Traditional Houses in the Eastern Black Sea Region

Abstract

The traditional Turkish architecture in the Eastern Black Sea region has visual and stylistic richness. This architecture displays a regional character with its stone-filled wood constructed system fixed in a wooden frames, and stuffed walls / Dolma Göz, and the wooden wall system made by horizontally piling of trunks or timber, and the Lathwork wall / Bağdadi wall system known as çakatura. Various structures can be observed in the Eastern Black Sea region ranging from wooden buildings to the buildings made of only wood or stone or by composition of both materials. The craftsmen use wood and stone in the same technique in Ordu, Giresun, Sürmene, Artvin and Trabzon; however different needs and different living conditions of people living in Tirebolu, Fındıklı, Bolaman, Akçaabat and Ardanuç created a panorama of Black Sea civilian architecture with all different images. Especially in late 19th century and in early 20 th a kind of commercial bourgeoisie emerged who made profit from Black Sea trade, and their buildings reminded foreign, Levantine mansions and villas of Dersaadet (İstanbul) which, in a sense, exceeded the regional standards in terms of brick building material, rich planning understanding and monumental dimensions. The old urban culture in old urban settlement in the Black Sea or the traditionalism in rural settlements in the heights of the region different from the rest of the world had a harmonizing role and led to the emergence of similar building and plan typologies.