Wooden İstanbul

The cityscape of Istanbul was dominated by wooden buildings far into the 20th century. This type of building was edged out in a dramatic process. Das Deutsche Archäologische Institut Istanbul (the German Archaeological Institute Istanbul) (DAI) has researched the wooden buildings of Istanbul in many investigations, reaching as far back as the 1960’s. The summary of these investigations gives an overall picture, which reaches chronologically from the Amcazade Yalısı of the late 17th century to the residential house of the early 20th century on Büyükada. The whole variety of the old wooden houses is typologically presented, from the magnificent villa on the shores of the Bosporus to the wooden houses of the petty bourgeoisie in Zeyrek. The documentation of this important city quarter covers its total area and takes up its own section of this exhibition. Special attention is given to the construction techniques of the wooden houses, with the tools of the historical world of craftsmanship and with a detailed construction model of the Amcazade Yalısı. The exhibition is supplemented with numerous historical photographs from the photographical archives of the German Archaeological Institute.

The perhaps oldest wooden house in Istanbul is thought to be from the 17th century. It is situated on the Asian shore of the Bosporus north of Anadolu Hisarı. It basically concerns only the reception hall (Divanhane) of a large group of buildings, which otherwise have been lost. With its rich interior decoration the Amcazade Yalısı belongs to the most important examples of ottoman architectural art. In 2007 an exact building registration was possible for the first time, into which the construction was also incorporated. Even though it is in a very bad structural condition, the beauty of this fragile building is still a revelation.

The Sadullah Paşa Yalısı in Çengelköy was built at the end of the 18thcentury. It is the Harem of a much larger, lost group of buildings. With its magnificent space conceptions, it represents one of the most significant buildings of this important epoch of ottoman architectural art. The building survey of 2004 is directed especially onto the constructive aspects of the building, but also onto its rich structural decoration, as is, for instance, noticeable in the ceiling designs of the layout.

The residential building of Prof. Halet Çambel in Arnavutköy was most probably erected in the first quarter of the 19th century. In 1978 it underwent a detailed building survey. Large parts of this simple and noble building, which was originally situated directly on the shoreline of the Bosporus, have been preserved until today. Even the extensive terraced gardens could also be preserved.

The Mazlum Ağa Köşkü in Altunizade represents the type of freestanding pavillion like summerhouse surrounded by extensive gardens, which used to define the suburbs of Istanbul. The building was erected as a shooting lodge around 1860 and was documented in 1978. Today it is the headquarters of the İstanbul Tarihi Türk Müziği Topluluğu and is in a well-kept condition, but is totally bereft of its original interaction with the surrounding landscape.

The historical summer residence of the German Ambassador in Tarabya consists of a group of wooden houses, which were built in the 1880’s in the location of an older villa on the shore of the Bosporus. The extensive plot of parkland was presented in 1880 as a gift to the German Reich by Sultan Abdulhamid II.. Especially in the main building – the ambassador’s residence – there is a noticeable endeavour to get a rich facade effect through additional orientalised decorations in the style of historism.

The largest stock of historical wooden houses of the extended city area of Istanbul are located on the princes islands. The house on Altın Ordu Cad. 20, Büyükada can be attributed to this, which was probably built shortly after 1900. Even on a small building plot, it was attempted to give this modest middle-class building a representative air with elements like its overhanging bay. The building Altın Ordu Cad. 20 represents the last generation of wooden houses in Istanbul, which were replaced with concrete buildings since the 1920’s.

The old city quarter of Zeyrek around the Pantokrator Church (Zeyrek Mosque) belongs to the few areas of the peninsula, which were kept in the original condition after the large-scale fires of the early 20th century and the city modernisations afterwards. Accordingly, large inter-connecting stocks of wooden houses were still preserved in the 1970’s. This was the occasion for a singularly large-scale documentation project, with was started by the director at the time of the department Wolfgang Müller-Wiener and mainly carried out by Johannes Cramer (TU Darmstadt). Also participating were the University of Karlsruhe und the Istanbul Üniversitesi. In the years 1977-1978 approximately 50 wooden houses were recorded due to deformation, but in the end the total city quarter was mapped and documented. It became evident that only a very small amount of the buildings were erected before 1900, but the way of building and the structure of the quarter mirrored a much older tradition. Unfortunately many of the buildings recorded in the years of 1977-1978, do not exist anymore.

The large-scale investigation of the wooden houses of Zeyrek allowed singular discoveries to the way of construction of the buildings and their specific features. The bad condition of the buildings occasionally opened up a view onto the construction skeleton. For this oak wood was often used, even for the most simple buildings. Curiously, there were several examples of wooden façade panelling being replaced through pre-manufactured metal sheeting, which seemed to have come into fashion around 1900. Still attached to some façades were the plaques of the fire insurance companies, which became widespread from 1900 onwards in the ottoman empire and were highly relevant in the areas of wooden houses. The view over the roofs shows that many buildings of the 1970’s were still covered with the traditional over-underlap tiles.