Research Information System
International Conference on Sustainable Construction, Materials and Practices, Lisbon, Portugal, 12 - 14 September 2007, pp.868-869
The Turkish House can be defined as the types of houses which Turks have lived in throughout history. The timber frame construction is compatible with the forest cover of Anatolia and the Trace region and is also preferable because these regions are within the seismic zones. Furthermore, this method enabled quick construction and therefore suited the needs of an ever-expanding society, continuously on the move. For the same reason the details of wood construction are very simple; simple joints and nailed bindings have been preferred to complicate joint details. This construction method also facilitated the reconstruction, within a short time when whole quarters were destroyed instantaneously by fire. The basic-system of construction is the timber frame with infilling material or the lathe and plaster. In this paper the traditional Turkish Houses will be examined in the frame of sustainability of the timber frame construction system. The sustainability criteria are summarized below and will be discussed with several cases.