Morphological Structures of Historical Turkish Cities

Abstract

In this study, morphological structures of the traditional fabrics of cities in Turkey, which have been shaped under the influence of various different cultures and geographical and climatic conditions in the historical process are presented via a mathematical interpretation. In this scope, spatial configuration and morphological structures of the historical cores of a total of fourteen cities selected from the seven geographical regions of Turkey, two cities from each (from the Marmara Region, Edirne and Bursa; from the Black Sea Region, Kastamonu and Trabzon; from the Central Anatolia Region, Sivas and Kayseri; from the Eastern Anatolia Region, Kars and Erzurum; from the Aegean Region, Muğla and Kütahya; from the South Eastern Anatolia Region, Urfa, Mardin and lastly from the Mediterranean Region, Tarsus and Antakya) region were analyzed comparatively using the Space Syntax method. In this method, the cities were analyzed in three main categories using eleven different parameters. These categories are convex space, axial space and syntactic space. Convex space analyzes were made using the paramters of convex articulation, convex deformation of the grid, grid convexity and convex ringness; axial space analyses were made using the paramters of axial articulation, axial integration of convex space, grid axiality and axial ringness; finally, syntactic space analyses were made using the parameters of integration, intelligibility and synergy. In conclusion, it could be said that historical fabrics of the cities in Turkey have synchronous structures, manifest regular reflections, have organic systems compared with the grid systems, and constitute higher intellibility and synergy.