CULTURAL HELP 2014CULTURAL HERITAGE AND LOSS PREVENTIONPorto / 6-7 October, 2014

ABSTRACT:Safeguarding the cultural heritage properties is fundamental prevention act so that it is not enough

and it has rarely been accomplished. The only exceptional cases are mostly specific projects of highvaluable buildings with large scale budgets. Particularly safeguarding and protection of traditionalvernacular buildings is not widespread.

The aim of this study is to prepare a document for protection of traditional vernacular buildings as apart of risk preparedness and risk management planning process. The target users are local andmotivation is to fill the gap between scientific knowledge and field practices by having a useful andpractically usable document at the end.

The main goal of the document is to raise awareness of importance in cultural heritage protection inlocal people level and to describe clearly the acts in pre-disaster and post-disaster situations which canbe done by the owners of traditional vernacular buildings. It includes the structural typology oftraditional vernacular buildings, and traditional construction and repair techniques. The documentconcerns both cases of damage or deterioration caused by gradual processes of decay and emergencymeasures for safeguarding of the heritage property.

The attempt of preparing this document is unique because there is not any type of such documentsfor using of local people which dealing with protection and safeguarding of cultural heritage in theseterms.

KEYWORDS: Cultural heritage; Vernacular buildings; Risk; Preparedness; Maintenance; Intervention

1 INTRODUCTIONMany large scale disasters happened throughout the history have caused widespread damages to thecultural heritage (both tangible and intangible) across the globe. Heritage values are exposed to naturaland human induced disasters which threaten their values that might be resulted with their loss ordeterioration. The loss of cultural heritage property would not be only the self loss but also would bethe loss of culture. The result of this fact on the national and local communities will be negativelyimpact, both for their cultural importance as a source of information on the past and identity, and fortheir socio-economic value. Identifying its culture by understanding and having knowledge of itsorigin and social roots and passing it to the next generations is of fundamental importance tohumanity.

Seismic risk is the basic risk to the cultural heritage even though human induced risks such as lackof maintenance, vandalism, and lack of constructional and behavioral knowledge of heritage buildingsor simply due to financial incapacity etc. could not be underestimated. Safeguarding the culturalheritage properties is fundamental prevention act so that it is not enough and it has rarely beenaccomplished. The only exceptional cases are mostly specific projects of high valuable buildings withlarge scale budgets. Particularly safeguarding and protection of traditional vernacular buildings is notwidespread and there is not enough budgets provided by administrative level for these works and onthe other hand due to lack of professional assistance resources are frequently used ineffectively. There

Protection of Traditional Vernacular Heritage Buildings:Recommendations for the Local People

Meltem Vatan1

1 Bahcesehir University, Faculty of Architecture and Design, Department of Architecture, Besiktas Campus,Istanbul, Turkey; meltemvatan@gmail.com

is a huge gap between administrative, scientific levels and local level in case of implementation ofdisaster risk management plan and acting on the field by mean of risk preparedness.

Due to the facts described in previous paragraphs the aim of this study is to prepare a document forprotection of traditional vernacular buildings as a part of risk preparedness and risk managementplanning process. The target users are local people (the owners or users of traditional vernacularhouses) and the motivation is to fill the gap between scientific knowledge and field practices byhaving a useful and practically usable document at the end. This document could serve as an efficientpart of integrating disaster risk reduction plans with field works or in other words to integratescientific level with the local people by means of practical and usable information. This will be a veryimportant act of preparedness for effective response and recovery. This paper will show briefly theidea and the basics of the document.

The main goal of the document is to raise awareness of importance in cultural heritage protection inlocal people level and to describe clearly the acts in pre-disaster and post-disaster situations which canbe done by the owners of traditional vernacular buildings. It includes the structural typology oftraditional vernacular buildings, and traditional construction and repair techniques. Traditionalknowledge and using this knowledge as sustainable practices will be insurance of a certain level ofprotection against natural hazards or human induced disasters. The document concerns both cases ofdamage or deterioration caused by gradual processes of decay and emergency measures forsafeguarding of the heritage property. The basic idea of all suggested methods is with respect to theVenice Charter principles that guide intervention techniques for cultural heritage properties [1]:

