The analysis of buildings in vernacular architecture regarding to sustainable design principles with example of Antalya Kaleiçi houses

The technological development that started with the industrial revolution and the increase in usage of fossil energy resources, caused the environmental problems. The necessity of housing which increased with population, became the reason of rapid and irregular increase of buildings. As the result of these improvements the ecological balance in nature was destroyed. The environmental problems made the community use renewable energy resources. In 20th century, ecological architecture approach arised as a solution to environmental problems. Ecological architecture intends to reduce the energy requirements of the buildings and increase the usage of renewable energy resources by ecological design principles regarding the existing site and climatic throughputs. The adaptation of building design, according to the natural environment and climatic throughputs, is known for a long time. The existing examples of vernacular architecture is the result of the solutions that people found out ? by the effects of historical, social and cultural factors - against climatic and natural conditions while designing their buildings. Today vernacular architecture is like a model for ecological design approach. The study includes, the properties of vernacular architecture and examining the vernacular architecture regarding to the sustainable building design principles. Antalya Kaleici houses - which has the characteristics of Turkish Houses -is choosen as a model of vernacular architecture in this study. The similarities between ecological architecture and vernacular architecture and the importance of vernacular architecture are pointed out while examining the coincidence of Kaleici houses with ecological design principles. Keywords: Environment, ecology, sustainability, ecological architecture, vernacular architecture, Turkish Houses, Antalya Kaleici houses