Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
CHRONICLES OF EVER-CHANGING CITYSCAPES | IX AACCP Architecture, Archaeology and Contemporary City Planning Symposium, Tirana 2022, Tirane, Arnavutluk, 24 - 26 Kasım 2022, ss.31-32
Urban sites as historical settlements consist of layers belonging to different ages (UNESCO,
2011). While the existence of the various layers in the urban texture may facilitate reading
the historical pattern of the city, it also emerges as clues to the development process. Urban
morphology as a field of studying urban form (Larkham, 1998) enables the examination of urban
areas with different features within pioneer approaches in the field (Conzen, 1960; Caniggia
& Maffei, 2001). And implementing urban morphological approaches on historic sites may
provide a different context to evaluate the developmental process in such historic settlements
(Whitehand, Gu, Whitehand & Zhang, 2011).
This study aims to examine the morphological analysis of a historical settlement, Ortamahalle
Urban Site, which is located in Akçaabat county of Trabzon, in the Blacksea Region of Turkey. It
is assumed that the settlement survived from 14. Century but there are few structures remaining
from that period. While today the settlement is mostly famous for the traditional houses, there
are also buildings incompatible with this pattern because of the development process of the
study field, which was nominated as Protected Area in the late 1980s. Today, there are still
ongoing conservational works in the study field (Kiper, Sağlam, Akpınar & Sarı, 1992).
Within this context, the method of the study focuses on the morphological approach
developed by M.R.G. Conzen. The transformation of the street system, figure-ground pattern
and land-use features in the study field between 1992 and 2019 was examined. City maps and
development plans dated different years were used for analyses. The research showed that
while the street-system did not undergo an essential transformation, figure-ground pattern
transformed substantially both in the second and third dimensions. Moreover, it was detected
from the study that how related to the transformation of the physical texture and the production
practices since the land use features in the study field changed substantially in almost 30 years.
Transformation in the study field also revealed crucial data about the developmental features
and the characteristics of the study field, which also showed the potential data that, can be
obtained within morphological studies in such historic urban areas.