· Understanding the building· Minimum intervention· Reversibility

The key point of the document is to show that the path to reach safeguarding traditional vernacularheritage buildings is neither that of large projects nor the use of enormous financial resources; thereare some tasks that simply could be done by the owners. The basic idea is to define the necessarymaintenance and intervention tasks in methodological way that are possible to be made by the ownersin order to protect traditional vernacular buildings. Because of this reason this type of documents andinformation is very important for the local people who are owners of the traditional vernacularbuildings which are the part of cultural heritage and need to be protected against natural and humaninduced risks, particularly earthquake, for being able to take an active part in disaster risk mitigationplanning activities.

The attempt of preparing this document is unique because there is not any type of such documentsfor using of local people which dealing with protection and safeguarding of cultural heritage in theseterms. There are some scientific documents, researches, reports and so on; however, they seem to beinsufficient for local people because they deal with scientific studies and mostly do not includepractical recommendations or guidelines for owners. However, the protection of cultural heritageshould be integrated into planning policies at international, national, regional and local levels.Participation of local people could be provided by the access to the knowledge which will benecessary for protection activities. The provision of information to the general public is therefore animportant element in integrated protection.

The attempt to prepare this document does not mean neither protection works are underestimated norto be taken into account as a simple work. In the contrary, well known reality of requirements of awider basis of professional and scientific knowledge and skills for protection of cultural heritage hasbeen pushed preparation of this document in order to simplify and describe methodologically the tasksthat are possible to be done by the owners. The study reflects very basic principles of maintenance andintervention techniques with general validity and it is limited with the case studies from Turkishtraditional vernacular building typology.

2 TRADITIONAL VERNACULAR BUILDING TYPOLOGY AND PARTICULARITIES IN TURKEYThe basic construction materials of traditional vernacular buildings in Turkey are wood and masonrysuch as stone, brick adobe. Material typology is distinctive according to climate, geography andcultural attributes of the region. While in the North part (Black Sea Region) and in the North - Westpart (particularly Marmara Region) timber framed masonry infill structures are typical in Anatoliamasonry structures are widely used. Due to its strength, light in weight, workability, aesthetic as well

as easy finding wood is functional and expansive material for ages. Besides, the strength andreliability have been made masonry a widespread used material as well.

Depending on the structural elements in the upper walls, vernacular constructions can be dividedinto two main parts: construction of walls with masonry and without masonry. Specifically; timberstructures can be classified as log houses, timber laced (hatıl construction, hımış construction)masonry and timber framed (hımış construction, dizeme construction, bağdadi construction) buildings[2].

2.1 Log housesLog houses are one of the oldest construction types and locally are known as “çantı” (Figure 1). Theconstruction is made by logs overlapped and anchored at the ends. Vertical loads are transmitted fromtop to down through the logs that lied horizontally and restrained only both ends. Foundations of loghouses are made of stones [3].

Figure 1. Çantı construction [4].

2.2 Dizeme construction

Dizeme construction is constituted of vertical and diagonal main structural members infilled by timber(Figure 2). Short rough timber elements called as dizeme were used as infill and they were lightlynailed studs or horizontal framing elements in this construction type.

Figure 2. Dizeme construction.

2.3 Hatıl (tie - beam) constructionHatıl construction is constituted of horizontal timber members who are embedded into masonrybearing wall elements (Figure 3). Mostly as a masonry infill it is used stone but in some examples,particularly in Anatolia adobe infill is also common.

Figure 3. Hatıl construction [5].

2.4 Bağdadi constructionBağdadi construction is constituted of short rough timber pieces (bağdadi laths) that are used as infillmaterial. The wall is formed by plastering on both sides. Interior part of the wall is plastered by mud,sand and lime mortar which fill the voids between laths and exterior part is mostly only timberplastered (Figure 6, 7).

Figure 4. Structural elements of bağdadi construction [6].

Figure 5. Façade and interior wall of bağdadi contruction.

2.5 Hımış constructionThe most common type of traditional vernacular buildings in Turkey is hımış construction which iscomposed of timber framed walls with masonry infill. The infill masonry varies depending on the used

material such as brick, stone or adobe. The construction technique and the size of blocks are alsodiverse depending on the region as well as material strength.

