A research on the concept of the Ottoman rowhouses: The place & the importancy of Akaretler rowhouses in the Ottoman civil architecture

Abstract

Rowhouses first emerged in England in the late of the 18th century as a result of the Industial Revolution, to provide accommodation for the growing number of workers, especially in the big cities such as London, as the result of labour mass-migration from rural areas to the city centers. Then they spread to England's neighbours across the English Channel, to some other countries like France, Belgium, Holland, Northern Germany and Denmark. At the beginning of the 19th century rowhouses became a part of the urban pattern, thus adding a dynamic dimension to the intercity formation. Looking at the formation of rowhouses in the Ottoman Architecture, it can be seen that this phenomenon, which appeared in the European societies as a result of the Industrial Revolution emerged in the Ottoman Architecture depending on very different reasons. Thus, the paper will have the evolution between the trational Ottoman-Turkish Houses, and the 19th century modem apartement-blocks; the place and the importancy of the Akaretler Rowhouses Group, which is the first and the only example of Ottoman Turkish Rowhouses, built by the financial support and aproval of the Ottoman Court; the analytical study of the Akaretler Rowhouses Group; the criticise of the last restoration studies on the Akaretler Rowhouses Group. The Akaretler Rowhouses Group is evoluated as a very significant example, in that, with its stonework structure, with its use of cast-iron, and with its neo-classical facade orientation and ornaments, it occupies a unique place between the court buildings (i.e. dwellings belonging to the dynasty) and the folk dwellings. In the paper, not only the influencing dwellings, but also those factors influencing the creation of rowhouses in Ottoman Architecture will be considered. The factors that were directly influenced the space formation in Ottoman dwellings, such as the privacy, the functional differentiation, the social-class differentiation, the ethnic differention, and finally modernisation and the Industrial Revolution will also be considered. In the conclusion, the results obtained from the study will be given.