Webinar on The Physical Elements of Vernacular Architecture and Their Relationship to the Prevailing Climate

00:00:00:05 - 00:00:20:15
Speaker 1
Welcome to the fourth and final instalment of this first series of lessons from the Global South webinars. And as those of you who've already tuned into these who know we've been working on them together with the Climate Heritage Network, which historic England's part of and which connects up people in organizations in conservation and cultural heritage. Working on climate change from right around the world.

00:00:20:22 - 00:00:50:22
Speaker 1
And this series is the centerpiece of our offering, the 27, which of course, began on Sunday. We started the webinars because we wanted to remind us all in the Global North that we have a very blinkered view of the climate change problem and therefore of the possible solutions, because we've just spent the best part of 250 years serving ever increasing quantities of fossil fuels at every problem, and especially at the way we construction operate our built environment side of heritage, we've entirely forgotten that there was ever a different way of doing things.

00:00:50:22 - 00:01:16:05
Speaker 1
So we don't understand the reason that the Global South countries have tiny carbon footprints despite their much larger populations. But in the South, because energy never stopped being expensive and difficult to find there, they never lost the old knowledge of how to do things without coal and gas. Steel and concrete. And if you've been listening so far, you know, it's been a really amazing journey, even more so than we expected.

00:01:16:12 - 00:01:49:13
Speaker 1
We've heard from Cordelia Osasona and Mokọ́ládé Johnson from Nigeria, Mokọ́ládé Johnson in the session today I see two which is lovely and Irem Gencer from Algeria and they've covered all sorts of angles from vernacular construction in society to risk in how we learn and transmit knowledge. And it's full of practical things that we in the Global North could really benefit from learning again to see how to create a functional, happy, built environment that doesn't depend at all on fossil fuels and is also therefore more resilient to the changes we are already seeing in the climate.

00:01:50:01 - 00:02:23:19
Speaker 1
Most importantly, I think we've all been struck by just how holistically our Global South colleagues are used to thinking about things, and that's made us here in Historic England. And I hope our listeners to really acutely aware of just how siloed we've become in the North, even more so than the most pessimistic of us thought, because it's not just the various professional groups, but all the divisions between sectors like real estate and construction and product manufacture that we are currently relying on to set the parameters of the design of our built environment, what we actually want the built environment to be like and do forest now and into the future.

00:02:24:09 - 00:02:43:09
Speaker 1
We've been letting so many important things and all those big questions fall between the cracks rather than seeing how everything overlaps. So I guess it's not surprising that all that lack of joined up thinking has been really getting in the way of us finding a workable and effective way forward into a sustainable future, a future we really want.

00:02:45:02 - 00:03:06:24
Speaker 1
It's clear that effective and fast climate action is going to depend on breaking down those silos and stopping thinking of things in a piecemeal way. And at the same time, we've been hearing from our Global South friends how important the holistic view is to supporting societies and communities that actually work. So I don't think that the loss of these silos is going to be something that we'll regret.

00:03:07:19 - 00:03:23:13
Speaker 1
Those of us who work in heritage planning wherever we're based in the world have always had to be holistic because we have to think of the long term future, to think beyond the individual building, to the way that building works. And we need to keep working as part of the local area and as part of the local community.

00:03:23:19 - 00:03:51:00
Speaker 1
So it shouldn't perhaps surprise us that we seem to be leading the conversation here. We really do have a responsibility to get out from our own silo and start shouting about what we know that can help, not least all the things we know about history and how buildings of all types and periods actually work or don't work. With COP 27 underway, but no sign that the loudest voices are going to be any better this time around at helping people to see a way forward.

00:03:51:00 - 00:04:12:09
Speaker 1
It's really time we stop preaching to the choir and actually start raising our voices to show that the solutions are out there and we know what most of them are. And I'm very sure that means singing in unison with our colleagues from the Global South and doing what we can to make sure their voices are heard as the custodians of real, practical solutions, which they're already applying.

00:04:13:00 - 00:04:36:03
Speaker 1
And with that, it gives me just so much pleasure to be welcoming today's speaker, the wonderful Doctor Rim Kelouaze, who I had first had the pleasure of working with last year when we were pulling together some last minute events for COP26 in Glasgow. And then again a few months ago when we were pulling together comments from the Climate Heritage Network on the UN's Buildings Global Status Report, which is actually being launched as we speak today.

00:04:36:18 - 00:04:57:20
Speaker 1
Your aims an associate professor in the Department of Architecture at United Technical University in Istanbul as well as a very active member of Turkey and of the Campus Climate Change Working Group. She's a graduate of the Victor Moses International Exchange Program, where she worked on the US, in the US, on the San Antonio Historic Missions World Heritage Site.

00:04:58:05 - 00:05:19:08
Speaker 1
And her Ph.D. is in urban and architectural conservation. And she's definitely another amazing all around with fields of research that include conservation theory, surveying and documentation, urban preservation, vernacular architecture in Anatolia and the impacts of climate change on vernacular heritage. So you're in the floor. Is yours.

00:05:19:20 - 00:05:49:16
Speaker 2
Thank you, Robyn, for the lovely introduction. Hello everyone. I hope my sound is nice and clear. Okay, I'm going to talk about the physical elements of vernacular architecture and their relationship to the prevailing climate today. And I want to show you briefly my content. First, I'm going to make an introduction about what vernacular architecture is very briefly, and then I'm going to talk about the relation of vernacular architecture under local climates in four subtitles.

00:05:49:16 - 00:06:12:00
Speaker 2
And these are going to be the relation of vernacular buildings and the site, as well as the topography, the design elements of vernacular architecture, the building elements such as windows and other features, and also the building materials and what happens when we modify these original features. And finally, I'm going to sum up with an evaluation and some brief suggestions.

00:06:13:11 - 00:06:36:21
Speaker 2
Okay. So what we're not because the architecture is of course, there are many, many definitions. One of the most common ones is architecture without architects. I love this one, but I think this is it is underestimating vernacular architecture because there are some very subtle aspects that I'm going to show you today that we don't practice in architecture today and which are actually very important elements.

