Harran, Turkey Article in Habitat International December 1998 DOI: 10.1016/S0197-3975(98)00027-7 CITATIONS 6 READS 264 8 authors, including: Mesut B zdeniz European University of Le 11 PUBLICATIONS 71 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Ayhan Bekleyen Dicle University 17 PUBLICATIONS 40 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Hatice Gnl Gazi University 2 PUBLICATIONS 14 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Neslihan Dalkili Dicle University 8 PUBLICATIONS 21 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE All content following this page was uploaded by Ayhan Bekleyen on 31 March 2015. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. HABIA IN. Vol. 22, No. 4, pp. 477485, 1998 ( 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Printed in Great Britain 01973975/98 $19.00#0.00 PII: S0197-3975(98)00027-7
Vernacular Domed Houses of
Harran, Turkey M. B. O ZDENIZ*, A. BEKLEYENs, I. A. GONU Ls, H. GONU Ls, H. SARIGU Ls, T. ILTERs, N. DALKILIhs, M. YILDIRIMs *Karadeniz echnical niversity, rabzon,urkey sDicle niversity, Diyarbakir, urkey ABSTRACT The beehive domed vernacular houses of Harran, Turkey were studied from the point of view of historical origin. The factors like climate, social and urban structure, spatial organization, construction and materials which eected the form of the buildings were considered. It has been discovered through this study that Harran houses can be built rapidly like tents, with burnt or sun-dried shallow bricks. Vernacular architecture of Harran illustrates the concepts of exible building, climatic building design and re-usable building materials concepts. Possibilities of using this construction type in our times is discussed. ( 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved Keywords: vernacular architecture; housing; exible building; climatic design; sustainable habitation INTRODUCTION Harran is a plain and a town in the southeast of Turkey, between the rivers of Euphrates and Tigris. It attracts attention with its interesting vernacular architecture. This building form is not used in other parts of Turkey, where the main building material is adobe. At present, similar building forms are seen only at South Italy (German, 1974), Cyprus (Gokie, 1979) and at Fezzan and Kufra areas of Libya (Awotona, 1990). It is not known how this unusual building form has evolved. As architects, the authors wish to nd out the factors that generate it. The historical background of vernacular Harran architecture, its relation with the similar building forms in other parts of the world, the urban and spatial organization of Harran houses and the possibilities of their use in our times are discussed. The thermal performance of the houses with their interiors cool in summer and warm in winter is well known by the local users. However, it was discovered through this study that another feature of Harran house is its rapid construction. The previous studies on Harran houses were limited to a number of photographs and plan sketches. This study aims to leave an architectural document to other researchers and to draw international attention to the conservation of Harran. Correspondence to: Mesut O zdeniz, The Eastern Mediterranean University, Department of Architecture, Gazimagusa, TR Northern Cyprus (Via Mersin 10, Turkey). The remaining authors can be contacted through The Department of Engineering and Architecture, Dicle University, 21280 Diyarbakir, Turkey. 477 STUDY It is necessary to take a short look to the history of Harran, to understand the roots of Harrans conical domed houses. The known written documents about Harran indicate that its history goes as far back as 2500 BC. Because of its location on trade routes and proximity to the fertilized Mesopotamia peninsula, many civilizations have ourished at Harran. She had very splendid and unfortunate periods throughout her history. For example, she was a capital city of the Assyrian Empire and of the last Emevi Caliph Mervan 2.(744750AD). The Harran University which has been known since the Early Ages, had its golden age in the 8th century AD, during the Abbasian rule of Harun Res,it (Ku rkcuog\lu, 1995). Many scholars graduated from this university. Translations from Greek and Assyrian documents to Arabic were made. There were studies on philosophy, mathematics, medical sciences and astrology. The town was plundered by the Mongol King Timur in 1260 AD. Although the Ottoman King Yavuz Selim repaired the demolished university, its importance diminished afterwards (Nahya, 1983). Etymology The name of Harran had been mentioned in ancient Assyrian and Hittite documents. It means intersection of routes and travel. For thousands of years this name has remained with minor changes (O zrat, 1994). Climate Harran has a hotdry climate. Its height above sea level is 345 m. There is a wide diurnal and yearly temperature range. The annual precipitation rate is rarely over 40 cm. The mean maximum temperatures in July and August is 39C and the mean minimum temperature in January is 2C. Social structure In the large part of her history, she was the cultural and religious center of settled societies. In the last 500 years, she was used as the temporary