Developing New Design Strategies in the Light of Vernacular Building Heritage

Developing New Design Strategies in the light of Vernacular Building Heritage Ozgur Dincyurek
Assoc. Professor

Dr. Ibrahim Numan
Eastern Mediterranean University Introduction The ignorance of environmental values/impacts that are ranged from local to regional scales in the design and construction processes, burdens the inconveniences of the “contemporary” living milieus. Locality bears particular values in terms of natural, built and cultural context that constantly shape the local identity throughout the ages. Exclusion of this set of values in the development of the built environment, in conjunction with the consumer wise approaches of global trends, is ended up with an unsatisfactory living milieu. In this respect, the lack of environmental and socio-cultural aspects especially in the building design is the vital issue behind the questioning of existing understanding towards the context and its products. As it is faced with the challenging global circumstances related to the destructive effects of human activity on the nature, the need for the perspective of vernacular cultures and traditions, which are developed within local natural context, becomes essential. Quick Outlook to the Residential Developments of Cyprus Cyprus vernacular kept its consistent evolution and reserved its distinctive identity in the Mediterranean basin in spite of political fluctuations in its history (Hill). The interaction between migration, political change and vernacular distress is a process, which influences the culture of the Island all through the history. The vernacular architecture of Cyprus has always been influenced by the immigrant communities in time. These communities, who moved to or conquered Cyprus in different periods, were entirely foreign and unfamiliar to this new context. Consequently, the prevailing vernacular architecture started to lose its peculiar values and distinct architectural characteristics according to this reciprocal interaction. Although, the

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