00:06:36:21 - 00:07:01:19
Speaker 2
The for adaptation to climate change impacts today. So there are of course many charters and doctrinal texts on vernacular architecture. And I took the reference from Icomos Charter on the vernacular heritage. And according to this vernacular architecture is a characteristic and attractive product of the society. It is informal yet orderly. It is an integral part of the cultural landscape.

00:07:01:19 - 00:07:32:12
Speaker 2
Thus it sits with the local site and the climatic conditions, and it shows the traditional and also the natural way by which communities houses themselves. And it is also a continuing project process, including the necessary changes and continuous adaptation as a response to social and environmental constraints. This is very important, especially today when we talk about adaptation to to the negative impacts of climate change and also building resilience.

00:07:32:12 - 00:08:01:14
Speaker 2
So the adaptability of vernacular architecture is a very important asset. And I'm going to show you some examples from this now. So first of all, the relation that site and topography is very important and we can see how the local climatic conditions define vernacular architecture in different sites. And we are going to look at the design characteristics in plans, facades, what are the features of adaptation?

00:08:02:05 - 00:08:24:01
Speaker 2
And also we are going to look at the building elements and materials in detail. Also, I'm going to show you mostly pictures from Turkey, but also from Balkans and Greece. I mean, the neighbouring countries of Turkey, which are also some similar assets. For example, Mostar is a riverside town that is situated beneath a steep mountain and there is a very high incline.

00:08:24:01 - 00:08:49:02
Speaker 2
The terrain and the houses and the buildings are settled along the coasts of the river. And also there is some some below on the slide you see, which is a World Heritage site in Turkey that was inscribed in 1985. It is an historic settlement. And you see the monuments from the the the large masonry monuments you see from the 17th century mostly.

00:08:49:22 - 00:09:16:05
Speaker 2
And the houses are dated from 18th and 19th century. So most of the houses are historic in the settlement. There are very, very few new houses in between. And it is settled in a valley again beneath a mountain, and it is settled until the valley basin. And for example, when we look at Alanya, another town in Turkey, it's on the south coast of Turkey.

00:09:16:05 - 00:09:39:15
Speaker 2
It's an intramural town. It's a seaside town also. And we can see when we look at the photograph and also the aerial view, we can see the houses and also the roads are positioned according to the topography. When you look closely to them, to the aerial view I can show with my pointing, you can see the topography lines and how the houses are aligned according to the topography.

00:09:39:15 - 00:10:06:10
Speaker 2
So you can almost see the topography lines in the aerial view and how the houses are aligned according to this. So this is one of the most important features that the relation to the site and topography for vernacular architecture because before the urban land became a tool for rent extraction, actually the vernacular settlements allowed for each house to have fresh air, sunlight and view, which I showed briefly on the sketch.

00:10:07:01 - 00:10:33:21
Speaker 2
You can see that the houses are fitted along the slope or according to the terrain, and so they don't block each. Others view sunlight and their heights are also accordingly arranged and the roads are also constructed according to the topography, which is also an important feature, because if this requires minimum soil extraction, because they they just use what the land offers them.

00:10:33:21 - 00:11:02:04
Speaker 2
So the roads are constructed accordingly and also enough open spaces are located between the buildings. So there is room for fresh air to come in, for ventilation, for air circulation and again for sunlight, heat and also a view, for example, in so from below the settlement I just showed you, the world Heritage site, the houses are a base towards the the houses are positioned towards the basin of the valley.

00:11:02:15 - 00:11:38:01
Speaker 2
And here you see on the right should enjoy, which is a mountainous village in Izmir on the agents part of Turkey. The houses are also positioned according to the topography, again aligned with the topography. And so you can see that each one can see the view, can have fresh air and sunlight. Here, I want to open up a point of discussion, a green building systems in all the modern green building certificate systems should also aim for minimal soil extraction and focus not only on the building level but also at the site and neighbourhood scale.

00:11:38:19 - 00:12:04:01
Speaker 2
When we look at the neighbourhood in terms of green building systems, we can see accessibility is an issue. Well, the walkability or how the houses place in the town and what are the nearby sites. But in terms of fresh air, sunlight and road construction, also the buildings should be evaluated and the position of buildings should also be evaluated within ecological land use patterns as well.

00:12:05:10 - 00:12:05:15
Speaker 2
Hmm.

00:12:06:13 - 00:12:37:24
Speaker 3
Indeed. Imran, that's a really good point. Hello, everybody. My name's Hannah Reynolds. I'm the new retrofit architect within the climate change team. I'm on the call today also. And yeah, I just want to say that's a really interesting point you raise. You're something that we have to consider here. Also, the micro climatic impacts of our our buildings moving forwards and how we might design those for the future and how new buildings might also be designed not just within the national and regional climates, but the microclimate.

00:12:38:04 - 00:12:42:21
Speaker 3
So we intention as well. So it's a really interesting point. Thank you for raising it.

00:12:42:21 - 00:12:44:16
Speaker 1
Yeah, that's right. In our planning system.

00:12:44:16 - 00:12:46:05
Speaker 3
So that they talk about daylighting.

00:12:46:13 - 00:12:58:08
Speaker 1
They don't really address the this sort of level of impact. It's more to do with them with just the single person's view from their.

00:12:58:08 - 00:13:02:13
Speaker 3
Window or whatever. So there's a lot to be done.

00:13:02:13 - 00:13:33:03
Speaker 2
Yes. And I want to continue with land use patterns. And the for example, especially in vernacular settlements, we see that the traditional land use patterns are preserved and they are the settlements are in areas that are least convenient for agriculture because they leave the rest of the place for agriculture. For example, again, you see Suranga, the mountain village in Izmir, which is central on the hilltop, and therefore leaves the most fertile lands for agriculture, for olive fields.

00:13:33:03 - 00:13:59:04
Speaker 2
There are all the fields around and grapevines, because olive oil production and wine production is an important economic feature of this settlement. So they leave most of the area for this, and the settlement is compact and also on a hilltop so that the most fertile lands are left for agriculture. Again, a similar site we see DeVries give us, which is in south eastern sorry, central eastern Anatolia.

00:13:59:17 - 00:14:25:09
Speaker 2
And you see the fields around these sort of settlements towards the mountains. So the the settlement is based in the center. And you see the fields are allocated around for agriculture. So ecological land use patterns also should be preserved. This is something we should again consider when we are building our cities, because this approach protects the environmental features as well.

