city as organism new visions for urban life 22nd ISUF International Conference|22-26 september 2015 Rome Italy edited by Giuseppe Strappa Anna Rita Donatella Amato Antonio Camporeale 1 U+D edition Rome as Organism Heritage and Historical Fabric Landscape and Territory Sustainable Design and Urban Regeneration city as organism new visions for urban life 22nd ISUF International Conference|22-26 september 2015 Rome Italy edited by Giuseppe Strappa Anna Rita Donatella Amato Antonio Camporeale Rome as Organism Heritage and Historical Fabric Landscape and Territory Sustainable Design and Urban Regeneration 1 U+D edition Rome ISBN 97888941188-1-0 May 2016 DiAP DiAP Dipartimento di Architettura e Progetto https://web.uniroma1.it/dip_diap/ U+D urbanform and design online journal http://www.urbanform.it/ lpa Laboratorio di Lettura e Progetto dell’Architettura via A. Gramsci, 53 https://web.uniroma1.it/lpa/ DRACo Dottorato di Ricerca in Architettura e Costruzione via A. Gramsci, 53 https://web.uniroma1.it/dottoratodraco/ Contacts email: roma2015@isuitaly.com Organization Conference Chair Giuseppe Strappa, ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome, Italy Scientiic Committee Giovanni Carbonara, ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome, Italy Giancarlo Cataldi, University of Florence, Italy Carlos Dias Coelho, University of Lisbon, Portugal Michael P. Conzen, University of Chicago, United States Anna Maria Giovenale, ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome, Italy Kai Gu, University of Auckland, New Zealand Karl Kropf, Oxford Brookes University, United Kingdom Jean-François Lejeune, University of Miami, United States Renato Masiani, 'Sapienza' University of Rome, Italy Vitor Manuel Araujo Oliveira, University of Porto, Portugal Piero Ostilio Rossi, 'Sapienza' University of Rome, Italy Ivor Samuels, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom Brenda Case Scheer, University of Utah, United States Giuseppe Strappa, ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome, Italy Jeremy Whitehand, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom Organizing Committee Anna Rita Donatella Amato, ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome, Italy Alessandro Camiz, Girne American University, TRNC Paolo Carlotti, ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome, Italy Anna Irene Del Monaco, ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome, Italy Matteo Ieva, Polytechnic of Bari, Italy Marco Maretto, University of Parma, Italy Nicola Marzot, University of Ferrara, Italy and TU-Delft, The Netherlands Dina Nencini, ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome, Italy Giuseppe Strappa, ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome, Italy Fabrizio Toppetti, ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome, Italy Organizing Team Antonio Camporeale, ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome, Italy Giusi Ciotoli, ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome, Italy Marco Falsetti, ‘Sapienza’ University of Rome, Italy Conference Partners and Sponsors Isuitaly, Italian Network of Urban Morphology Arab Gulf Network of Urban Morphology Chinese Network of Urban Morphology Polish Network of Urban Morphology Portuguese-language Network of Urban Morphology Serbian Network of Urban Morphology Spanish Network of Urban Morphology Turkish Network of Urban Morphology Paesaggio Urbano - Urban Design Revista de Morfologia Urbana U+D Urbanform and Design Urban Morphology Contents Volume 1 13 » Introduction Giuseppe Strappa Section 1 Plenary Session 15 » City as a process. Rome urban form in transformation Giuseppe Strappa » A double urban life cycle: the case of Rome Giancarlo Cataldi » Studies for an anthropology of the territory. New achievements from Saverio Muratori’s archive Nicola Marzot 17 33 43 Section 2 Heritage and Historical Fabric 56 Historical Urban Fabric Chair_Pisana Posocco » Abandoned villages, from conservation to revitalization Rossella de Cadilhac » Learning Process from Historic Urban Fabric of Ula and Adaptation in Akyaka Feray Koca Modern and Contemporary Design in Historical Cities Chair_Renato Capozzi I Fabrizio Toppetti » The ‘consecutio temporum’ in the contemporary-historical city design Fabrizio Toppetti » Shapes and Layers Kornelia Kissfazekas » A Comparative Study on Morphological Evolution of Inner-city Residential Blocks in Tokyo and Beijing Guan Li, Wu Zhouyan, Ariga Takashi » Figure follows type. Notes above contemporary project in compact urban fabric Manuela Raitano » Chiaramonte Guli, an experience of urban morphology Renato Capozzi » The post-liberal city of the 19th century as a resource Ida Pirstinger » Athens urban transformation Anna Ntonou Efstratiadi » The architecture of the city contended between history and contemporary Giovanni Multari 57 67 76 77 87 97 107 115 125 135 145 