Formulation of Historic Residential Architecture as a Background to Urban Conservation

Abstract

The paper explores how interpretations of vernacular traditional architecture played a significant role in the development of urban conservation practice in Turkey in the 1960s and 1970s. At the turn of the twentieth century, the value of Ottoman historic residential architecture began to develop with the label of the Turkish House. At the turn of the twentieth century, historic residential architecture of the Ottoman Empire gained a heritage value and labelled as the Turkish House. Thus, these houses became a part of a national heritage discourse, though their preservation only came to agenda in the early 1970s through preservation programs for Istanbul’s waterfront mansions (yalı). Turkey simultaneously adapted international heritage developments throughout the 1960s and the 1970s and introduced urban conservation both in practice and theory to heritage management system of Turkey.