The Applicability of Ecological Lessons Learnt from Traditional Houses to Mass Housing Projects: A Case Study of Akçaabat, Trabzon/Turkey

The housing needs of Turkey’s population are increasing rapidly, especially in major provinces, due to various factors such as natural population increase and migration. Mass housing is considered a solution to the lack of housing. However, mass housing structures are designed and constructed uniformly, without any consideration of the architectural, climatic and topographical features of their location. The care and effort towards ecological values found in examples of traditional architecture, which are in harmony with and respectful to nature, cannot be found in mass housing projects that are built today. This study emphasizes the importance of adopting ecological design principles in contemporary mass housing projects and demonstrates what kind of ecological lessons can be learned from traditional houses. Therefore, it examines a traditional residential neighborhood in the East Black Sea town of Akçaabat, Ortamahalle, and a recently built mass housing project in the same town in terms of ecological design principles. Following the analysis and comparison, specific suggestions are made for the town of Akçaabat and for the application of ecological lessons learnt from traditional architecture to contemporary mass housing projects.