city as organism|new visions for urban life Historical Urban Fabric Learning Process from Historic Urban Fabric of Ula and Adaptation in Akyaka Feray Koca Department of City and Regional Planning, Mugla Sitki Koçman University, Mugla, Turkey Keywords: Ula, urban fabric, architecture, character Abstract Urban architecture of the city provides us to understand the past and to form the future of the cities. According to the approach of Aldo Rossi (1991) towards understanding the city, urban form can be grasp just from the relations of the physical entity of the city. In time, function may change according to society, however urban form tells much about the essence of the settlement. Therefore, learning process from urban fabric of historical towns includes understanding the existence of being of its form. The case area of this study, Ula is a historic district of Muğla Province in the Aegean Region of Turkey. The district is settled in a wide fertile plain and approximately 600m high from the sea, whereas Akyaka is tourism town center of Ula district 19km far from Ula and locates on Gokova Bay. Akyaka is an adaptation project of Nail Çakırhan, who irst started to form the urban fabric of the town with a reference to traditional houses of Ula in 1970s; from then on, Akyaka has featured a distinctive architectural character. However, imitated reproductions of the buildings and building details in the last decade have damaged naive and distinctive urban fabric of the town and the essence of the settlement. The aim of this paper is to assert the reading and learning process from historic urban fabric of Ula on behalf of Akyaka. Therefore, it irst introduces the historic urban fabric of Ula, and then compares with the newly created urban fabric of Akyaka and presents the positive and negative consequences of this adaptation process. city as organism|new visions for urban life 67 Introduction 68 Urban architecture of a settlement is a result of relationship between man-made structures and culture that constitute the historical urban fabric. The city as a work of art is object of nature and subject of culture. Therefore, it is necessary to understand architectural values and cultural continuity of urban environment. This essay addresses determinative role of historic urban fabric on settlement character, which can be adapted on new town designs. If the true architectural forms and cultural values can be grasped and understood from historic urban fabric, this information can be used as an adaptation project for lately designed settlements. There is a tendency for many urban design approaches to discuss the historic urban fabric as a model or structure to be copied on to the newly designed settlements. There are much to learn from historic urban fabric, however this should not be a copying process of one traditional architectural asset without understanding the existence of being of the whole settlement. On the contrary, the essence of historic urban fabric should be grasped and used as a source of inspiration and adaptation project. Historic urban fabric is an outcome of both physical formation and socio-cultural relations; therefore its essence lies in the interrelatedness of all its components. The essence of it is not visible but can be understood. The components may change with changing conditions of modern world, but the essence of historic urban fabric is the combination of the relations of the components. The existence of being is the way of understanding entity as entity in terms of temporal dimensions: past, present and future. In this essay, it is found necessary to evaluate urban design approaches dealing with the essence of settlements initially; therefore, the entity and its essence are irst discussed. The discussion of these approaches helps us to make inference for our case study. Heidegger refers to the human being in the world with the German word ‘Dasein’ or ‘being-there’ because human being is aware of other things. Access to what appears deines what those things really are. Therefore, the being of entity rests in the understanding of entities with consciousness. Dasein determines the character of the beings in an awhileness of temporal particularity. “…Dasein in its being there for a while at the particular time” (Heidegger, 1999, p.5). It does not mean an isolation of self from other individuals. The being of individual depends on the existence of others and the surrounding context. Dasein is the concrete expression of being in a cultural and historical context regarding to community’s practices and shares. Heidegger focuses on a new way to care for human nature and environment because the desire for a place can be only obtained when the material problems are resolved. Place construction should be about the recovery of roots, the recovery of the art of dwelling with nature (Harvey, 1993). Dwelling is the basic