Hımış structures are composed of lateral load bearing elements (sole plates, top plates, lateralconnection elements, joists), vertical load bearing elements (posts and secondary posts) and diagonals(diagonal props and bracing) [6]. Figure 6 shows a traditional hımış house from Marmara Region.

Figure 6. Hımış house [7].

Stone, brick, and adobe are used as infilling elements. Infill elements are not used only for structuralreasons but also for aesthetic view of the façade. Generally the façade is organized by taking intoconsideration the post and the infill elements in some certain geometry. Depending on the region,arrangement of the timber frame varies according to the infill elements. Different terms are used forthose types of the structures such as (a) göz dolma (eye-filling), (b) balık sırtı dolgu (fish-back), and(c) düz tuğla dolgu (plain brick infill) as seen in Figure 7 [7] (Bal and Vatan, 2009).

a b c

Figure 7. Different types of masonry infill in hımış buildings [7].

3 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LOCAL PEOPLEIt is well known that any decision concerning conservation and protection and if it is necessaryrestoration should be taken after a very careful evaluation process of present state and safetyevaluation of the structure. Mostly, various different acts could be done as a solution in case ofparticular problem of the heritage property. The steps of preservation works could be explained asfollows [8]:

· Documentation and acquisition of data· Diagnosis and safety evaluation· Decision making process, decision on interventions

All these steps should be done by the team of professionals working on the field of heritageprotection. The decision of criteria and techniques for protection of heritage property needs bothtechnical and broader knowledge of traditional techniques. However, in case of traditional vernacularbuildings that are an important part of cultural heritage but are not monuments to find the budget forall these works is not easy. Instead of waiting to the level of necessity of serious intervention it ispossible to raise awareness of the owners about how they could protect their heritage properties. This

part of the document is prepared for describing the acts to the owners of traditional vernacular heritagebuildings. Below the key points of this part of the document are explained.

3.1 PrinciplesThis document is prepared for the local people who are owners of the traditional vernacular building.It will help to protect your heritage property in proper way and as much as possible in a better waywith the best solution.3.1.1 Awareness

- You are a distinguish person/ family who owns a cultural heritage property. Scientifically,your building is defined as “traditional vernacular cultural heritage property” which makes itspecial.

- Cultural heritage property is inherited from past generations, exists today and will bestow tothe future generations as a whisper of cultural identity.

- Cultural heritage property is unique, invaluable and irreplaceable value.- You are responsible and should be proud of having a special mission to keep your cultural

heritage property from the present to the future. Scientifically, this act is defined aspreservation and conservation.

- The terms you need to know:Republic of Turkey Ministry of Culture and Tourism ( http://www.kultur.gov.tr/?_dil=2). This is the

governmental level for cultural heritage protection.UNESCO: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. This is the

international level for cultural heritage protection.ICOMOS: International Council on Monuments and Sites. It is a global non-governmental

organization associated with UNESCO. Its mission is to promote the conservation, protection, use andenhancement of monuments, building complexes and sites. The local base of ICOMOS is ICOMOSTurkey.

Disaster: A disaster is a serious disruption of the functioning of a community or a society involvingwidespread human, material, economic or environmental losses and impacts, which exceeds the abilityof the affected community or society to cope using its own resources [9].

- Risks for your property:The main risk for your property is the possibility of having earthquake event.The other important threat is senseless protection acts such as repairs or maintenance activities (this

is one of the main reasons for preparing this document).Vandalism.

3.1.2 Pre – disaster situation

- This is the most important period for being able to protect and to protract the existence of yourbuilding to the future generations.

- Try to find information regarding the history of your building and to start to make a memoryof your cultural heritage identity.

- You may make periodical repairs and maintenance activities each year. Pay attention to thefollows:

Always use only the same material with the original one.Do not use reinforced concrete in your traditional constructed building.Try to use techniques that are used for ages in this region.Try to differentiate different materials of your building such as timber, masonry and metal parts byunderstanding what they stand for.If there exists, try to catch such elements like on the below picture.

Figure 8. Connection elements (nails) of vernacular traditional buildings [6].