00:14:26:22 - 00:14:53:20
Speaker 2
The planning decisions are also very important for example, in judo, which is an island on the eastern coast of Turkey, the you see the white dotted lines. This is a historic settlement. And around that, again, olive oil production is important for this town. It's an old Greek settlement. And you see the olive fields around. You can see in green, the green space is olive fields, both in the urban planning decisions.

00:14:53:20 - 00:15:19:22
Speaker 2
It was decided that the new houses can be built inside these olive fields. So some of the land for instead of agricultural, some of the land is allocated for new residential developments instead. What instead actually the whole green area should be kept as a buffer zone around this historic settlement. So that first the development pressure on the historic sites would not be created.

00:15:20:06 - 00:15:48:24
Speaker 2
And also, this creates a density of, of course, a population and also a number of cars and tourists, etc.. So all these new houses are actually allocated for summer houses. And they all you know, you can see the urban sprawl around. They all grow into the olive fields. Yeah. So another important feature of vernacular architecture in relation to site and topography is the use of natural vegetation.

00:15:48:24 - 00:16:16:10
Speaker 2
An example from our neighbor Greece, we can see in Panama religion fossils that the greenery in open spaces, it's the hot climates, especially in the summer. It's hot and dry and how they provide shade and cool the air. And looking towards the other picture, we can see a traditional Antalya house which is located on the south coast of Turkey and the houses are mostly have gardens or courtyards.

00:16:16:11 - 00:16:46:09
Speaker 2
This is a hot and humid climate and how you can see the vegetation grows over the house. Actually, this is an abandoned house, but still you can see how the trees in the are grown in the gardens and they help reduce heat islands. This is again a very important point through evapotranspiration, a sort of upper transpiration alone or in combination with shading the trees can help actually reduce peak summer temperatures by 1 to 5 degrees Celsius.

00:16:46:09 - 00:17:13:00
Speaker 2
This is very important and this is some something measurable. So I call the trees and nature friendly air conditioner. I took this famous phrase from an advertisement. I just so recently for an air conditioner that named itself as nature friendly. One, of course, means that the trees are the near future friendly air conditioners that we shouldn't forget. Again, I'm going to raise a point of discussion here.

00:17:13:23 - 00:17:48:17
Speaker 2
For example, the reduction of heat islands, especially in dense urban settlements. The trees are a really important asset. In my hometown, for example, in Istanbul, the increasing of hard surfaces with urban regeneration is a very dangerous problem. For example, when they demolish apartments and build new apartments, instead a new construction. According to the urban regulations, underground parking is necessary, so they use the garden and they dig out all the garden and built an underground parking instead.

00:17:48:17 - 00:18:08:06
Speaker 2
So there is still a garden above the very shallow earth level with a very shallow soil level. And due to that we cannot grow trees. You can only grow some grass. Therefore, this week the urban heat is increasing more and more. So we we keep losing our vegetation, which is a natural air conditioner for us.

00:18:08:13 - 00:18:12:00
Speaker 1
Oh, yeah. And there's also the the runoff problems.

00:18:13:04 - 00:18:39:19
Speaker 3
I was going to say it's the same same problem we've got here, Rome with constantly talking now about more greening of our urban areas for exactly the same reasons and it's really important for many things is yeah Robin says surface runoff by diversification. I think we should be thinking not only just reducing our urban heat areas but increasing our urban pollen and green areas too, for all sorts of reasons.

00:18:39:19 - 00:18:45:09
Speaker 3
So it's really interesting. Thank you.

00:18:45:09 - 00:19:10:15
Speaker 2
Okay. I want to continue more on relation that site on topography, for example, this is a rocky settlement in the mountains of item, again in the Asian part of Turkey. And you see the houses are constructed on rocks. So instead of extracting the soil, again, this minimizes the vernacular. Architectural approach is more ecological than today's architecture. And they built the buildings on rocks.

00:19:10:15 - 00:19:32:08
Speaker 2
So the buildings you look at are from 1950s, forties, because we worked in this village for a documentation project with our graduate students and the people abandoned this village because of water shortage. And there were very few villagers living there. And we talked to them and most of them said that, Oh, my father built this house, or I worked in this house for the construction.

00:19:32:08 - 00:19:57:20
Speaker 2
So these are not very, very old houses that you're looking at. These are not from 18th or 19th century. These are actually very recent houses. And it's that the people still have this local knowledge of the ecological approach actually on the land. And to keep the soil. And so it is still an important feature that we should continue today.

00:19:58:07 - 00:20:24:03
Speaker 2
Also another important asset of our Nicholas Sites is the roads. I told you that they're constructed up according to the topography. This also causes minimal soil extraction and allows for water flow because the roads are constructed according with the inclination and the slope. And look at the traditional street paving interop, which is in its the the again in the Black Sea part of Turkey.

00:20:24:03 - 00:20:49:18
Speaker 2
And also, you know, and in the Asian part of Turkey, they look at the pebbles and how they're constructed, how they're paved. And you can see that there is an there's almost a gutter in between the in the in the middle of the road so that water can flow through and here as well. And also underneath the pebbles, there is only some soil and sand.

00:20:49:18 - 00:21:26:13
Speaker 2
So when there is heavy rain, the water is absorbed. Where instead in Antakya on the picture on the far right, you see concrete cladding because the municipality wanted to clad the traditional streets with traditional paving with concrete because, you know, it looks nice and smooth and clean and the municipality municipality has done something for the people. But instead in the first heavy rain around us, we were flooded and the whole historic city was inundated because, you know, the concrete does not absorb water.

00:21:27:09 - 00:21:46:11
Speaker 2
So nowadays, green infrastructure is preferred as an ecological solution because it increases soft surfaces that absorb water and also slows down water flow to underground sewer. So this is a good solution for heavy rains and inundation problems that coastal cities where we expect sea level rise.

00:21:47:12 - 00:22:12:16
Speaker 1
Well, we're seeing here that we've got problems all over the cities throughout Europe where they can analyze the the the river is they closed the men in canal in in pipes and it fits with your thing for to for rent extraction that just gave more and more room for the rights in both houses. But now they're all failing massively.

