques of the houses. Annexes, renovation and modifications destroy the authentic plan of the houses are limited in restoration works conducted by the Ministry and governorship; whereas, needs were taken into consideration during works performed by individuals and non-governmental organizations. Besides, the architectural building elements were also had renovation rather than conservation.