"The city you couldn't go is not yours."

Timber Houses of Beypazari

There are 3000 houses in the old section of the town and covers an area of 800.000 m2. All of the buildings in this part are traditional buildings. There are only a few modern buildings with different architectural characteristics. In some districts of the old section these have a higher ratio.

The traditional buildings are usually three storeyed, originally plastered with “tatlı sıva”. Most of them have different types of projections varying in number.

The ground floors are made of rubble stone, and the upper floors are of timber skeleton and filled with timber and mudbrick. The doors and the windows of the façade are almost have the same peculiarities in terms of dimension, shape. Timber and iron railings are common, but “cumba” lattices and shutters are in minority. Ornamented supports under projections are also common architectural elements of the old part of the town.

The plan of the roofs are square or rectangle, covered by Turkish tiles and zinc plates. On some of the roofs “Guşgana” is seen.

Some buildings contain most of the traditional architectural characteristics, and some have simple arrangements. It can be concluded that buildings which have most of the architectural characteristics, are the more typical examples of Beypazarı residences.

As almost all the houses are located on the side of the roads, they have no gardens and the entrances are directly from the streets. The houses with gardens, due to the topographic conditions have entrances directly from the streets or from the gardens. The garden walls are of rubble stone and are capped in Turkish tiles.

There are also residences built of cut stone with arched windows and doors, mostly three storeyed. However, these constructions are in minority and are scattered in the old part of the town.

Planning

The houses were generally built for the extended families. Ground floor is allocated for service spaces, upper floors planned as living sections. Most of these sections have service areas as w.c., kitchen. In all of the residences ground floor consists of a ‘taşlık’ at which there is a basin, a fire place and a staircase, of which the first two steps are of stone and rest of wood. “Dam” (stable or woo storage) and sometimes servant accommodation are provided in two rooms (mostly seen in large houses). In most of the attached houses “messan” is connected to the “taşlık”. The floor of the “taşlık” is generally paved in irregular stone, the rest is of rammed earth. The ceiling is left exposed.

In some large residences there is a Mazzanine above the ground floor. This floor has a height of 200-250 cm. this is seen in types with inner and central hall types. The height of the residences are four or three floors. They either cover the whole storey or half the storey having an inner sofa plan type. The rooms have simple cupboards and fireplaces. In some cases the kitchen is placed on this floor and not in the upper floors.

The upper floors are for living areas, formed from rooms oriented around or at the side of the sofa çardak. Generally service spaces as kitchen and w.c. are located on these floors. These floors are much more detailed than the ground floors and mezzanine (if exists). Doors, built-in-closets, ‘sergen’ ceilings are all worked out in detail in timber figure 7. The continuation of ground floor stairs reach out to the first and second floors if there is one. Top of the staircases is closed by a cover called “mamrak” locally. Second floor usually repeats the same plan and plan elements as in the first floor. In some residences at which the first and second floors have different plans. In Beytepe street no.15 and Hacılar street no.8, the floors over ground floor have inner hall plan whereas, the floors above have central hall plan.

In residences specially with gardens there are “guşgana”. Some are designed in two rooms, one of which is used for sitting. This room consists of a ‘seki’ and ‘lambalık’. Sometimes there is a balcony in front as continuation of the floor stairs or a stair from the kitchen reach out to the “guşgana”.

Note:  Rights of context are reserved by Doç. Dr. Işık AKSULU (G.Ü.E.A.F.Department of Architecture) ...