00:22:12:16 - 00:22:29:15
Speaker 1
And often they you don't realize they're failing because the undercutting of the flooding takes a while to show. At the surface you get sudden collapse. So they've been opening up rivers again and discovering that that really does help with the flood problems.

00:22:29:15 - 00:22:56:23
Speaker 2
Yes, this is also true for some places in Turkey as well. And also another feature of this site and topography is the human scale. I especially the picture in the middle is one of my favorites. You can see the narrow alleys and passages and overhangs of the buildings provide shade, especially in hot climates or in hot days. For example, you can see how narrow the passages in Antakya on the left side.

00:22:57:04 - 00:23:23:19
Speaker 2
And the picture in the middle is from Damascus, a village of Bursa again in the mountains of Marmara region. It's a World Heritage site. And also the one on the right is from the from central eastern Anatolia and how the buildings overhangs and the and how they are positioned with the street, you know, provides shade. And also, of course, the the streets are not oriented for cars.

00:23:23:19 - 00:23:53:17
Speaker 2
It's for humans and for donkeys. You know, the how that they're transported, you know how they transport goods only through animals. Animals and of course, through humans, human labour. And looking at the buildings themselves, I'm going to show you some design aspects regarding the interior of the buildings and also the exterior features. Looking at the buildings, we see a multifunctional space in Turkish houses, which is called the sofa.

00:23:54:03 - 00:24:16:05
Speaker 2
In Turkish. It means the whole actually it can be opened, semi-open or closed according to the climate. For example, you see in so from below it's in the Black Sea region, the closed halls that is the whole the whole is a multipurpose space. It's not just the hall for circulation. The hall opens up to the hall is in the middle.

00:24:16:05 - 00:24:37:02
Speaker 2
Actually, the hallway is in the middle and it opens up to all the rooms around it. And also it is a place for sitting, dining, family gatherings. Also, according to your social status, you can have the guests there. It's also a place for storage. And according to the climate and according to the season, you can use it differently.

00:24:37:15 - 00:25:02:08
Speaker 2
So this is an example of a closed hall and these are examples of open halls. For example, in Burgi, which is in the Asian region, it's a hot climate. There are open holes in two stories and it's like an open corridor or an open balcony where you can access all the rooms from the corridor. And this is a very elaborate example, but a very modest one in Antakya.

00:25:02:10 - 00:25:27:01
Speaker 2
You see on the left, of course, this slab is changed the concrete, but still, even though it's concrete, we know that originally it wasn't, of course, but still the form is preserved. And so this is an open hallway that opens up into the courtyard and also you can see here is some timber cladding. So how will it. So it's an L-shaped corridor, actually.

00:25:27:01 - 00:25:50:07
Speaker 2
This is an L-shaped open hall. And this is the you can see the timber cladding here itself closed for the season according to the climate. And you can climb down to the courtyard. So it's an inward hall overlooking the courtyard and you can see greenery. Of course, the season was winter, so it's not so lush and green anymore.

00:25:50:07 - 00:26:14:11
Speaker 2
But if so, if the shade is provided from the courtyard with this green tree. And also you can see here a water feature. It's a small fountain here. This is a very important asset. It provides coolness to the courtyard because you see it's clad with stone. And also it's it's according to the Islamic tradition, because people pray five times a day.

00:26:14:19 - 00:26:41:20
Speaker 2
People prefer running water in their houses because they they need to take ablution every time before they pray. So running water is an important feature of these houses as well. And it's also functional because it provides coolness and also the there is a very clever way that these these houses have a functional division because on the lower floors there are usually stables or kitchens which produce heat.

00:26:41:20 - 00:27:03:24
Speaker 2
In the stables the animals are kept. And so the body rises. So the heat rises from their body. And also in the kitchens, of course, you cook meals and that heat rises above and above. There are the living spaces on the upper floor and they have usually higher ceilings, a larger windows to let in more light, and also, of course, the radiation.

00:27:03:24 - 00:27:27:05
Speaker 2
So you get more heat. So we usually see on the ground levels there are very small openings or there are very few openings and usually they have lower ceilings and on the upper floors, usually they are higher to open up more space for the sun and also the heat rises from below. So there's always this functional division we see in vernacular architecture.

00:27:28:04 - 00:27:50:17
Speaker 2
But unfortunately today they are not used anymore. For example, the picture you see on the left is the low ceiling of a ground floor of the House in evening in central eastern Anatolia. The place is only used for piling wood. It's not used anymore. But you can see the construction and the ceiling is lower and there's a very small opening there.

00:27:51:03 - 00:28:15:11
Speaker 2
And the picture in the middle is also from central eastern Anatolia. It's in end where there are lovely adobe houses and there is a stable on the ground floor. Again, the the heat of the the animals rises from their bodies and it's used to heat also the upper floor. So it's like a thermal insulation in a way. And also you see a mention in so from below it's an excellent graphical museum.

00:28:15:11 - 00:28:43:10
Speaker 2
So you can see the display there. This mummy's here so some in this some the display here and we chose that. This is a kitchen on the ground floor again with the low ceilings. So the heat rises and you can see the chimney here as well. The oven and the heat rises above. And looking at the design character in six of the interiors, we see that the rooms are also used for multiple purposes.

00:28:43:17 - 00:29:04:15
Speaker 2
It's a living room during the day and it's a bedroom at night. You can see all how all these elaborate and decorative cupboards are used and you can put your candles or lights in these niches. And also all these cupboards provide a place for the beds to be put in on all the pillows and cushions. You know, all that stuff can be stored in there.

00:29:05:01 - 00:29:32:04
Speaker 2
And during the night they open it up and they use it as a bedroom and see how this nice chamfered corner allows for more space. So when they're designing the hallways and the rooms, they always use these chamfered corners, which allows for more space. And the companies are also used as a toilet as well. So beneath this door you can sometimes find the toilet.

00:29:32:04 - 00:29:57:00
Speaker 2
It's a, of course, a very primitive one. And you can also find the bathing place as well. And this is another house from DV against Central Eastern Anatolia. And you can see how the room is filled with light with all these windows on the upper level. Also there are windows and you can see this beautifully decorated chimney. Not all the rooms have a chimney, though.

