37º IAHS World Congress on Housing: - Universidad de Cantabria

XXXVII <strong>IAHS</strong><strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> on HousingOctober 26 – 29, 2010, Santander, SpainCODE: 310TRADITIONAL KAYSERI HOUSES IN THE CONTEXT OFSPACE SYNTAX AND VISIBILITY GRAPH ANALYSESÖzlem ATAK, Gülen ÇAĞDAŞDepartment of Architectural Design ComputingIstanbul Technical University, Turkeye-mail: ozlemm_atak@hotmail.com, cagdas@itu.edu.ttKey words: Traditional Kayseri Houses, Space Syntax, Visibility Graph Analyses, Depthmap.AbstractRecent studies on domestic spaces have demonstrated that social meaning and cultural valuesare mostly reflected by means of spatial organizations of houses, thus, in that way, differentcultures express themselves through different spatial models. In this respect, space syntax andvisibility graph analyses arise as the methods to discover the interactions between space andculture. These methods have essentially been constructed through the relationships ofpermeability based on movement and visibility based on the perception of a moving observer.In this study, domestic space was examined through 30 traditional houses in the city center ofKayseri, where people from different religious beliefs have lived for long years, within thecontexts of space syntax and visibility graph analyses. The houses were analyzed by using theDepthmap software developed by Alasdair Turner (UCL). The permeability analysesconducted clearly demonstrated the presence of a shared spatial theme. However, drawingconclusions about the spatial configurations of houses on the basis of only the permeabilityrelations will be inadequate. Therefore, it is important to reveal the houses' visibilitystructures. Revealing the houses' visibility structures have demonstrated that the spatial andvisual integration rankings of the houses do not support each other, however, spatially andvisually integrated spaces overlap with each other. The study, after permeability and visibilityanalyses, focuses on how religious diversity and socio-cultural meanings are reflected on thespatial configuration of Traditional Kayseri Houses, what common and/or differentcharacteristics are demonstrated by the houses in terms of the spatial configuration andvisibility structure, and the importance of permeability and visibility structures in the spatialconfiguration of yard-type houses.37º <strong>IAHS</strong> <strong>World</strong> <strong>Congress</strong> On Housing Science 173