- Make routine checks given below:Control all timber elements’ condition. Is there any deterioration or damage? Especially check if

there are biological organisms or fungous. If there are biological organisms use simple chemicals toavoid them.

Make roof control periodically once a year. Check all tiles and if it is necessary remove and renewbroken ones.

Check all frame works and be sure that there is no water problem.Control all floor finishes and their basic structural elements most probably such as timber beams.- Try to fill the form given below fully (Table 1). In case of missing parts try to find a reliable

information.- Keep this form and try to refill it periodically, for example once a year.

Table 1. Pre – disaster building information.

GENERAL INFORMATIONBuilding nameAddressDate of constructionThe ownerThe userResponsible person of the maintenance

USAGE PERIODPermanent Daily Temporary Some times Not used

BUILDING INFORMATIONLocation Corner Building in a row One side adjacent IndependentTopography Plain Slope (< 30°) Slope (>30°) On a terraceStory Basement One storey Two storeys More than two

storeys

CONSTRUCTION INFORMATIONConstruction type Log house Dizeme Hatıl constr. Bağdadi Hımış*if you know the particularity of your building, please, fill this information. Otherwise, please, leave it empty and proceed to the next part.Building materials Stone Adobe Brick Timber Metal Other ………….Facade Stone Adobe Brick Timber Metal Other ………….Internal walls Stone Adobe Brick Timber Metal Other ………….Floors Timber Stone RC Other ………….Roof Tile Stone Adobe Metal Other ………….*check all materials you see.Projections Single On each storey Material

……………………….original addition original addition

Balcony Single On each storey Material……………………….

original addition original additionMaster information*if there is any information regarding the original builder of the building, please, write all the information such as the name, the address, theage etc.

POTENTIAL HAZARDS AND RISKSNatural Earthquake Flood Landslide AvalancheHuman induced Arson Robbery Graffiti Heavy traffic

BUILDING INTERVENTIONSDate Type of intervention (addition of any part, removal of any part, wall void, using of new material

such as RC, metal et.)

BUILDING REPAIRSDate The reason of repair The location on the building The type of repair

BUILDING CONDITIONDamages Partially TotallyWater and humidityproblems

Biological effects Algae Carbon die Oxide

Erosion of the materials Infrastructure problems Façade damages Roof damages

ADDITIONAL NOTES / EXPLANATIONS

*Add the photos of present condition of the building (both interior and exterior) as much as possible.Please, note the date when the photo is taken.

3.1.3 Post – disaster situation

- In case of having any disaster in your region, please, fill the form given below (Table 2).Table 2. Post – disaster building information.

OBSERVED DAMAGES ON THE BUILDINGNo damages Slightly damaged Damages on the

façade wallsOut of plane walls Deformation of frame

work elementsPartiallycollapse of thefloor/s

Partially collapse ofthe roof

Partially collapse ofthe building

Totally collapsed Other ………….

- Wait for support team for damage assessment and for decision making process.- Before start any repair or intervention, be sure that the chosen method is the most suitable one.- Try to be in contact with the governmental level for recovery process.

3.2 Case Study1999 Marmara earthquake is a milestone for Turkey. Building regulations, administrative structure anddisaster planning process has been changed radically and dramatically. Many improvements anddevelopments in the field of construction were made. Because of this reason, in this paper it is chosena traditional vernacular house building for applying second part of the document. Figure 9 shows a

photo of house building from Marmara region which is taken few hours after 1999 earthquake. Figure9 clearly shows that the only damaged parts of the building are reinforced concrete stairs andreinforced concrete balcony. Obviously these parts are not original and due to the lack of knowledgeand lack of awareness the result of the earthquake to this building is partially collapse.

Figure 9. Connection elements (nails) of vernacular traditional buildings.

This case study shows that local people who are owners of the traditional vernacular buildings donot have enough information and knowledge regarding construction techniques of their properties.Additionally they are not aware of how should they protect these buildings. Even, some of them arenot aware of having a cultural heritage property. Nowadays, the large part of society thinks that havingthis kind of buildings is due to low financial situation.

