Spatial Types in Traditional Turkish Houses

Abstract

The concept of ‘difference factor’ has been widely used in syntactic analysis of space configurations as a technique to measure the strength of a spatial genotype. Where the rank order of the integration of significant household functions remains stable across a sample of dwellings, and where differences in the relative integration values are pronounced, then configuration can be said strongly to structure the form of the dwelling. Conversely, where spaces are not found in a consistent rank order then the sample does not embed a functional genotype, and where this exists but integration values are very similar to one another, the configuration of the dwelling may be said to homogenise functions and render them spatially interchangeable with one another. This paper develops these ideas with reference to a sample of traditional Turkish houses from the 17th to the 19th century. Difference factor is used to pinpoint those household functions which are clearly differentiated by their relative integration or segregation and which are therefore strongly structured and articulated with respect to one another, and which activities remain relatively undifferentiated and held apart by the way space is configured. Two characteristic patterns of integration arc found, one centred on the sofa, and the other on the external paved courtyard of the dwelling. The social interpretation of this phenomenon will be the subject of a subsequent paper.