I came across this about Kayseri's traditional houses. http://archnet.org/institutions/METUA-ARCH/library/publications/publication.tcl?publication_id=1361



Vacit Imamoglu, Traditional Dwellings in Kayseri. Geleneksel Kayseri Evleri (Ankara: HALKBANK Kultur Yayinlari, 1992)

And the photographs are at: http://archnet.org/library/images/thumbnails.tcl?location_id=10509





Alas, almost all of the houses depicted in the photographs are now demolished. Even in the 1980s the author was describing old Kayseri as looking like a bomb-site, which is exactly what I thought it looked like in the mid-1990s.

In his footnotes, he makes a brief comment on the doubtfulness of their being any such thing as an "Ottoman-Turkish house type". He mentions that the idea of such a classification was formulated by a Prof. Sedat Hakki Eldem. Does anyone know in what period he did this, under what circumstances, and in what books.

I had an encounter last summer with a vile individual in Kars, name of John Hurd, from the Global Heritage Fund who are, come spring, going to demolish every house in the old disticts of Kars and rebuild it full of fake "Ottoman-Turkish houses". He literally blew his top when I dared to say that there never were any "Ottoman-Turkish" houses in Kars, and that there actually was no such thing as an "Ottoman Turkish house" east of Ankara.

I don't think I can help you with your question right now, but I will keep it in mind. Also thanks for the link. Although I am still in the beginning, I have been interested in this subject for a while. The link will help.

I find your argument reasonable. I think the terminology itself has a lot to do with Turkish nationalism itself. I find the idea of looking back and naming things according to our newly found values and ideas a bit not right. Since the Ottoman Empire was rather large, the idea of Ottoman-Turkish houses does not make sense even for methodological reasons, unless the term was meant to be applicable for a much smaller area. At any rate, if we really had to have such a term, then we would have to get rid of the term Turkish, since this does not really make sense in the Ottoman context.

Thanks :)

If you get round to finding out, then let me know.

A more neutral, as well as more accurate term could perhaps be "Ottoman-period houses", and (since the Ottoman empire lasted for a considerable time) with the option of the actual "period" being further broken down into smaller specific historical-periods.

I forgot to mention this, you may like to have a look: http://www.virtualani.org/kayseri-houses/

Today, I came across this article about this new book on Kayseri Houses in this Armenian newspaper Agos. The title of the book is "Kayseri'de Yaşam Konut Kültürü" (Life and Dwelling (or House)Culture in Kayseri) It is by this woman researcher Gonca Büyükmıhçı. It seems to be an interesting book. What I found even more interesting was how she kept talking in terms of Armenian and Muslim houses rather than Armenian and Turkish houses.I will probably get this book.