Culture and all of its aspects are best reflected in the home environments. Home is not only a house which is a shelter but a place with social, psychological and emotional associations, and manifests in the continous use of a house. Continuity of use in the home environments is both conceptual and physical, and this can be observed in traditional or historical domestic contexts, to which the Ottoman vernacular house is an example. This study introduces the village of MenteSbey and its 19th century vernacular home environments within their socio-cultural context. MenteSbey was once a prominent center for kadis, Ottoman state officials and judges. The profession of kadilik played an important role in the social development of the village that in turn affected the domestic architecture, which can be grouped into two as kadi and standard houses. MenteSbey houses constitute a good example for tracing &quot / home&quot / , &quot / continuity of use&quot / and &quot / status&quot / in the Ottoman house as some are still inhabited by the families descending both from the lineage of kadis and other families of the 19th century. Seventeen of these houses are documented with their plans, photographs and inhabitants in the study. This study is also an initial step for the possible cultural, architectural and historical studies in and around MenteSbey in the future, and most of all for preserving MenteSbey and its houses for the coming generations.

Ottoman poerty comprised different genres, each reflecting an attitude towards Ottoman social order, gave rise to ritualized practices. Gazel poetry, performed in gardens, was an expression of Ottoman Orthodox society. Sehrengiz, performed in city spaces, was an expression of heterodox groups following after the ideals of the 13th c. philosopher Ibn al&#039 / Arabi who proposed a theory of &quot / creative imagination&quot / and a three tiered definition of space: the ideal, the real, and the intermediary. In gazel rituals, Ottoman orthodox society reasserted the primacy of group over the individual in ideal and real garden spaces. In Sehrengiz rituals, on the contrary, marginal groups from the early 16th c. to the early 18th c. emphasized the auonomy of individal self and aimed at reconciling orthodox and heterodox worlds, and thus their spaces and inhabitants in ideal spaces of sufi imagination and real spaces of the city. In the early 18th c. liminal expressions of these marginal groups gave rise to new urban rituals adopted by the Ottoman court society and expressed in the poetry of Nedim. owever, this cultural revolution of the Otoman court came to an end with theevents of 1730, marking a turning point in the modernization of Ottoman culture that had its roots in the early 16th c. as a marginal protest movement and pursued itself afterwards until the early 18th c. as a movement of urban space reform.

This study offers an inquiry into the historical context of the invention, consolidation, and on-going popularity of the ancient theatre typology based on the Greek-Roman &amp / #8216 / binarism&amp / #8217 / , for a better understanding of its philosophical and theoretical foundations. It scrutinises those foundations in order to discover, in their limitations for an assessment and restitution of the architectural characteristics of extant ancient theatre remains, a new set of variables for devising an alternative method of classification that adopts the &amp / #8216 / network&amp / #8217 / model. The classification made on the basis of the geographical distribution of the extant ancient theatre remains in modern Spain and Greece according to their size, their construction period, and the construction technique applied in their cavea enables an interpretation of Roman period theatre construction activity in these two regions of the Mediterranean from a &amp / #8216 / geo-historical&amp / #8217 / point of view, in the light of the variety of processes expressed by the term &amp / #8216 / Romanisation&amp / #8217 / . A comparative analysis of the examples in the two study areas along Fernand Braudel&amp / #8217 / s three historical time planes reveals the structural differences between the two corresponding provinces of the Roman Empire, highlighting the usefulness of adopting a &amp / #8216 / rhizomatic&amp / #8217 / model instead of a &amp / #8216 / binary&amp / #8217 / one in typological studies of ancient theatre architecture for their better integration into contemporary discourses emphasizing &amp / #8216 / cultural diversity&amp / #8217 / and &amp / #8216 / change&amp / #8217 / in the Mediterranean basin.

This thesis studies the continuity, change and transformation of the Roman domestic architecture in Asia Minor in late antiquity with reference to the social and political dynamics and the urban context of the period. The sample is chosen from the well-preserved and studied houses in Asia Minor, which provide considerable information and insight into the domestic context of the period. In the light of architectural evidence coming from these houses late antique domestic architecture is discussed with a special emphasis on the &#039 / privatization&#039 / and &#039 / elaboration&#039 / of &#039 / public&#039 / within the domestic context.

Being the capital of the young Republic, transformation of Ankara&rsquo / s urban environment into a modern one was one of the objectives of the Early Republican period. In the study, the transformation of urban culture is traced through everyday life of the inhabitants and lived spatiality in the new and old/traditional parts of the city. Urban culture clearly manifests itself in urban public spaces by means of everyday life and lived spatiality. It is not only the elite but the humble income social groups which are the main agents/actors of the transforming urban culture. In Ankara, gradual appropriation of a modern life style takes place in the urban public spaces but these spaces do not have to be part of the grand narrative of nation-building. Cultural places (Sergievi, theaters, movie theaters, people&rsquo / s houses), recreation places (parks, coffee shops, restaurants), shopping areas, streets and boulevards, districts are spaces of everyday life and new spatial and bodily practices flourish in these spaces. The reality of the city shelters both the new/modern, the old, and the spontaneously developing urban environments which equally participated in the transformation process. The research is based on memory in the study. Written documents, newspapers, literary constructions, memoirs and interviews with the old inhabitants of the city are the main sources. According to the analyses made on the obtained data, Ankara was a fruitful medium for creation of a modern urban culture during the mentioned period and middle social groups were the main components of this transformation process.

