<strong>La</strong> <strong>définition</strong> d’une <strong>stratégie</strong> d’intervention. <strong>La</strong> definición de una estrategia de intervención Defining a strategy for intervention 206
<strong>La</strong> <strong>définition</strong> d’une <strong>stratégie</strong> d’intervention. <strong>La</strong> definición de una estrategia de intervención Defining a strategy for intervention Examining the coherence of the diverse patterns Murat Şahin Murat Şahin has been working as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Engineering of Yeditepe University in İstanbul. He earned his Ph.D. in Architectural Design from Yıldız Technical University in 1997. His research interests and architectural studies include vernacular-rural education, children and practice. Address: Yeditepe University, Kayışdağı 34755 Maltepe-Istanbul,Turkey E-mail address: shnmrt05@yahoo.com Telephone: +90 0216 578 0440 Introduction Gökçeada (Imroz), as a result of coherent relationships of its geographical, socio-economic and architectural characteristics, has become an entity in which cultural and natural features exist for long years in unity. The main objective of this paper is to re-define and evaluate diverse patterns of the cultural and natural forms on the island in terms of unity and cohesion. The interrelated meanings of the term coherence can be defined as (Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary, 1987), in which ‘the whole’ hold together firmly its congruent components within a meaningful frame; that shows respect or ‘fitness, propriety and congruity leading to appropriateness.’ (Johnson, 1994, p. 226); and form-context adaptedness- ‘internal coherence’ (Alexander, 1966). In architectural terms, coherence is a place which has a ‘distinct character’, in which all the parts of the whole mesh together representing and strengthening a peculiar identity. To be more specific, it has to do with ‘the organization of space’ based on different purposes and different designing the space and represent the congruence between social and physical space.’ (Rapaport, 1977, p.10). Spatial organization has been, generally, as in this study, interpreted in various schemes through the Gestalt grouping principles such as ‘figure-ground differentiation’, ‘proximity’, ‘similarity’ ‘continuity’ and ‘closure’ (Norberg-Shulz, 2000) Palladio identifies beauty as ‘...an entire and complete body, wherein each member agrees with the other...’ (Johnson, ibid, p.99). Possessing inherently authentic beauty, vernacular settlements are, in fact, open ended and naturally growing entities similar to organisms in a way, not absolute wholes; yet, they are often perceived as complete wholes in terms of realization of a plot or materialization of one identity constructed through correspondence and agreement of the elements. Gökçeada is a place, a peculiar whole, wherein dwells a series of interrelated cultural and natural patterns in its ‘interior space’. ‘The island presents a barren appearance when viewed from the sea, but its green and fertile ‘interior space’ contains historical - traditional settlements...’ (Sahin, 2004). In architectural level, the basic character of these patterns has been embodied through a coherent system from the design principles to the essential elements of construction integrated within the environment (ibid). New settlement patterns, which contain both urban and rural settlements with new building types of contemporary production and consumption process, appear to have a very different character from the old ‘village-based’ patterns, causing the loss of coherence. Pattern <strong>La</strong>nguage Revisited ‘The environment is a series of relationships among elements and people, and these relationships are orderly, i.e. they have pattern. The environment has a structure and is not a random assemblage of things. people and physical elements of the world.’ (Rapaport, 1977, p.9) Examining the early Turkish carpets, Christopher Alexander indicates that ‘Buildings, like carpets, are multi-centered structures which achieve unity, through the interlocking of multiple centers, each one reinforcing the others, until they become beings- just as it happens in carpet.’(Alexander, 1993, p. 350). Alexander’s analogy perfectly fits in with the establishment of the island’s multi-centered structure in which separate villages have the same principles reinforcing the identity of one another, creating centers on the natural base, and combining a colorful composition of a ‘deep and significant unity’. The relationship of every part to the whole and the reciprocity between everyday life and the spatial composition are in evidence in the long-term survival of the villages in spite of the harsh windy climate and the isolated environment. In environmental sense, a ‘coherent pattern’, sustaining a system of significance in a spatio-temporal dimension, is comprised by interrelated patterns-units embraced by a larger whole “with the human in the center, with its natural and cultural values which creates strong Gestalt-quality” (Sahin, 2007b). ‘Patterns are those arrangements or systems of internal relationship which give to any culture its coherence or plan, and keep it from being a mere accumulation of random bits.’ (Kroeber, 1962, p.119). A coherent pattern displays such a consistent relationship between its different parts and their configuration that one can easily comprehend the meaning of the whole. Such patterns generally have spatio-temporal roots and apt patterns have been proven to be the representation of social-culturalphysical cohesion, and the spirit of the place (Kostof, 1991). Traditional patterns might be evaluated in terms of coherence by means of the terms, ‘Gestalt quality’, ‘unity’ and ‘integration’. Having reviewed Lynch’s conception of urban image (Lynch, 1960), it is possible to state that composition of a vernacular settlement, which represents a visual -organizational unity based on internal coherence, external responsiveness and fitness (Alexander, 1966), is a sort of communal art of creating visual unity for each component of a settlement out of 207
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