A RESEARCH ON THE USE OF OTTOMAN-ISLAMIC HERITAGE AS A CONSUMPTION OBJECT IN CONTEMPORARY ARCHITECTURAL PRACTICE

Abstract

The Islamic heritage contains a rich cultural diversity with residential and public buildings such as traditional houses, mosques, palaces, and caravanserais that belong to the Ottoman Empire period. The character of the Islamic tradition is reflected in the environment-form-space organizations and construction techniques of these buildings. But today, the influence of the Islamic heritage has begun to be represented with the dominance of consumption-oriented culture and technology. The references taken from the architecture influenced by Islam are reduced to pure visuality and fashion. Especially, Ottoman architecture and its traditional elements become consumption objects that put visuality in the foreground in contemporary design practices. The Ottoman-Islamic heritage is referenced by imitating traditional buildings’ facades or copying structural elements. These new buildings produced with today’s technologies under the name of continuity of historical culture aim to fulfill the demands of the capitalist economy rather than conveying the essence of design. The study criticizes the transformation of Ottoman-Islamic architecture’s authenticity into “looking/pretending authentic” as a theme. In this context, this study discusses the Ottoman-Islamic heritage has become an object of consumption through a variety of examples that are located in Turkey such as hotels, shopping centers, residential buildings.