Searching for Flexible Interior Design Solutions: Mass Housing Units in Istanbul

Searching for Flexible Interior Design Solutions: Mass Housing Units in Istanbul

Nilüfer Saglar Onay, Banu Garip, Müge Belek Fialho Teixeira
Copyright: © 2017 |Pages: 15
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-0666-9.ch015
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Abstract

In Turkey starting from 80s, especially in metropolises like Istanbul the increase of urban density, the decrease of urban inland and the change of social and cultural structure brought with it the need for housing design and production with different priorities. In this context, crowded families had to be replaced from self-built houses to presented mass housing units. Interior spaces of such mass housing that are designed and produced with the intention of standardization, failed to meet the needs of crowded family types. The aim of this work is to discuss the role of interior design in creating design solutions that can increase the flexibility of interiors according to the changing needs of different families with different cultural backgrounds.
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Background

In Turkey the discussions about new housing settlements have different perspectives. In housing market new housing units even the most luxurious apartments are evaluated according to their overall areas, number of rooms and other quantitative properties. Housing projects developed for high income groups differ from the others only by the quality of construction and the existence of an artificial identity. According to Ek (2012), architects design only the characteristics of settlements and services by attaching some popular concepts to them for underwriting rather than designing alternative spatial-organizations providing different living qualities for different inhabitants. Mostly even the purchasers are not aware of the lack of qualitative properties that need to be evaluated in housing units. Issues like the cultural and social background of inhabitants; spatial properties that support domestic activities and environmental factors are often being disregarded.

In academic studies and research the architectural rigidness of mass housing units is mostly discussed through case studies in different regions of Turkey. In the housing literature of Turkey, the uniformity in the quality of architectural design is undertaken as a quality problem, because it causes to monotonous built-environment and inhibits the variety in spatial experience of the inhabitants. Moreover, most of these studies agree generally on that this problem mainly affects users’ living standards and decreases their living quality (Tekeli 2008, Sey 1994, Bilgin 2002) Bektaş (2007) stated that the new houses and residences built today in Turkey are intended to suit a different style of living. Bektaş also called this new period “influenced”, “integrated” or “modified” and a new synthesis, which have not matured at present, will evolve. The new houses and residences are mostly built similar to each other, ignoring all the climatically, geographical and local influences which traditional Turkish house valued a lot.

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