Eskişehir old bus station as a material culture environment

Throughout its historical existence, human beings have always interacted with the nature and environment in which they live in. Humans, trying to make sense of nature and its environment, have dominated it with various methods and technologies, consumed and produced thanks to it. People have attributed meanings to the nature they live in with myths, epics, religions, stories, etc., and the products they created in various oral and written cultural environments. In addition to oral and written cultural products, material culture products are one of the elements that provide physical contact of human cultural acqusations with nature and play the most important role in the nature-human relationship. As a discipline that investigates the cultural elements created/kept alive and carried by humans, one of the research fields of folklore is material culture products. Material cultural products should not be considered as objects discovered in archaeological excavations or as objects that exist within the culture in a dull way. Every meaningful object created by humans that expresses its lifestyle, behavior and philosophy of themselves and the society they live in like material culture elements such as cousine (food, desserts, etc.), tools, shelters (houses, tents, etc.), clothing products, industrial products, craft products, public spaces, etc. are sources that provide important folklore data to researchers. Since material culture research has an important position in the studies of many different disciplines such as folklore, history, geography, archaeology, psychology, anthropology, ethnology, art history, etc., different approaches and research methods have been developed over time within material culture research. One of the most important examples of these methods and approaches is the research and evaluation method developed by American folklorist Henry Glassie. In the method he developed, Henry Glassie analyzes the structure and function of material culture products, as well as their context, in great detail. In our study; Informations are given about material culture, Henry Glassie's approach to the concept of material culture, and the research and evaluation method. The "Old Bus Station Building" -as it is known today- located on Yunus Emre Street in Eskişehir, which existed from 1963 to 2023, was examined and evaluated within the framework of Henry Glassie's approach and research/evaluation methods.