a house in anatolia

Have you ever been to any village in Anatolia? Such as in Eastern Anatolia. Now, I will take you to one in Malatya, to the place where the sun dries the most beautiful apricots. I say the most beautiful, but ingenuity is not only in apricot, it is as if the sun has a big role in catching that taste. Like, there is another sun there, it is rising. I will leave the sun and apricots aside and take you to the 140-year-old mud brick house where my grandfather was born. Now, we are in the town of Sayfiye, where the Cor Harık is flowing affluent. My grandfather’s house welcomes us with an iron door. We open the door and move from gizzard to Hayat (“life”). a I think that a stone mass in the shape of a water drop on the mahzere b attracted your attention. 1 Let me explain right away; a stone mass on which fruits such as mulberries and grapes are lined up. 2 These fruits are crushed with

Mahsere, which is placed right on the entrance © Elif Başlı

great force. The molasses is made from these juices. Yes, we have finally stepped into Hayat. How good does the name sound, right? Anyways, most of the summer days are spent in this area. Here, meals are made, quilts are beaten, apricots are extracted and guests are hosted. In winter, all this are passed to the room next to it. This area is called the Selamlık c and is the most distant place from the private areas of the house. 3 Sit for a minute or two, in the Hayat, you have a lush courtyard on the opposite. Do not think that these beauties are only for the eye that sees. The sound you hear is the sound of the flowing sparkling waters. Harık, a unique feature of this region, itself is a kind of water. This water canal was established to pass through the courtyard of each house.

Let us go inside through this wooden blue crown door. A sofa with a half a meter height is welcoming us. On the sofa, there is the “pillar of the house” d extending from floor to ceiling. 3 A traditional cupboard and plasterboard divisions on the ceiling are seen. Another room, when we pass the table from the right, on the opposite side, a door as tall as our height; other parts of the house are scattered in this area. The first door, which is tiny, opens to the kitchen.

The house of the old, you cannot pass through that door without bowing; it diciplines people by this way. Going up from the wooden stairs, and a small landing takes us to the middle room. This place was used as a bedroom. When we keep going up, on the right, there is the roof on which dried apricots are laid, on the left is the L shaped hallway. There are bedrooms for other members of the house in there. Lamps, deep lampshade windows, cupboards, built-in closets… It is up to us to get inspired from the details of the house, after going through each corner.

The passage from hayat to sofa © Elif Başlı

Laid apricots on the roof, awaiting for sun to dry them © Elif Başlı

a hayat, closed space at theentrance of a traditional Turkish house, which follows to the courtyard b mahzere, stone structure in which a fruit is placed in the sacks of telis and the water is extracted c selamlık, the room on the ground floor d pillar of the house, the general name of the structural system of buildings in this region 1 Ocak, Ali Rıza (July 2016). Speech: Malatya. 2 Can, Kifayet (July 2016). Speech: İstanbul. 3 Ocak, Hamide (July 2016). Speech: Malatya. Footnotes References

agora

a Greek restaurant in Goldern Horn

creation of the roof

first floor plan

section

The main concept was to combine the location of the restaurant with its past, also the circular mass added to the center was a result of this. Stories about formation of the golden horn are common in Greek mythology. After studying these myths on historical aspects, and seeing how the food was sacred to them, an idea was formed.

A circular mass is created based on the circulation of the people and put on the original structure of the school’s dining hall. From the moment you step inside, this form leads you until you sit to your table. Also lightning components and air conditioning became a whole with the design and followed the roof as they are.