00:29:57:00 - 00:30:24:15
Speaker 2
This is important because usually in the central room or the main room where the in the house owner and has but the owner lives usually we see the chimney and maybe in the auxiliary spaces there is no chimney. Sometimes it also depends on the wealth of the person who built the house as well. And looking at the sites and open areas, the exterior design characteristics we see, the ancillary buildings.

00:30:24:15 - 00:30:51:15
Speaker 2
These are very important meals, ovens, laundry, houses, fountains are important assets. And also we see that the buildings are designed with courtyards and gardens, especially, which provide shade and cooling areas again in hot days. And looking at the ancillary buildings, we see some examples here. For example, a public fountain in DV in central eastern Anatolia, another one in Churchman.

00:30:51:20 - 00:31:15:16
Speaker 2
Schmidt actually means fountains. So the the name of the settlement comes from the fountain because there are many fountains in this region and the people. It's also important for socializing because people gathered here and they when they were collecting water, because there is no running water in every house in the 19th century, some of the people had water wells and people gathered around here.

00:31:15:16 - 00:31:35:19
Speaker 2
It's also like it looks like a square and the socializing public space people gather around here. Usually women took water because men were working during the day. So women came here to take water and they were gossiping, you know, socializing. It's a way to a how can I say it's a way to strengthen the social ties as well.

00:31:36:04 - 00:31:59:22
Speaker 2
Also, the public baths, which is which are still used in Turkey, not so often, but still it's the custom that people go to public health. It's like a spa, so people like to relax and some of them are still used. And also you see a laundry house in it. So from all of Europe village, again in the Black Sea region and you can see the colors in the fireplace in the laundry house.

00:31:59:22 - 00:32:35:14
Speaker 2
Unfortunately, this is just displayed as a museum because everyone now has a laundry machine in their house. But this is important. We talked about this with Roman before because it's a good point of discussion here. Again, because these buildings provide more efficient use of water and because people and the value of this natural resource. And so they saved water that these communal buildings and also these buildings helped energy saving and how the ancillary buildings can help reduce energy consumption is, I think, a very important issue.

00:32:35:22 - 00:32:52:11
Speaker 2
And they also increased social resilience because people worked and produced together and shared valuable resources together. So sharing was common in that in that sense. And it could be a new research question, I think. And I think the consumption in such sites should be calculated. Yes.

00:32:52:20 - 00:33:26:17
Speaker 1
Well, I think here the great example is bread ovens. You still find them in a lot of villages and some people are trying to restore them. But, you know, we to run an oven uses an enormous amount of energy and you're not using the residual heat, whereas before everyone had it planned. And still in places like Romania, they do that, they'll have the baking day and they'll be baking for the week and everyone sharing that, that fuel is very efficient.

00:33:27:16 - 00:33:46:14
Speaker 3
We're starting to see the rise of the artisan baker, I suppose, in some of our villages now, and perhaps it's might to start a movement back towards that central point of where you get your bread from locally. And somebody did joke about this the other day and I thought it was a very good idea. I think it's a really pertinent point.

00:33:46:14 - 00:34:03:00
Speaker 3
We've all moved away, seen as as things have become easier to get a hold of, as you say, around. We've we've moved away from from collecting and gathering to do things. And it has had a social impact actually on us, which which is something to really think about.

00:34:04:02 - 00:34:30:05
Speaker 2
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And we we have also other examples. For example, in the in parts of Turkey, we have basins for crushing olives. People used to collect olives together from around the fields and then they distributed among themselves and they used these basins to crush them. Also behind that, there is a basin for crushing grapes, so they get gathered molasses from the grapes.

00:34:30:16 - 00:35:00:01
Speaker 2
And also, of course, there are windmill is in every town in Turkey, in traditional towns, we still see them. Of course, they're not used. Some of them are restored or used as a restaurant. Nobody uses them as a windmill. Again. But this this is with this was great for grinding grains, of course. And also, again, you see the the courtyards in Antakya, where it's a hot climate and how the greenery in the courtyards provide shade for the buildings and for the surroundings as well.

00:35:00:01 - 00:35:25:08
Speaker 2
And also the greenery. This was these photos were taken by my colleagues in the recent site work they attended. And this is in sum, they're going to look at series the region in the agent side of Turkey, but in the mountains and how you see the timber granaries are aligned, the and it's a still a traditional village and people still use these granaries, which is an important asset.

00:35:25:08 - 00:35:50:16
Speaker 2
And you see they're raised from the ground so that the granaries are not affected by the insects and it's a good way to store them. And looking at the building elements, we see that in the vernacular architecture building elements were designed according to the climate and again according to the local conditions and the local materials were abundant, which were abundant, were used.

00:35:51:02 - 00:36:23:17
Speaker 2
For example, in hot climates we find shading elements such as shutters, overhangs or projections. In cold climates we see smaller windows, window covers and transforms. And in rainy climates we see wide eaves were used, for example, here in and in Antalya, in the house from the Mediterranean region, you see the shutters and also the timber lattice in front of the windows which provide shade and also of course the eaves and the projections.

00:36:24:07 - 00:36:55:04
Speaker 2
And there are in overhangs, you see the window overhangs here and also here about the windows into Izmir, which is in the Asian region. They also provide some shade and cooling and also in pre-industrial ages prior to glass production, prior to glass, industrial glass, actually small transom windows were used to get light into the rooms and the lower large windows did not have glass.

00:36:55:04 - 00:37:14:06
Speaker 2
As you see in this one. There is glass, of course, but it was added later. They were covered with timber covers, as you see here. They were shut and in the cold days they use these transit windows to let the light in. And also there is an application of double windows. So it's it's actually a traditional way of double glazing.

00:37:14:06 - 00:37:39:08
Speaker 2
We can say it's not very common, but there are some examples like this. And also the window materials you see are usually natural materials. Of course, they use either timber, mostly they are timber. And these natural window materials allow for air ventilation because the aim is to slow down the drops, not completely block them. So the system allows for air circulation.

00:37:39:08 - 00:38:07:19
Speaker 2
And also we always get fresh, clean air for interiors. And you see the eaves in the Black Sea region again, they are wide because it's a rainy climate and it's close to so from below. And you see and also the window shutters. And again in Antakya, the rooms are raised at the ground level, the rooms are raised. You see this place.

