Traces of detached house in the cultural codes of apartment buildings: The case of Konya, Türkiye

Abstract

Humanity has undergone multifaceted changes in social and economic life over time, adapting to the new life with this change and giving direction to it. As a result of contemporary movements affecting the society in terms of social and cultural aspects in every period, it is seen that it is reflected to its environment on the axis of the changing lifestyle in the affected societies. In the last periods of the Ottoman Empire, with the influence of Tanzimat, the lifestyle was highly influenced by the westernization and modernization movement, and the understanding of modernism, which was accepted in the sense of westernization, was effectively spread to the newly established Republic of Turkey. In other words, in the late Ottoman period, especially in big cities influenced by Tanzimat, the understanding of modernity expanded significantly. Consequently, Westernization was reflected in everyday life through the concept of modernity. As a result, the transformation of family life and the imposition of contemporary life characteristics in many ways led to the transformation of the living space and its equipment. In fact, this transition process did not envisage a spatial order that was effectively created in order to establish the nation state, and this new order was unwittingly built on the architectural experience from the past. The influence of modernization and Bauhaus, which were effective in the westernization movements that emerged in the process of building the nation state, led to a change in the spatial configuration/order of housing, especially in large cities. In this context, the development of low-rise buildings produced in the process of building the nation-state with this movement that started in the 1920 s and became effective in the 1930 s and the development of apartment buildings that transformed afterwards did not take place in the same way in Anatolian cities. As a result, it is natural that the transformation in Ankara, the reconstructed capital city with a population of over a hundred thousand, and Istanbul, the former capital city, took place differently than in Anatolian cities. In short, the sample area of this study, which will determine whether the codes based on the past have a partial effect on the transformation of detached housing, which is the most affected building stock in this construction process, into apartment buildings, has been chosen as the city of Konya.