A study on the sustainable architectural characteristics of traditional houses in Balikesir

The concept of sustainable architecture, which is one of the main components of sustainable development, takes place at first rows of today's architectural criteria and this abstract concept becomes concrete in our buildings with different methods. Design decisions that shape the destiny of the building through whole lives of it, its users and its environment; should also be the solutions that respond to certain problems that have been going on for ages in such buildings, such as thermal insulation, benefiting from daylight, and efficient use of water. The continuation of the problems since ancient times leads us to search for solutions in traditional architectural practices. Traditional practices that have passed through the filter of experience throughout history, offer conventional ready-made solutions to certain problems that we are trying to overcome even with modern methods today. In our study, architectural efforts towards the problems within the subject of sustainable architecture, considering conservation of resources and their efficient use, have been researched in the scope of traditional houses of Dumlupınar Neighborhood in Karesi District of Balıkesir Province. It is studied that how usage of land, water, energy and material resources are evaluated and analyzed when certain architectural problems regarding the building are faced. The resulting data are analyzed within the scope of sustainable architecture principles which are included in literature and compiled from different point of views. In the analyzes, which resources were used in the traditional houses in the region and how effectively they could be used were on focus and the differences between the way of using resources in recent architectural processes were mentioned. In the study, regarding the results from the analyzes and the solution methods, it has been tried to develop suggestions, which come from tradition and settled with experience, for modern architecture.