00:38:08:03 - 00:38:35:05
Speaker 2
It's also a place to put your shoes in. It's for the booth, for the hygiene of the room. And also this raised floor protects the building from flooding. You see, it opens because the rooms open to the courtyard in that region. So you enter the room from a courtyard. So it's raised from the ground so that the when there is flooding, the rest of the room is not affected.

00:38:35:05 - 00:38:59:16
Speaker 2
And looking at the building materials, we always see that vernacular architecture uses locally available building materials for example, in Gardendale, in the south eastern part of Turkey, a mud brick is used because soil is ubiquitous. And you see there's a river, it's a settlement close to the river. So there is a chance to produce mud bricks. So all the adobe houses are constructed like this.

00:39:00:05 - 00:39:31:17
Speaker 2
Whereas in Cheshire, which is on the Asian part of Turkey, a stone is available. So you see that the local stone is used in walls, window overhangs and roofs to get the cornice and the gargoyle detail. Here, everything is stone. So basically it's the most abundant material that is found. And also porous wall materials are used, you know, because stone is preferred earth or timber.

00:39:31:17 - 00:39:58:08
Speaker 2
So they're all porous materials that allow for humidity to evaporate. And the wall thickness, as you see here on the left, this is a double wall. So there is a roughly hewn stone layer here. And also outside and inside there, a layer of mortar and earth, a mixture of mortar and earth. So this actually provides the heat insulation.

00:39:58:08 - 00:40:23:14
Speaker 2
It's a double wall system like the double glazing system I showed you. This is a double wall system. And this thickness also provides warm interiors in winters and cool interiors in the summers, or looking at these timber frame structures, as you see on the right. This is from Antonio and there's a timber frame structure. And inside that it is infilled with adobe bricks.

00:40:23:22 - 00:40:53:23
Speaker 2
It can sometimes be filled with normal bricks or also with stone in the Black Sea region especially. So whatever material is abundant, it is found and it is constructed to for the wall construction. So again, a good point of discussion here is that the porous materials hinder condensation, so they create breathable surfaces for air and humidity exchange, whereas building construction materials system only focuses on trapping air inside the buildings.

00:40:54:19 - 00:41:19:23
Speaker 1
And speaking as a water person that does terrible, terrible things to the home the way the building works and that not just old buildings. It's a it's a real perpetual problem for our current way of constructing. Actually, that means that problems can be quite serious and very hard to trace. So they get lost in all the, the waterproofing layers.

00:41:21:00 - 00:41:45:07
Speaker 2
And whereas you can see, of course, you can use natural materials such as Earth in here, which provides natural heat insulation and also allows the building to breathe. Again, both materials are the same as walls and they also allow, again, evaporation and the layers are arranged accordingly. And the slope also allows for water or rain to be removed away from the building and the earth.

00:41:45:07 - 00:42:17:19
Speaker 2
The layers in flat roofs, for example, you see here, are also layered accordingly. And they allow water and heat insulation as well. So they use sometimes gypsum layers or sometimes straw or some grass. Also, again, locally available soils can be with clay, for example. They also they don't absorb water, so they don't let the water in the building, they move it away.

00:42:17:20 - 00:42:57:00
Speaker 2
These layers are arranged accordingly and also these thick layers of earth provide heat insulation. So it's important asset for insulation as well. Again, roof materials allow evaporation. We see timber here and the layers and the slope is arranged accordingly so that the water moves away from the building. So again, the roof is shaped by the climate if if there are no heavy rains in the climate, if it's not a rainy region, if it's a hot and dry region, we see more flat roofs, whereas where the region is more rainy, we see inclined roofs so that the water is moved away from the building.

00:42:58:13 - 00:43:28:15
Speaker 2
But when we modify, what happens when we modify these features, for example, in historic settings like this one, usually there are highrise public buildings constructed. These are produced what we call with typical projects. We call them because their projects are drawn without considering the site and they're usually sent for like that. Somebody draws these public buildings projects and they're usually sent to the local side and constructed.

00:43:28:15 - 00:44:06:00
Speaker 2
So nothing not taking into consideration the local side features the sun, the wind, the position, the topography. Nothing is considered. And as you see how they affect the site and also concrete is preferred instead of lime, plaster which captures actually more humidity and accelerates the deterioration of historic buildings. This is also a very common practice in Turkey. Unfortunately, until recently it's a very popular practice that lime, plaster is scraped off the buildings because, I don't know, maybe it looks more fashionable like the this way when the stones adhere to.

00:44:07:08 - 00:44:36:18
Speaker 2
But roughly, um, Stone is not meant to be open to the air because it's this way. It's more open to the variation in atmospheric conditions. Whereas Ashleigh are finely tuned. Stone is not covered with plaster, especially in monumental architecture. We always see action of stone and it's not covered with plaster. However, when when it is roughly on stone, usually for a residential architecture, it should be covered with lime plaster because it's not it's dress, it's not dressed finely.

00:44:36:18 - 00:45:12:06
Speaker 2
So it captures more water. And also it's open to atmospheric conditions and it's deteriorated more easily. And also the flat or the roofs are, I know, hard to maintain and always they're covered with such cheap elements like the metal trapezoid roofs. And these, of course, causes condensation problems and also again, accelerate. So deterioration of the original roof structure, also overheating of historic buildings is an important problem.

00:45:12:06 - 00:45:46:00
Speaker 2
I think it's ubiquitous. It's not just for Turkey and the buildings are made airtight. Again, this is the current restoration practice. However, reintegration of modern infrastructure should be planned carefully and the building should be allowed to breathe. For example, here on the right you see the condensation problems caused by annex buildings. This is a solid masonry building and attached to it is a kitchen and bathroom and it is made with concrete.

00:45:46:13 - 00:46:14:00
Speaker 2
So inside the stone building, when there is humidity, of course, the water evaporates from the stone walls because the walls can breathe. It supports material and the between the stones there is mortar, lime, mortar, so water can evaporate from that. But in the concrete part, the annex, usually the key where the kitchen and the bathroom is. There is more water, of course, produced inside the building.

00:46:14:00 - 00:46:38:14
Speaker 2
There is more humidity. And also with the rain coming up from the terrace because they usually have flat roofs, uh, the water is collected actually inside the building because the concrete is not the poorest material and it doesn't evaporate as fast as stone. So there is always a condensation problem. Again, it deteriorates the building, especially the masonry buildings, much faster.

