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x0x Eastern Black Sea houses
By MUSTAFA RESAT SUMERKAN
Shaped by the culture of the local people, Eastern
Black Sea houses peek out from the greenery like a
delightful surprise...
Describing the lush greens of the Eastern Black
Sea region to those who havent seen them isn't
easy... Its as if nature has used a different
shade of paint in every valley, on every ridge. As
your eyes are drawn in by the colorful palette of
the steep slopes, you suddenly notice in the
distance the houses that follow you with their
eyes from between the trees. Houses of stone and
timber, the homes of the irrepressible and
energetic Black Sea people, shaped by their
culture, raised and built by their hands...
CLOSED CULTURAL BASINS
Eastern Black Sea villages nestle against the
slopes of the valleys that run down to the sea
from the mountain ranges parallel to the coast.
Finding a patch of level ground in these villages
is extremely difficult, and people are forced to
climb up or downhill for all their activities.
If the particular spot where you live has no view
of the sea, then you won't find even a single
horizontal line among the trees, hills and
mountains on which to rest your gaze. The road
that follows a rushing stream along the valley
floor is shared by all the villages in that
valley. Since such roads only meet at the shore,
the people living in one valley have virtually no
relations with the inhabitants of even the next
valley. In other words, each valley is virtually a
closed cultural basin.
The houses of the Eastern Black Sea are so
scattered within the boundaries of their village
that there is usually not even a tiny central
square. Why then are houses built so far apart on
the Black Sea? The reason naturally is not that
people want to avoid each other.
The sole explanation is the rough terrain.
Consequently, any spots suitable for building are
snapped up with no concern for proximity to a
neighbor. This insular and solitary way of life is
universally acknowledged to be responsible for the
temperamental, contentious and ruggedly
independent nature of the Black Sea people, which
has endowed them with a capacity for solving their
own problems without seeking help from others.
With building materials gathered and techniques
gleaned from the environment, these people have
succeeded in constructing houses that are
perfectly suited to the region's natural
conditions.
STONE AND TIMBER
In this region, where erosion has thinned the
topsoil, houses are built wherever a patch of
cultivable land can be found. Another factor that
influences the location of houses is water,
sources of which tend to be scattered all over the
village.The building traditions and house-plans of
the Eastern Black Sea take a variety of forms
within the region, exhibiting yet other variations
along the coast. In the far east, for example, in
Savsat township of Artvin province, the houses are
made completely of wood. In Yusufeli on the other
hand the side and back walls are of stone. In the
township's coastal sector we begin to find walls
built by the 'goz dolma' technique.
This technique, which is widespread along the
coast of Rize, gives way to timber again as one
travels inland and upward. The minute you enter
Trabzon, the 'goz dolma' technique is replaced by
the 'muskali dolma' style, consisting of
amulet-like triangles that appear to be made of
tiny cubes. (Both of the so-called 'dolma' styles
are based on a building technique of 'filling' in
timber frames with stones or other materials.) In
the sparsely forested Arakli and Duzkoy valleys of
Trabzon province, there are houses, albeit few in
number, whose facades consist entirely of stone
walls. The timber exteriors encountered on the
coast from the Georgian border to near Trabzon do
not appear again all the way to Ordu. Meanwhile
the interior dividing walls of houses throughout
the region are made exclusively of wooden
materials. All along the coast the roofs are made
of tiles, whereas in the higher villages they are
covered with thin wood shingles known as 'hartama'
or 'bedevra'.
While bedrooms in villages west of Trabzon open
onto the kitchen, in the eastern regions a
corridor separates the two areas in an arrangement
that affords more privacy. Meanwhile, in the
coastal villages of Artvin and Rize, this corridor
becomes a large living room called a 'hayat', a
light and spacious area affording a panoramic view
of the valley and a place to pass the time on
boring winter days when one is cooped up inside.
This section is heated by a stove, from whose
warmth the bedrooms benefit as well. All daytime
and nocturnal activities are carried out on the
ground floor of Eastern Black Sea houses. Besides
the usual household chores, people are constantly
busy raising vegetables, tea, hazelnuts and
tobacco, procuring firewood and feeding the
animals. An upper floor would naturally increase
the burden of, and the fatigue caused by, these
tasks. The tradition of having an upstairs can be
seen only in the villages of Ardesen and
Camlihemsin in Rize province. Here the bedrooms
are on the second floor, which results in a
substantial increase in living space.
A DIFFERENT BEAUTY: THE MANSIONS OF CAMLIHEMSIN
It is impossible to speak of big houses without
mentioning the veritable mansions of Camlihemsin.
These large, solid and imposing structures, built
in the township's central villages in the late
19th and early 20th century, dazzle the eye. But
don't be fooled by their ostentatious exteriors.
They are not the homes of big landowners or local
governors. The owners of these homes are ordinary
people who have turned the money they earned
working in Moscow, Rostov and St Petersburg into
homes. The accessories such as door handles,
window grilles and colored glass used in the
Camlihemsin mansions, which number some 30 to 40
in all, were all brought from Russia. Similar
mansions, albeit few in number, can also be seen
in the coastal villages of Trabzon's Surmene and
Of townships. The most famous of them is the
mansion of 'Memis aga', 4 km east of Surmene on
the main road.
And its owner really is an aga (local landowner).
Unfortunately these lovely relics of the living
culture of a period are facing extinction today.
The process of destruction began the minute the
houses were left unattended when their owners
abandoned the towns and villages for economic
reasons.
This year the worlds architects are meeting in
Istanbul for the International Asian Architecture
Conference in June and the UIA 2005 World Congress
of Architecture, organized by the Union of
International Architects, in July. A photography
exhibition featuring the rural architecture of the
Eastern Black Sea will also open at Istanbul's
Milli Reasurans Art Gallery in July. If you can't
go to the Black Sea, then at least visit the
exhibition. As we said at the beginning, its
difficult to describe the greenery there, or the
red-roofed houses that bedeck the hillsides...
--
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