How Do Social Values and Norms Affect Architecture of the Turkish House?

Abstract

This chapter investigates the relationship between social, cultural and religious traditions and the architecture of vernacular housing. It also represents a search for answers as to how the Turkish cultural traditions of the traditional Turkish family, beliefs, values and rituals influence housing architecture. The relationship between the house form and sociocultural factors can be explained through a model. Therefore, in this chapter, a model that consists of four parts and is flexible is used. It shows the linkages between architectural artifacts selected or devised by a culture, architectural values, social norms and social values. We illustrate the model through a study of the traditional Turkish house, focusing on how social values such as religious beliefs or the relationship between the male and the female figure, family structure, statue of the family in the society, privacy of the family, neighborhood, hospitality and social values in Turkish-Islamic tradition relate, in order to build form in Anatolia.