character of being. Heidegger deines ‘dwelling’ as “The way in which you are and I am, the manner in which we humans are on the earth, is ‘Baun’, dwelling. To be a human being means to be on the earth as a mortal. It means to dwell “(Heidegger, 1971, p.147). He deines the world as the house where mortals dwell. Here, ‘dwell’ means to stay in a place. Human being is a mortal staying (dwelling) on the earth. ‘On the earth’ has a meaning that includes belongingness of all the beings to one another. Places are qualitative totalities in which a concrete phenomenon constitutes the whole. As these concrete phenomena are interconnected in Gestalt theory that they cannot be held isolated. “A place is therefore a qualitative, ‘total’ phenomenon, which we cannot reduce to any of its properties, such as spatial relationships, without losing its concrete nature out of sight” (Norberg-Schulz, 1980, p.8). He points at the place as an integral part of existence. The concrete things that have material substance, shape, texture and color determine an environmental character as the essence of place. According to Conzen (1960, 2004), culture and character are in strong relationship with form and history of a place. Every place gains its own soul, culture and historical character in time, which relects the past and todays actions of the community and their shared values. Cultural settlements are the objectivized pattern of the essence of community and although this pattern is formed with different layers of history, it has traces of the past and has distinctive character. city as organism|new visions for urban life Figure 1. Locations of Ula and Akyaka. 69 Cullen (1960) deines the settlements as ‘the art of relationships’ in his book ‘Townscapes’ by remarking the interaction in the society. He asserts that the components of the urban environment should be evaluated in a whole with their distinctive character and values. The essence of a settlement lies in the spatial relationships among its components. Every component may change in time, but its value, its soul and its architecture can only be understood from those relationships (Özaslan, 1995). Urban form is a result of the bringing together of many elements in a composite totality and constitute urban pattern. The visual essence of patterns depends on complexity of a number interrelated motifs rather than a total composition, therefore they are parts of a continuum. They are the veritable traces of community, imposition of the cultural artifacts of society on earth (Lozano, 1990; 38-39). According to Rossi (1991; 29), the city is a man-made object and a result of urban artifacts of history. Architecture of the city, its form is the total character of urban artifacts. On the other hand, he indicated that architecture is one of the determining factors of urban form. “Architecture gives concrete form to society and is intimately connected with it and with nature, it differs fundamentally from every other art and science. This is the basis for an empirical study of the city as it has evolved from earliest settlements. With time, the city grows upon itself; it acquires a consciousness and memory. In the course of its construction, its original themes persist, but at the same time it modiies and renders these themes of its own development more speciic.” (Rossi, 1991; 21). Buildings are the elements of the city, parts of a whole. Therefore typology of buildings has a close relationship with urban morphology. Typology differs from model with its vaguelessness and its collective character. It does not imply imitation or copy of objects and does not have precise rules. Type is the very idea of architecture, that which is closest to its essence. With technological development, functions of the urban environment may change, therefore it is essential to grasp the essence of architectural values and urban fabric and adapt this essence to our contemporary designs in other to avoid imitations of past forms city as organism|new visions for urban life Figure 2. Residence of Nail Çakırhan. 70 and to provide a meaningful settlement character. “If urban artifacts were constantly able to reform and renew themselves simply by establishing new functions, the values of urban structure, as revealed through architecture, would be continuous and easily available” (Rossi, 1991; 47). Therefore, signiicance of an urban artifact would be formed by its place in the continuity of its spatial and temporal environment. Inherited environment creates the image of the city. The man-made environment should be evaluated with its city as organism|new visions for urban life Figure 3. Garden door without walls in Akyaka. own entirety and continuum. Learning process from historic urban fabric should be the integrity of esthetic feeling revealed in a continuum of forms, not the integrity of the past (Kuban, 1983). Traditional architectural