4 CONCLUSIONSThe word cultural heritage value or cultural property mostly evokes monumental buildings,archaeological sites and so on. However, traditional vernacular buildings are also representatives ofcultural heritage and cultural identity where they belong to. There is a large building stock of thesestructures that need to be protected and protract to the next generations. Traditional vernacular buildings which mostly constitute of timber frame construction with orwithout masonry infill and masonry constructions with timber tie beams are an important part ofcultural heritage in Turkey. These constructional types were commonly used as typical houseconstruction until 1950 – 1960’s when reinforced concrete became popular as a construction materialin Turkey.

The main reason of forsake particularly timber constructions was its weakness against fire. However,devastating earthquakes in 1999 reminded well behavior of traditional timber framed constructionsduring the earthquake. Timber framed construction is convenient for seismic behavior where detailsare very simple as joints and nailed solutions.

Traditional vernacular buildings’ construction techniques are based on the owners and the locals.The construction is made by the owner with the aid of the local craftsmen actually who are notbuilders. Everyone is aware of building construction techniques and believes that he is capable toconstruct his own house. This is the traditional way of constructing vernacular buildings particularly inrural parts. Obviously, the quality of the building could be under question because in some cases therewould be poor quality due to the fact that those people are not builders and in their life times theybuild only one house or were a part of construction process of few houses of their relatives orneighbors. The craftsman profile usually is a person traded by his father or relatives. As a result eachlocal has his own tools and the quality directly depends on his personal interest, his ability, hiscapability and his financial situation.

According to these facts it is very important to research local construction techniques and for beingable to protect traditional vernacular heritage buildings to develop tools for local people who owns andlive in these houses. When reinforced concrete became as a popular construction material twoimportant circumstances arose. The first one was to attempt to repair and maintain traditionalconstruction with reinforced concrete and the second one was tend to forsake traditional constructiontechniques and start to build houses with reinforced concrete material. Both developments had their

negative effects. Using reinforced concrete in traditional constructions could have devastating resultsand tend to forsake traditional construction techniques means loss of cultural heritage and culturalidentity. The attempt to preparing this”recommendations for local people document” is based on theseclear facts.

Raising awareness of the local people and give them recommendations on the acts they could makeby their own is so important in order to protect these heritage values. Part 3.2, case study form the1999 Marmara earthquake shows that lack of knowledge and lack of awareness could be resulted withpartially collapse. However, we need to protect these traditional vernacular buildings. If the owners /occupants of traditional buildings were aware of simple information as devastating results of usingreinforced concrete in this buildings it would be possible to protect this house.

The way of construction of traditional vernacular buildings is a cultural heritage itself. To givepossibility to the next generations of being more aware and more conscious during construction oftheir traditional houses will be the most important benefit of this study as a part of protection ofcultural heritage.

REFERENCES[1] Venice Charter, IInd International Congress of Architects and Technicians of Historic Monuments, Venice, 1964.[2] Doğangün A., Tuluk Ö. İ., Livaoğlu R., Acar Ramazan, “Traditional Wooden Buildings and Their Damages during Earthquakes in

Turkey”, Engineering Failure Analysis 13 (2006) 981–996[3] Metin Sözen, Cengiz Eruzun, Anadolu’da Ev ve İnsan, Emlak Bankası Yayınları, 1996 (in Turkish)[4] http://galeri.netfotograf.com/fotograf.asp?foto_id=145011 (access: 3 September 2014)[5] N. Şahin Güçhan, Observations on earthquake resistance of traditional timber-framed houses in Turkey, Building and

Environment 42 (2007) 840–851[6] Dışkaya H., Damage Assessment of 19th Century Traditional Timber Framed Structures in Istanbul, From Material to

Structure - Mechanical Behaviour and Failures of the Timber Structures, ICOMOS IWC - XVI InternationalSymposium – Florence, Venice and Vicenza 11th -16th November 2007

[7] Bal Ihsan E. and Vatan M., “Earthquake Resistance of Traditional Houses in Turkey: Timber-Frame Infilled Structures”, InternationalSymposium on Timber Structures from Antiquity to the Present, 25-27 June 2009, Istanbul, Turkey

[8] ICOMOS – ISCARSAH, Reccomendations for the Analysis, Conservation and Structural Restoration of ArchitecturalHeritage, 2007

[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disaster (access: 3 September 2014)