Microecologies of a Mediterranean Enclave: "Remote" Reading of Datça Peninsula and its Traditional Villages

abstract:Datça Peninsula in southwestern Anatolia has a typically Mediterranean cultural landscape with significant variations among its subregions. This article presents research performed by the author and a group of graduate students of architecture in the summer of 2020, with the aim of discovering and creatively representing Datça's mosaic of microecological variations. The research focused on the traditional villages of Datça, with eight studied in detail in terms of the natural and manmade elements that define their particular landscapes. Original maps and three-dimensional drawings were produced as the final outcome and display both factual data and students' interpretations of the spatial characteristics of Datça Peninsula and its traditional settlements. These maps and drawings are based on information gathered from satellite maps, aerial photographs, and written sources and represent the salient geographic features, the borders and subregions, and the visual imagery of the major cultural landscapes within the geographic mosaic of the peninsula. Both the methods and outcomes of the research are products of a collective and experimental study of space literacy and documentation.