values are not the end products of a settlement; they are the result of a long-term formation including physical, social, cultural, economical interactions. Therefore, this essay analyses the essence of historic urban fabric and spatial formation on the case of Ula, then criticize the adaptation of architectural qualities of form in Akyaka learned from Ula’s experienced urban fabric. Historic Urban Fabric of Ula and Newly Created Urban Fabric of Akyaka Ula is a historic district of Muğla Province in the Aegean Region of Turkey. It is administratively one of the thirteen countries of Muğla. The district is settled in a wide fertile adjoining plain ifteen kilometers beyond the town of Muğla and approximately 600m high from the sea. Ula locates between two mountains: Alçın and Laleli. Ula is situated in a small highland valley. A single creek dry in summer months passes through the large plain. Ula is an Anatolian town in which a single road passes through the center of the town. It has a linear town development. There are four neighborhoods in the town center: Demirtaş, Köprübaşı, Ayazkızı, Alparaslan. Every neighborhood displays occupational homogeneity and includes small, integrated communities. There are sub-neighborhoods called with the name of extended family residing in the locality for generations. Land use in the town is distinguished according to different urban functions such as commercial, religious, administrative, education and so on. Society gains their livelihood from agriculture therefore, around town center, patchwork of tobacco ields; vineyards and gardens extend across the plain. The main commercial street locates in the densely nucleated town center and there is a string development of stores, workshops, storage depots, administrative ofices and recreational spaces. Administrative structures, banks, schools extend end upon end from the old commercial center of Ula. Residential neighborhoods surround the commercial city as organism|new visions for urban life 71 72 center radially. Commercial center acts as a nodal point where in the meantime functions as a transition to the surrounding neighborhoods, thus provides the continuity in the townscape. Most of the spacious residences of landlords once took place in Alparslan Neighborhood because in the Ottoman era, prominent landholders irst settled in this area. All the residential neighborhoods display similar architectural characteristics as they are in uniformity. However, choice of building material and size of house changes according to prestige and income of the owner of the residences. The houses are generally constructed of trimmed stone, poured concrete blocks, or brick, and has tiled roof (Benedict, 1974). Traditional houses of Ula have an invert oriented plan characteristics similar to traditional houses in Muğla and in close districts however, the workmanship is more sophisticated in Ula. They are generally single story houses with two rooms and a polygonal sofa1. The residences of prominent landholders are two-storey buildings with sofa in the front, side or middle. The exterior of the houses are plastered over and whitewashed. Each house has a garden or courtyard encircled with a whitewashed stonewall providing privacy. In every courtyard there is a well providing the required water. This water taken out with a pump and is used for irrigation. The surplus water is collected in small pools to be used for house works. There is no window on the ground level on the street side, rather they face out upon the courtyard. Access to the courtyard is through a garden door made up of wooden. Because of high courtyard walls, no activity in the courtyard is seen from the street (Benedict, 1974). Ula was an administrative center of thirteen villages and district with an area of 407 square kilometers (Figure 1). After the province of Mugla became a metropolis in 2014, all the villages of Ula were registered as the neighborhoods of Ula. Akyaka is one of these neighborhoods situated 19km far from Ula town center to the northwest of the Gulf of Gökova (Kerme). Once, it was a neighborhood of Kozlukuyu Village. After assignment of a mukthar in 1971 and establishment of municipality in 1992, it became a town center. Today, this village became a tourism center with its natural and architectural qualities. The town center is settled on the north side of Gulf of Gökova, behind pine forest-clad mountains steepens to 1000meters. In the east side of the settlement, there is Kadın Creek where cold and fresh water boils. Along the seashore of Gulf of Gökova, a large marshy plain locates. In 1989, this plain with the creeks are registered as the ‘Specially Protected Environmental Area’ in Turkey (Oğuz, 2010). In ancient times, Akyaka port was the commercial transit point between island-states and city-states in the Aegean Sea because this location was the easiest route