Vernacular Ecology: Environmental Recreation of Ancient Dwellings in Southeastern Turkey

“At the beginning of the 21st century, in a time of rapid ecological degradation, globalization and destruction of much vernacular architectural heritage, concerns for the maintenance of the local, cultural identities, and an awareness of the need to provide sustainable built environments are set to raise an interest in the vernacular traditions” (Asquith & Vellinga, 2006) for a culturally-embedded environmental design future. This paper investigates the Southeastern Turkey’s vernacular architecture with the aim to partake in the development of a New Hasankeyf proposal by investigating design guidelines for the new dwellings of the future city. The basis of the explored guidelines relies on the concept of ‘recreating the vernacular’ with the primary goal to enhance the environmental performance of the proposed dwellings; through passive means and without compromising the cultural/geographical premonitions that it originally derived from by implementing 1) compact form, 2) adapted space layout and 3) improved building elements.