settlement of nomad societies (Dog\anay, 1994). Today almost all the population of Harran Plain speak Turkish. In addition, 19% speak Arabic and 10% speak Kurdish as their mother language. Tribal life and the patriarchal family structure of the past has been changing during the last 50 years with the transition to irrigated agriculture. At present, seasonal nomad and settled habitation has became predominant. The changes in social structure has been reected in the architecture. Roots of the vernacular architecture The town of Harran with the beehive-shaped houses is located on a tumulus and surrounded by ancient city walls. History faces the danger of being lost because although she was declared as the historical site by the Department of Culture, there isnt enough scientic excavations and appropriate conservation in the area. It is necessary to search the roots of Harran houses through the Mesopotamian civilizations. At some of the stone reliefs of Assyrians, who ruled the area during 2500600 BC, gures similar to Harran houses are seen (Nahya, 1983). Mesopotamia excavations show that domed building forms with a square front court or room were used as early as the 7th century BC (Mu ller and Vogel, 1974). These domes had diameters of between 5 and 10 m (Fig. 1). 478 M. B. Ozdeniz et al. Fig. 1. Domed building forms found at Mesopotamia excavations belonging to 7th century BC. (MER and OGE, 1974). Wood is rare in the region because of the dry climate. Thus, people built their houses with the materials they could nd easily, like adobe, brick and a little bit of stone. Another characteristics of the Harran house is that it can be built very rapidly. The nomadic life style and the climatic conditions had forced people to adopt a building form which can be built easily like a tent but which resists heat and cold. An old craftsman interviewed conrmed some of our observations. We have learned how to build these conical domes from the domes of ancient buildings during excavations. The present houses were built around 1939 when I was a boy. We needed 1300 bricks for a single dome. We provided these bricks from the ruins of ancient buildings. We have never produced bricks at Harran. I could build two domes in a day, he told us. German (1974), who studied the similar building forms, the trullo of South Italy, has written that they were evolved at the 15th and 16th century AD. He points out that taxes were paid on the basis of houses at that time. People adopted a building form which could be easily dismantled before the visit of the tax collector so that they did not pay taxes to the feudal lord. They erected their houses quickly afterwards. We can say that the form of Harran houses were adopted because they could be built with locally available materials and quickly by the nomad people (Fig. 2). Since the main building materials are mud, adobe and clay brick, the life of the buildings is limited. It can be said that the present buildings are not more than 70150 yr old. It is strongly possible that the conical domed Harran houses were ruined, forgotten and rebuilt many times during the ow of history. There had been also changes in their form over time. The 12th century AD traveler Ibni Cubeyr mentions the domed buildings of Harran (Ku rkcuog\lu, 1995). The 17th century AD traveler Evliya Celebi writes that Harran has been abandoned and the houses were made of adobe (Zilliog\lu, 1966). He also writes that the tomb of scholar Seyh Yahya on the northwest side of town is covered with a big dome although he does not say anything about the domes of the houses. Probably the conical domed houses were not present at that time. A 19th century photograph of Harran shows that conical domes were erected on the ground like tents, while in the 20th century all the conical domes were built on square planned cubical bases (Fig. 3). After the second-half of the 20th century, earth roofed, rectangular planned rooms were added to them. Earth roofs are either at or inclined on four sides. rban structure and spatial organization The street layout of Harran is organic like the forms of the houses. People belonging to the same tribe wish to live together. Thus Harran houses are adjacent Vernacular Domed Houses of Harran, Turkey 479 Fig. 2. rullos of South Italy belonging to 15th and 16th century AD. (Drawings only, fromMER and OGE, 1974). Fig. 3. A 19th century photograph of Harran (ith the courtesy of Dr. Cahit KRKCOG). or very close to each other. As a result of this, the street layout is casual and natural. People in transition from permanent to temporary nomadic life who make their living by agriculture and stock-breeding had to live close to the production activities. Thus, at their shelters, they made spaces not just for themselves but also for their animals and products. At present, houses with conical domes covering square rooms are in majority. Each room covered with a single dome is a building unit and serves as living room, kitchen, store or barn. These rooms are connected to each other with internal doors or arches. Some of the rooms are opened to the courtyard with a small door. A bathing place is included in the room which serves as a kitchen. In winter, the kitchen is also