00:46:38:14 - 00:47:11:04
Speaker 2
As you see also on the exterior walls, we can see the traces of deterioration due to humidity. The building should be allowed to breathe again. This is a very important principle and the interface of non-porous and porous materials also causes problems. You see you can see how concrete causes corrosion in metal and cracks stone because again, concrete is a non-porous material has very little pores, actually, and it traps water, it traps rain and because stone is more porous, it has larger pores.

00:47:11:09 - 00:47:35:13
Speaker 2
The the water is collected inside the pores of the stone and when there is a metal, something like a dowel or a connecting element like this one in this in the stone, the metal corrodes because of that water trapped in the stone because it cannot evaporate due to the concrete layer on the exterior and the metal cracks because it corrodes.

00:47:35:13 - 00:48:13:21
Speaker 2
And there is good and it's rusted and its volume expands. Therefore it cracks the stone. So to sum up briefly, um, continuing the practice of traditional techniques was still widely available, I think in the mid-20th century, not just for Turkey but for other places as well. And they because the design principles of vernacular architecture were still applied to contemporary designs, even though concrete was used ubiquitously, we could still see that the houses were lower level and they had courtyards or some other features.

00:48:13:21 - 00:48:42:12
Speaker 2
Like you see the houses in here. They have some jetties or some and retreated parts in the entrance. So these features are still a available and it was still continued the practice of traditional techniques and we call these houses environmentally valuable because they are not valuable maybe as an asset to be listed or legally preserved, but they contribute to the settlements fabric.

00:48:42:22 - 00:49:15:09
Speaker 2
They're not to be listed maybe, but they should be protected with planning decisions. They're not to be demolished. Also, adjustment of green building systems. Green building rating systems should take into consideration the vernacular architecture design principles, not only the building themselves. Again, I mean the site's features as well, also porous building materials for the building envelope. So they preferred and also natural insulation materials should be preferred for the buildings to breathe and for the water to evaporate.

00:49:15:22 - 00:49:34:14
Speaker 2
And also the careful designing of the interface of non-porous and porous materials is very important, I think, and this is a very, very ambitious statement. But still, we should go for it. I think restructuring the restructuring the industrial and architectural design education to reconsider thermal comfort.

00:49:34:23 - 00:49:36:23
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah, yes, yeah.

00:49:37:06 - 00:49:39:06
Speaker 2
That's all I would say. Thank you.

00:49:40:11 - 00:50:03:24
Speaker 1
Oh, yeah, that was terrific. Oh, you know, we were actually looking a lot at Thermal Comfort. I was just coming out of a meeting before that. Our manager, who saw that he's not on the call today, but his colleague Dan is here looking at thermal comfort. It's really interesting. There's so much more to be done.

00:50:03:24 - 00:50:29:19
Speaker 3
I was really interested by your point on the solid sort of construction of the walls, as well as the roofs still in Turkey in terms of high thermal mass building materials being used because it's something that we've moved away from and sort of forgotten more here in the UK and people are starting to really understand not just the value of thermal conductivity.

00:50:29:19 - 00:50:58:23
Speaker 3
So a better u-value of materials, but the thermal diffusivity, if I can say it, of the material too. So it's not just it's it's yeah. So it's, it's buffering ability to moderate the changes in the external environment inside as well and how, how it can, it can have a higher detriment. So it can, it can stop summertime overheating by being a better material in that sense.

00:50:58:23 - 00:51:17:03
Speaker 3
And people are starting to realize actually not just the existing building material, but also those that you are deciding to use in the building as well. You need to think along the same terms of the buffering ability. So it's fascinating to see that it's still being done so much in in your hometowns as well.

00:51:17:04 - 00:51:23:17
Speaker 2
It was done. It's not still being done. But we should I mean, preserve them and continue them. Mm hmm.

00:51:24:07 - 00:51:49:18
Speaker 1
Yeah. We need to pick that knowledge up again because it's it's the answer. You know, as we're saying that the buildings jigsaw is coming out as we speak. It will be being released now. So we can actually say that the use of energy has gone up again in the last year. It's terrible. You know, doing things in the way we've been doing and expecting a different result is we have to change the narrative.

00:51:49:24 - 00:52:10:19
Speaker 1
What what you room says there about risk. It might sound ambitious, but we can't do it unless we think differently. And you know in the chat to these things are not that far in the past. Yeah we you know this idea that we can't change we have changed massively over the last 30 years. So I don't see why we can't change back again.

00:52:10:24 - 00:52:32:19
Speaker 3
Yeah. And it's only relatively recently that in the UK particularly we've moved away relatively, I mean in the last sort of 50, 75, maybe 100 years from actually working with our environment and really responding to it rather than trying just to manipulate the internal environment with very non thermal mass buildings and lots of estates that are being built.

00:52:32:19 - 00:52:35:09
Speaker 3
Now I'm not considering these things. So yeah.

00:52:35:24 - 00:53:06:02
Speaker 1
Yeah. What I always struck by when I look at the indigenous vernacular architecture is that there's no nothing's a one trick pony, that everything has multiple uses. And what's perverse about it is when you try to explain that that like a render has so many things it's doing at once, a line render, and it's people stop listening because they're so used to a one trick pony that they say, Yes, but what's it for?

00:53:06:02 - 00:53:14:01
Speaker 1
And you say, Well, 20 things and it seems to make it less important. So how do we change that narrative? I don't know.

00:53:15:04 - 00:53:34:21
Speaker 3
Where people are looking for that one product. As you say, that technology's always people are looking for technology to answer their their ways and to give them a solution, rather than actually just looking at the very much more simple aspects and things that don't involve technology and energy and manmade materials.

00:53:37:01 - 00:54:00:13
Speaker 2
Interestingly, we still start our architectural education in the first year with all these aspects. I mean, with the conventional how to position the buildings, how to take care about the topography fee, how to use the inclination and how to position the site according to the sun, the sunlight, the the the rain, the climate, the wind, the prevailing wind, directions.

00:54:00:13 - 00:54:29:24
Speaker 2
We still teach them. We still start off like this, but then in the end it comes out differently after 40 you've got competently and they do all these huge glazing and they are in various parts of 13 days in this work. It's really interesting. I mean, we still stop in the conventional way, actually, nothing changed in the in the education as an architectural I mean, as an educator, I look at myself and say, no, we still start off the same way.

