KAYSERİ’DE YAŞAM VE KONUT KÜLTÜRÜ (LIFE AND CULTURE OF DWELLINGS IN KAYSERI) Associate Professor Gonca Büyükmıhçı Erciyes University Publications Kayseri,2006
ISBN 975-‐647829-‐2 248 pages 260 photographs, 97 drawings of Kayseri houses
Published in 2006 by Erciyes University Publications as a hard cover prestige book, ‘‘Kayseri’de Yaşam ve Konut Kültürü’’ (Life and Culture of Dwellings in Kayseri) is the product of years of academic work and research by Assoc. Prof Gonca Büyükmıhçı – the Dean of the Faculty of Architecture at the Erciyes University in Kayseri.
Inspired by the multiple layers of cultural heritage of Anatolia spread over centuries, the book considers dwellings as blended patterns of communication, interaction, space, time and meaning formed by the articulation of traditions and beliefs of all the civilizations that lived in Anatolia throughout the history.
The book aims to provide a comparison of the spatial aspects of the Muslim houses and houses of Armenians of the Ottoman Empire with a special focus on the city of Kayseri in the 19th century. As a prominent historical city, Kayseri was deliberately chosen due to its central location as a prominent trade hub; its wealthy trading inhabitants; ethnic diversity of its population; vibrant architectural developments in the city thanks to its diverse population; and its importance for the Armenians as the ‘’Spiritual Centre’’.
In the course of the academic research, both the extensive literature review as well as the title deed registers failed to provide the author with healthy information. In the absence of reliable resources, the author got in touch with the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul and the Agos newspaper. Thanks to their assistance she interviewed Armenian families originating from Kayseri to learn about the culture, traditions and daily life of Armenians in Kayseri. In addition to the surveys and in-‐depth interviews with Armenian families, the book also complies findings of the literature review, writings of globetrotters who travelled around Anatolia in the 18th and 19th centuries, Ottoman court records, and Ottoman yearbooks on dwellings. All these resources provided the author with detailed information about the Armenian culture and lifestyle.
As a practicing architect, for many years Gonca Büyükmıhçı did building surveys of in the Armenian neighbourhoods of Kayseri and did unique hand drawings of the Armenian houses. By combining all the information about the Armenian culture with the authentic building surveys she made over years, the author analyses the interaction between culture and dwellings. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Assoc. Prof. Gonca Büyükmıhçı received her B.A, M.A and Ph.D degrees from the Department of Architecture, Mimar Sinan University in Istanbul. Her M.A thesis is entitled “Research on the Civil Architecture Examples in Kayseri’s Specially Designated Sites” and her Ph.D thesis is entitled “Suggestions of Conservation Methods for Stone Buildings and the Application of these Methods in Kayseri”. Since 1992, she has been teaching at the Erciyes University, Faculty of Architecture and since 1999 she is heading the Department of Restoration. She is currently the Dean of the Faculty of Architecture of Erciyes University. Throughout her academic career, she took part in many architectural projects and conducted many building surveys especially in the Armenian neighbourhoods of Kayseri. She has published extensively in her field and received numerous awards.
97 hand drawings by the author
Architectural treasures of Armenian houses