Social, political and philosophical dynamics which supposedly played an important role in the formation of the grid-plan in ancient Greek cities are explored in this thesis. In this respect, the thesis aims to expose the socio-political and philosophical matrix of Greek society in which the grid was implemented with an emphasis on the concepts of equality, rationality and geometric harmony. Having formulated a theoretical framework, it concentrates on several cases from different regions and contexts in the Mediterranean in order to confirm this framework. The thesis investigates the nature of the Greek grid-plan within three main parts / first the grid-plans of non-Greek cultures with which ancient Greeks had close contacts / second the relationship between the grid-plan and political power in Greek poleis with special attention to the formation of &amp / #8216 / egalitarian&amp / #8217 / ideals in society / third the physical expressions of the philosophical concepts of perfection, mathematical regularity and geometrical equality in the cosmos on urban pattern.

The aim of this study is to investigate characteristics of urban transformation in Antioch and Alexandretta during the French Mandate, 1920-1938. Contending that a purely formal analysis would fail to grasp complex politics of architecture and urbanism promoted by the French administration, this thesis seeks to explore the urban transformation of these cities in its political and representational context. In analyzing the French perception of the urban space especially in Antioch, this thesis devotes an extensive attention to the nineteenth century travelers who visited Antioch, by emphasizing the ways in which they described the urban make-up of the city. Moreover, it situates the case of Antioch and Alexandretta within the broader framework of French colonial architecture and urbanism by occassionally referring to French North Africa on the one hand, and other cities of the French Mandate in Syria and Lebanon on the other hand. Along with an analysis of the changing built environment in Antioch and Alexandretta, other visual and representational strategies such as the colonial exhibition, archeological works, scholarly endeavors, and tourism are discussed. It is the major premise of this thesis that a comprehensive portrayal of the architectural and urban transformation of these cities might be attained only through the inclusion of different forms of political and visual representation.

Comprehensive studies are needed to discover materials and construction technologies contributing to the thermal performance of historical buildings and to keep them in working order over time. Examined in this study were the thermal performance characteristics of Seng&uuml / l Hamami, a 15th Century Ottoman bath, to discover original thermo-physical properties of historic materials and to assess thermal failures in present situation by taking into consideration recent incompatible repair work. The analyses were done by using non-destructive investigation methods, such as microclimatic monitoring, quantitative infrared thermography (QIRT), heat and water vapour transfer calculations, supported by laboratory analyses on thermo-physical properties of historic materials. The results were evaluated in terms of thermal properties of historic materials establishing the historic dome section, microclimatic characteristics of Seng&uuml / l Hamami, its original thermal characteristics, and thermal failures occurred in time due to wrong repairs. An in-situ assessment method was also developed for the identification of thermal and moisture failures at real boundary conditions by joint interpretation of QIRT and heat transfer calculation results. The study showed that historic dome structure of Seng&uuml / l Hamami was originally configured to provide sufficient thermal insulation characteristics owing to good thermal properties of its materials. That success was attributed to conscious use of low-density, high-porosity historic materials having low thermal conductance and high vapour permeability characteristics. It was seen that the thermal performance of historic structure was severely destroyed by recent repairs using concrete and cement-based materials, which were incompatible with historic fabric of the structure due to their different thermo-physical properties.

This thesis is an examination of the role of architectural benefaction of the local elite on the urbanization of the Greek cities of Asia Minor in the Roman Imperial period, and its impact on the social status of the benefactor. While providing a theoretical framework for the nature of benefaction in antiquity and the pattern of architectural renewal of the Anatolian cities under the Roman influence, the thesis focuses on a single case study / the Hellenistic City Gate of Perge which was restored by Plancia Magna during the reign of Hadrian. After its renovation, the gate became an indispensible part of the urban activities of Perge and a source of pride for both the city and its donor. Hence, this study constitutes an attempt to investigate the involvement of Plancia Magna&rsquo / s architectural patronage within the Roman urbanization of Perge and also the transformation of the public persona of Plancia Magna in the center of the male-dominated Roman society.

This study investigates two significant components of architectural design, &lsquo / &lsquo / form&rsquo / &rsquo / and &lsquo / &lsquo / space&rsquo / &rsquo / and the basic design elements and principles used in their creation in the context of Roman domestic architecture. It more specifically examines how, by which means and for which purposes certain form and space defining tools such as the column, wall, floor, ceiling and opening with their architectural equivalents as the point, line, plane and volume were used in the atrium houses exemplified in Pompeii in Italy. The study discusses how Romans organized their daily life in reference to certain domestic spaces and how the form and spatial qualities of these spaces contributed to the architectural articulation of the private sphere. By concentrating on a group of recurring domestic spaces including the atrium, garden, and banqueting room and by illustrating the form and spatial composition of these, the study presents an architectural reading of the Roman atrium house.