Characteristics of Housing in Darkale Rural Settlement, Soma, Manisa

Darkale of Soma, Manisa is a historical rural settlement in Western Anatolia. The aim of this paper is to identify the characteristics of Darkale houses and to present a typology based on their authentic architectural characteristics. The method is evaluation of the housing units with the tools of the discipline of architectural conservation. The characteristics evaluated are the lot size and organization, unit-neighbor relations, storey system, spatial organization, construction technique, and material usage. The houses are representatives of the "Hayat house" typology that has been used for centuries in Anatolia. However, the presence of limited courtyards, possibility of houses composed of a single building mass, the partial carving of the units into the hillside, possibility of single storied units and the relation of housing with each other in all three dimensions, and streets continuing throughout the house masses in form of passages differentiate Darkale houses from the other Hayat houses. In addition, the continuing of the maintenance of housing units with traditional materials and techniques; weaving, cuisine tradition, winter food preparation such as pomegranate juice making, olive oil soap production and their storage, domestic fowl raising on the ground floor and courtyards of the houses are intangible qualities of Darkale. The major conservation problems of Darkale houses are abandonment, the functional transformation of spaces and usage of contemporary techniques and materials in the physical interventions.