used as a living room and is locally called a tandirlik. The toilets are not placed within the building because water is scarce. They are placed at a corner of the courtyard away from the rooms. In some courtyards there is also a well close to the center. The income level of the building owners, family population and their necessities determine the number of rooms. As the family enlarges new rooms are added to the 480 M. B. Ozdeniz et al. house. Thus, Harran vernacular houses are typical examples of exible or the extendible house concept. In the spatial organization of Harran houses, the rooms are arranged on one side of the courtyard in one, two or three rows. The rows are positioned on eastwest axes, thus the solar radiation from the west is shaded by the domes and cool spaces are obtained. However, there are houses which do not t to this generalization. (Figs. 4 and 5). Control of physical environment There are ventilation holes at the sides of each conical dome, and another single top hole which serves both as chimney and ventilation hole. In the opening of side holes there isnt any preferred direction. There are holes opened to four, three or two directions. However, the holes always face each other to allow cross ventilation. On the side walls of the cubical base are windows, opening both to the courtyard and to the street. Window sizes are as small as 30]40 cm. Holes and the windows are closed in winter and opened in summer for natural ventilation. Fig. 4. Plans and sections of a typical Harran neighbourhood. Vernacular Domed Houses of Harran, Turkey 481 Fig. 5. Plan of Cuma Alma House near the Harran castle. In summer, the hot air within the building ascends and is discharged from the top hole. The smoke test carried out on a summer day indicated that the air entering from the doors, windows and holes ascend in rotating order. The rate of airow was at 2.55.0 m/s at various points within the house. Thus, a continuous natural ventilation is provided. As a result of this, very cool spaces are obtained under the extremely hot exterior temperatures of summer. It was not possible at the time of this study to carry a systematic thermal analysis of the buildings. However, an initial measurement of outside air temperature in the shade and internal air temperature, on a hot June day at 14.00 hr, showed 8C temperature dierence (28 and 20C, respectively). The buildings have relatively lower external surface to volume ratios because of their domed and cubical forms. Thus, with the closed holes and windows the building looses little heat in winter. Besides, adobe walls 6070 cm thick provide a good thermal insulation and time lag. Construction and material The conical dome is built by sliding the at bricks inward at each row. They are either sun dried or burned bricks collected from older ruins. The thickness of the dome wall is about 2535 cm. This is in a sense a fake dome, because unlike in ordinary domes, the loads are conveyed in a vertical direction (Figs. 69). Fig. 6. A general view of Harran. 482 M. B. Ozdeniz et al. Fig. 7. A house at Harran. Fig. 8. A half ruined dome displaying the structure. Fig. 9. An inside view of a Harran dome. The tops of the domes are left open as chimneys. The domes are not same in diameter and height. They are 35 m high from the base and rendered externally with mud every year in June. For this purpose stone projections are left on the sides of the domes to be used as scaolding during rendering. Internal rendering is done as high as a mans height. Vernacular Domed Houses of Harran, Turkey 483 At the square planned base walls, sun-dried adobe, brick and a small amount of stone are used. Since all the bricks are hand made their sizes show variance. However, on average a complete brick size is 24]24]4.5 cm and a half brick size is 13]24]4.5 cm. Generally, stone is used between the top corners of the base walls and the dome. A limited amount of stone is used at Harran houses. Some of the bricks have been obtained from the ruins of ancient buildings. This kind of building materials are locally called devsirme meaning the collected. Even stone carvings of the ancient civilizations can be seen on some Harran houses. Only mud mortar is used in joining stones and bricks. Sand and lime is never used. Sliced straw is mixed only to the mud rendering. Straw is not mixed to the clay of sun-dried adobe. CONCLUSIONS Harran houses which were used as dwellings in the past, are now being used mostly as barns and store houses. Most of these houses are in desolate positions. The local inhabitants are very friendly, but not prosperous and cultured enough to restore, conserve or provide the hygienic services of the houses. Since the seasonally nomad society is in transition to a settled society with the construction of Southeast Anatolia dams, there is a need for new housing. The new houses are being built outside the ancient city walls. They have no architectural relation with the vernacular architecture of Harran. It is necessary to prepare a conservation program for the town of Harran. This program should not be in the form of repair or demolition prohibitions to the existing buildings, as it is applied at present, but it should be to encourage