for the ships to land. The rock tombs found in the district are the evidences of an ancient life (Çınar, 2014). For centuries, coastal plains of Akyaka have been the lowlands of Ula town. From antiquity to the beginning of the twentieth century, endemic malaria was a threat for the expansion of settlements on the coastal plains of Akyaka. Life has been tolerable on the coastal lands thanks to transhumance between Ula town and Akyaka. Town residences spent the summer months in highlands (yayla) of Ula; therefore, there has been a seasonal dependency between Ula and Akyaka for centuries (Benedict, 1974). Akyaka is an adaptation project of Nail Çakırhan, who irst started to form the urban fabric of the town with a reference to traditional houses of Ula in 1970s; from then on, Akyaka has featured a distinctive architectural character. Nail Çakırhan was poet, journalist and a master builder, a self-educated architect. In 1970, he settled in Akyaka with his wife. In 1980, he built a naïve example of single storey Ula house on two decares (dönüm) land. The house was in great harmony with its forestry environment, climate and cultural background of the settlement. (Figure 2). The house had independent rooms, which do not have passages to each other. It was located on a sloping area with sea view. Its garden was large and full of fruit trees. His intimate friends and some touristic investors requested from him to design and built new houses and buildings for them. He designed for each and began to structure the urban fabric of Akyaka neighborhood with individual buildings. In 1983, he was honored with Aga Khan International Award of Architecture. He was the irst person who was presented with this award although he was not an architect. The Grand Jury Decision was as follows: 1 It is a kind of porch or hall like room. city as organism|new visions for urban life Figure 4. An imitation of sofa as balcony with too many ornamental details. 73 “For the simplicity and elegance arising from relection and maintenance of the traditional life style to design and decoration. The design of the house goes well beyond the simple reproduction of past models; its ornaments are judicious, sober, and genuine. Its extraordinary harmony with nature, as well as its multipurpose use and the ambience of its inner space, gives it great distinction. This airy and attractive house deserves special attention for its sensitive revival of craftsmanship and cultural sensitivity as a whole…… The simplicity and elegance of Çakırhan’s architecture results not from imitation but from the direct continuation and relection of traditional values. He has succeeded in reviving a vernacular architecture not merely at the supericial level of appearances, but by convincingly reintroducing the compact multivalent spatial organisation of old Turkish houses. At the same time he has demonstrated successfully that the form and construction of his houses continue to make economic sense.” Of course, he was not the single designer of the town; the community interiorized the adaptation project of Nail Çakırhan. Since then, architecture of Akyaka is registered and has been implemented as a plan provision in all planned buildings (Çınar, 2014). Imitation of Past or Adaptation of the Essence of Historic Urban Fabric? Today, Akyaka is a tourism resort center. The naïve and environment-friendly images and forms of domestic architecture of which are initiated by Nail Çakırhan constituted the urban fabric and the main character of the settlement. Newly constructed buildings inspired from traditional domestic architecture of Ula were adapted in a harmony to sloping geography of Akyaka, which is a coastal settlement in the meantime. The location and orientation of the houses were chosen in a manner that each have sea city as organism|new visions for urban life 74 view and breeze. Till 1990s, houses were constructed on large plots with large gardens. ‘Sofa’s which are essential component of traditional Ula houses have been constructed more spacious than the closed spaces. By this way, a common place for collective use and social activities was planned. Moreover, timber-framed houses of Akyaka constitute harmony with its forestry environment. Timber is a local traditional material used in many examples of domestic architecture in the district. Nevertheless, after 1990s, with popularity of summer holiday and summerhouses Akyaka became summer place of many residents coming from various cities of Turkey. With dense construction activities of the tourism, architectural images and forms could not preserved their meanings. Instead of adaptation by understanding the essence of traditional, the densely implementation of imitations of the past started to lead a chaos. It became impossible to read the urban fabric of the settlement. Use of some traditional architectural objects unnecessarily without