00:54:29:24 - 00:54:31:21
Speaker 2
Nothing changed, actually. Oh.

00:54:32:05 - 00:54:42:16
Speaker 1
Did you find that? I only did six months of architecture many years ago, and we certainly didn't when we tried to talk about materials. And so they said we weren't being creative.

00:54:43:01 - 00:55:16:02
Speaker 3
Mm hmm. Yeah, we did start off in the same vein of talking about orientation and and then, I mean, I moved into a more sustainable sort of course, the most sustainable I could find. So I kind of changed my education institution to make sure that I got down the path that I wanted to go. But indeed, it's more pushing towards being the next Richard Rodgers and and the like and not thinking about the fact that, you know, the world is not necessarily worse and concrete and glass is not necessarily better.

00:55:16:02 - 00:55:18:04
Speaker 3
So, yeah, I would agree entirely.

00:55:19:11 - 00:55:44:18
Speaker 1
Well, what worries me too, making his a physicist is that I I'm worried that they're using materials without understanding what the implications of those materials are. They mean you go to a catalog and it shows you this will do this. But all of us who work on the old buildings, we know existing buildings. We know the way it behaves.

00:55:44:18 - 00:55:46:16
Speaker 1
It's not what it tells you in the catalog.

00:55:47:12 - 00:55:47:19
Speaker 3
And.

00:55:51:08 - 00:56:32:17
Speaker 1
It I think that one of the things that I've been struck by in the Global North is that a lot of our current things to to try and make very highly closed in energy efficient, in inverted commas buildings because they're sealing them, say, just thinking about the air is actually fighting against good building features. So in Belgium, which I know well in the garden where it rains like anything, and the traditional architecture has very wide eaves then now forbidden in the local building codes for new buildings, because it's so hard to do that sealing around the eaves.

00:56:32:23 - 00:56:41:05
Speaker 1
So I have no idea what's going to happen to all those buildings. Ted.

00:56:42:17 - 00:56:46:23
Speaker 3
It's an interesting point. I was just reading some of the the comments in the and.

00:56:47:07 - 00:56:48:09
Speaker 1
We get some questions.

00:56:49:22 - 00:57:11:10
Speaker 3
No particular questions as such. Seth has raised a point about juggling the low cost of non permeable issues, requirements for lifetime guarantees, convenience and building regulations which encourage the use of inappropriate materials, particularly the insulation or render and concrete chips and plastic installations tend to be readily available and cheap.

00:57:11:21 - 00:57:12:04
Speaker 1
Yeah.

00:57:12:13 - 00:57:42:18
Speaker 3
It's yeah, it is an issue I think with the construction industry and kind of why things need to be reset really. I mean if you think about it, if you're going to build a mud house, mud is free. And in the ground, if you can buy the land to pay. I suppose it's just the way that things have evolved in recent times here and in other countries that the systems and the and the mechanisms that are set up have moved us away from local, readily available vernacular materials.

00:57:43:23 - 00:57:46:19
Speaker 3
And you're quite right, it's kind of switched the playing field.

00:57:47:04 - 00:58:09:04
Speaker 2
Yeah. For example, to construct a stone house in Turkey, it's very, very expensive. I mean, and you can also find a decent mason to do that as well. So it's a very expensive it's not that technology is not expensive, but to extract the stone and to build it with a proper mason, that is very expensive is very, very expensive.

00:58:09:11 - 00:58:27:18
Speaker 2
Also, timber, we can't use massive timber anymore. We always use laminated timber even in restorations because you need time to get, you know, the to when you cut down the tree. It's not going to be ready in one year. You need to dry it out. You know, you need to prepare it so it won't be ready for restoration.

00:58:27:18 - 00:58:54:03
Speaker 2
That will last for one year. Right. So always you mostly use actually laminated timber for beams and other load bearing elements. We use laminate timber and also probably we use most of the timber for a like this is industrial timber and it's also used for mostly used for paper and for producing other stuff like cardboard.

00:58:54:03 - 00:59:20:13
Speaker 3
It's the same. It's the same here. And it seems that we've, we've, we've moved to a distrust of the ability of timber to work here. And I mean, structurally, as well as has generally is possibly probably something to do with how much timber historically we used to build and now we found much deforestation of the older and very much better quality timber that was slower to grow, grew for longer.

00:59:20:13 - 00:59:34:05
Speaker 3
And as our environment changes, the the quality of timber would take finding here and probably elsewhere as well is is reducing really just because of the speed at which it's it's growing now and it's an issue that we need to tackle.

00:59:34:05 - 01:00:00:21
Speaker 1
Yeah, yeah. So many issues. But I do think that these this is the vernacular I'm almost feeling like calling this indigenous architecture everywhere, all over the world is, is the way forward, just like it worked for so many millennia before we have things that we can do and you know, we all prefer the modern plumbing is to me one of the big ones.

01:00:00:21 - 01:00:26:11
Speaker 1
And, you know, we don't want to go back to the bathroom, but we do want the plumbing. But again, we've not taken much time to think about how to do that very, very well. We've tended to to to just it came in really fast plumbing and so and it leaks all over the place and we haven't worked out what is the best way of doing that.

01:00:26:11 - 01:00:41:22
Speaker 1
Same with electrics. You know, we know that we have to do the rewiring every 20 years, 25 years or so at minimum. And yet we still embed everything into the surfaces. And it's it's bonkers.

01:00:42:21 - 01:01:09:18
Speaker 3
I was talking just to a colleague just the other day about actually how much heat we're potentially losing to fabric as well by embedding central heating pipes. And there's as you should like them when that where they're not in internal environments of course, but actually you if you're embedding pipes, you're losing quite a lot of heat connected to the fabric rather than into the air that you'll eventually trying to heat where your radiator appears.

01:01:09:18 - 01:01:10:20
Speaker 3
So it seems slightly.

01:01:13:06 - 01:01:16:10
Speaker 1
We have our lovely building services engineers on the call.

01:01:17:18 - 01:01:22:14
Speaker 2
Yeah, overheating is a very important issue in restoration projects in Turkey as well. Yeah.