restoration. There is only one building which has been restored by the Department of Culture and it is being used as a museum. The number of examples restored by experts should be increased in order to persuade local residents to conserve their houses. Expert and ocial aid is necessary for the conservation of Harran. The building components used at vernacular houses of Harran, like sun-dried adobe bricks, are not long-lasting materials. The standard brick size and shape being produced in Turkey at present, does not allow for the construction of conical domes. It is necessary to establish a small-scale brick factory to produce shallow bricks. This will help in saving the historical sites, repairing the old buildings, and building new conical domed houses. The origin of Harran houses goes back to the ancient Mesopotamian civilizations. It has shown changes over time. It has been forgotten and rediscovered through excavations. Sometimes the conical domes were built just on the ground like tents. Sometimes as it is in our days they were built on square planned bases to obtain roomy spaces. The addition of these square planned spaces below the domes has increased the buildings strength against the lateral forces. At the site of the 19th Century photograph, showing the tent-like domes, not a single dome remains today. Their bricks were either collected or they were demolished through earthquakes because of their weak structure. It is necessary to study the buildings structural performance to verify this observation. Vernacular Harran houses bear the concepts of exible building, reusable building materials, environmentally friendly building, climatic building design and sustainable habitation which are popularly being discussed in architecture. Single-storey house units, which are connected to the adjacent units with arches or doors, provide a exible building. They can be extended as new needs arise. For people whose income is limited, it is benecial to built houses with two or three units, and add new units in later years. Burnt clay bricks joined with weak mud mortar allows their re-use. The domes are not plastered internally. However, the external rendering is made of mud 484 M. B. Ozdeniz et al. mortar with straw in it. After the winter rains, the rendering is renewed every year. It is necessary to nd new methods of external rendering, which is not expensive, has longer service life and has the color of earth. More research is needed to nd out the performance of mud plus cement rendering. The main building materials like clay, brick and natural stone are produced or provided locally. They do not possess any environmentally hazardous agents. The use of these materials with mud rendering produces an environmental-friendly building. At a time when modern environmental control devices were not available, people tried to nd indigenous ways of climatic control. The Harran house is a good example of climatic building design in a hot dry climate, with the thermal insulation and heat capacity of the building envelope, shading of the buildings by each other against solar radiation, small size window and door openings, and ventilation holes for winter. Further research is necessary to analyze thermal performance of Harran houses. It is not practical to conserve an old site without inhibiting it. Since the need for new housing at Harran continues, the present vernacular buildings constructed by a seasonally nomad society can be used by the settled society of today and tomorrow, with the additions of hygienic equipment. Thus a sustainable habitation can be formed. The authors, whose own residential experience is in crowded towns, felt peace while studying the inside and outside of the vernacular Harran houses. The random layout of the houses provided a natural-looking environment. It was discovered throughout this study that vernacular Harran houses were built through a rapid construction technique. A single worker can construct two units of this load bearing structure in a day without any need for much technical aid or advanced construction machines. Thus, it could also be considered as a way to overcome housing shortages in the Third World countries. This vernacular building environment encounters the danger of being lost. It has many secrets to inspire modern architecture. AcknowledgmentThe authors acknowledge Prof. Dr. Zu lkufGu neli, the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture of Dicle University, Diyarbakir. Without his initiation and assistance this study could never have done. REFERENCES Akbulut, I. (1996) Harran. Arkitekt. No 443. December pp. 8991. Awotona, A. (1990) Housing in Libya: 19501980. Habitat International 14(1), 5585. Dog\anay, F. (1994) Sosyal ve Ku ltu rel Donu sme Su recinde Harran Ovasi ve GAP Uygulamasi. Ankara: TC Basbakanlik Devlet Planlama Teskilati SosyalSekto rler ve Koordinasyon Genel Mudu rlugu. German, A. (1974) rullolar. Mimarlik. (5) pp. 3437. Gokie, G. (1979) Geleneksel Mimaride Stru ktur. api Dergisi (33) pp. 1928. Ku rkcuog\lu, A. C. (1990) Ruhadan Urfaya 17801980. S, anliurfa: S, anliurfa Belediyesi Ku ltu r veEg\itim Mudurlu g\u Yayini. Ku rkcuog\lu, A. C. 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