considering its function causes emergence of funny and meaningless designs. Domestic architecture started to be implemented on hotel and pension plans. However, this implementation includes stylistic imitation of some architectural elements, which are unadapted to the needs of the buildings. These eclectic details destroyed the integrity of essence of urban fabric. In the original Ula houses, the main building in the garden is hardly visible behind the garden walls in order to provide privacy. A visitor can enter to the garden from a wooden garden door, which is connected with the surrounding walls. The irst examples in Akyaka were as it was in Ula thanks to Çakırhan’s adaptation project. Nevertheless, in the following years, these garden doors started to be reproduced with the same size and woodworking handcraftship without garden walls therefore they are not providing privacy in present (Figure 3). Moreover, today, because of high land prices, construction area per lot and the number of storey is so increased that the garden sizes shrinked. Traditional architecture is copied to apartment buildings without gardens. The soul of single-storey traditional domestic architecture in Akyaka started to be vanished. In similar with garden doors, sofas are transformed into apartment balconies with their all ornaments. Some of these balcony examples are the miniied imitations of the sofas, however with this minimization, the function of a sofa could not be adapted into the balcony. In general, a sofa is supported on wooden columns with decorated capitals and contains a traditional raised seat where the breeze is strongest. Some miniied copy of these sofas in balcony having raised seats where even one person cannot sit. These meaningless copies are creating confusion on the façade of the buildings (Figure 4). Akyaka became a resort center; therefore it is now full of summerhouses, guesthouses, pensions and hotels. While it is very crowded in summer months it is quiet in winter months. The town started to sprawl through cliffs according to increasing construction activities. The architecture of the settlement destroyed with dense constructions and imitations of the past. Conclusion The newly created urban fabric of Akyaka has initially been an inspiration project depending on the reading and learning process of historic urban fabric of Ula. However, in time, with speculative tourism developments, this inspiration started to be destroyed with simple imitations of past forms. In creating contemporary urban space, the ‘new’ should be based on the understanding process of inherited values, which are adapted to the period of time they belong. Briely, the essence of historic urban fabric should be understood in order to grasp true architectural qualities. Perceiving and understanding historic urban fabric necessitates meaningful and identiiable coherence of the architectural qualities and structure of the settlements. The connection between past and future can only be established with accepting historic urban fabric, as an inspiration and adaptation project not a model to be copied. city as organism|new visions for urban life References Benedict, P. (1974) Ula: An Anatolian Town (E.J. Brill, Leiden). Conzen, M.R.G. (1960) Alnwick, Northumberland: A Study in Town Plan Analysis, Publication No:27 (Institute of British Geographers, London). Conzen, M. R. G. (2004) Thinking About Urban Form – Papers on Urban Morphology: 19321998 (Peter Lang, Bern). Cullen, G. (1961) Townscape (Architectural Press, London). Çınar, A. A. (2014) Ula: Hayata Açılan Kapı, Ula Belediyesi Kültür Yayınları:2 (book) (Publication of Ula Municipality, Muğla). Harvey, D. (1993) The Nature of Environment: the Dialectics of Social and Environmental Change, (http://socialistregister.com/index.php/srv/article/view/5621) accessed October 20, 2010. Heidegger, M. (1971) Poetry, Language, Thought, tr. by A. Hofstaedter (Harper and Row Publishers, New York). Heidegger, M. (1999) Ontology: The Hermeneutics of Facticity, tr. by John van Buren Bloomington (Indiana University Press, Indianapolis). Kuban, D. (1983) ‘Conservation of the Historic Environment for Cultural Survival’, Architecture and Community (Building in the Islamic World Today, The Aga Khan Award for Architecture) (Aperture, New York) 32-37. Norberg- Schulz, C. (1980) Genius Loci, Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture (Academy Editions, London). Oğuz, M. (2010) Muğla Culture and Tourism Magazine, May-June, (2) (Publications of Muğla Directorate of Culture and Tourism, Muğla) 51-56. Özaslan, N. (1995) ‘Historic Urban Fabric: Source of Inspiration for Contemporary City Form’, unpublished MSc Thesis for a DPhil Degree, Institute of Advanced Architectural Studies, University of York, UK. Rossi, A. (1991) Architecture of the city (Cambridge, The MIT Press). city as organism|new visions for urban life 75