Anatolian Architectural Manifesto
In Anatolia, everyone is the architect of their own house.
As human beings, we have been adapting to the environment we live in to survive since the first day we were born, but the price of this adaptation is based on destroying our environment. Throughout history, we have survived to the present day as the most dominant species in every age, and in this way, we can shape the environment according to our own needs in the age we call anthropogen. This perspective can only be achieved by working with nature as a whole and in cooperation with it. In a vicious circle based on what I created, I built, and I designed, everyone is trying to have a place in society. Unfortunately, we are part of a world designed so that people living in the city I am talking about and who have struggled all their lives to get a share in that race are not satisfied in the end and want more. The point reached or tried to be reached at the end is unlimited. In this way, people's pursuit of happiness enters an endless cycle and an insatiable perspective takes place. A person tries to survive all the stress and working hours day and night by thick his head on a roof and feeding his stomach. Of course, how close to nature and our own identity, do we live in this order, which is made to meet the needs of people in the city and to ensure that they stay in the city ?
This game, which we all already know or try to learn, actually turns into a routine every time we trick ourselves to get out of it, even if we realize it, and in the end, we see ourselves as how we feel in this routine and we lie to ourselves more. Every human being has this awakening potential and the only door to it is through nature. Nature is a door that starts inside the person, and once you embrace nature, that indescribable feeling comes. This feeling is the real us. It is a feeling of sincere attachment that comes from 45 thousand years ago. If we could preserve this feeling and instill it in our environment, we could live in more natural environments today. The disadvantage of technology and the rapid progress of the system we live in and the fact that we are becoming more and more digital every day is that evolution is not a process that progresses so fast, no matter how much we try to stay connected to the system. Even though our soul and body do not accept these environments, we accept them because of the survival and adaptation mechanism of our brain. In other words, we are in an environment that we do not want. Everything in nature is slow and built on harmony, and no matter how much we deceive ourselves, there is an ancestral instinct to live in harmony with nature. The fact that green areas are seen as a luxury today and that we are so dependent on nature is an example of this perception. In Far Eastern civilizations and communities living far from cities, the word profession or work does not exist, and the rural people are struggling to survive in the chain of events that need to be done to survive. When we started to urbanize and the industrial revolution took place, our lives seem to have become much easier, but we found ourselves in the modern slavery system, which we call a profession, so far away from our nature.
The solution to living in cooperation with nature is not to escape from cities or build new buildings, on the contrary, we should make the best use of what we have and make do with what we have. The most absolute path to nature is to do nothing and let nature heal itself. Of course, there is a lot of labor and working hours behind more beautiful buildings, parks, structures, or incredible designs, but if humankind had turned to cooperation with nature and didn't make so much effort, it would not have found itself in the endless race to design the more beautiful. If we were to clean what is rather than build, design spaces for cities to breathe, if we built our nests in cities and settlements without distinguishing ourselves from a bird flying in the air, if we slowly roughened the soil and our cities by looking and understanding it, our hands would not be tied right now. Bringing short-term and expensive solutions to problems is nothing but raising the ego of human beings, but only when we see ourselves in the ecological cycle will our world begin to heal. When we focus on the root of the problems and start to take action with the right action, we can leave environments and generations with strong identities and personalities in harmony with nature for future generations.
Everyone is the architect of their own house. This sentence is valid outside of today's university and professional life. Since ancient times, people have built "natural" structures to shelter themselves and protect themselves from external factors, with the materials and ruins they found around them in their geographies. Today, the words natural and organic are the words we have just acquired and chosen to distinguish them from the environment we are in. Our ancestors did not need to choose these words. The reason they built these structures was their survival instinct, but today, architecture only takes its place in the molds we create and call it a profession. The ancestors of architects were engineers and artists because they saw architecture as a craft as well. Today, architecture is a part of a system based entirely on satisfying people who are far from their nature. In other words, if everyone was the architect of their own house, we would not need ecological, green, and natural architecture today. These terms are the result of the human being's effort to return to his essence.
While constructing new buildings in cities, we are destroying the existing historical fabric and identity and tearing up our cities. When we try to build better buildings, we move away from our own identity and it's only a matter of time before we forget who we are. Although every structure we build with aggressive and strong actions makes short-term improvements, it is more harmful in the long run. But if we can see what is on the earth and our soil and bring it back to life, like roughness with sandpaper, we can produce livable environments in the long run. We must make this point of view a habit and awaken from this architectural illusion. Who knows how many forgotten mosques, churches, synagogues, villages, inns, squares, and historical ruins there are in Anatolia? But today, even our cities in Anatolia are about to lose their identity due to standardized architecture, and it is only a matter of time before we embark on an irreversible road.
Our villages, neighborhoods, and settlements should be valued more, analyses should be carried out under the name of protection and restoration, and steps should be taken for the right action. If this point of view is brought to architecture, unlike known places, each corner of our country can gain value in small spots and become a whole texture. By identifying local materials and techniques, and even the best craftsmen and craftsmen who make them, we can help preserve local textures, improve human life, and contribute to local micro-tourism. By listening to the local people, architectural and settlement problems should be determined and a natural development plan should be created. This plan should have different features for each local settlement and should be under the same roof. Instead of building a new structure, which is difficult, there should be a perspective on how we can make do with what we have and take the right actions. These regions should be mapped, interviews should be made with local people and solutions should be presented to the necessary institutions and micro development interventions should be made. In this way, settlements based on arts and crafts should be established and forgotten and disappearing settlements should be able to stop emigration and receive immigrants from Western provinces. Local education institutions should provide this awareness and the participation of local people in the interventions should be ensured.
If these development opportunities are offered to the local people and socio-economic opportunities are offered to protect the surrounding geography, new job opportunities infrastructure will be created and contribution to rural development will be provided. In this way, the disappearing Anatolian people do not have to emigrate from their villages and adopt the protection of their environment as their goal.