Birdhouses in Turkish architecture

The "birdhouse" concept, which has always been a major component of the human-bird interaction throughout the history, has also been closely related to the ceramic art. Birdhouses have occupied a major space in Turkish culture since the Ottoman Period. Use of ceramic-based material for the birdhouse samples designed within the scope of this dissertation is a new and contemporary approach. In addition to examination of the literature on the history of birdhouses (i.e., how they came to show up in our country and in the world) the birdhouse construction practices are also examined both in our country and in the world. Birdhouses made of materials such as wood, plastic, plaster, etc. are also briefly mentioned as well as the ceramic ones. This dissertation -consisting of two chapters- aims to examine the birdhouses in ceramic art as well as to create city scale artistic ceramic applications for selected small-sized birds. The first chapter is about the history of the birdhouses; the second chapter includes personal birdhouse designs and ceramic applications of the author. The procedure used to produce the ceramic samples is based on hand-shaping and electric cooking. The subject matter of this dissertation is also related to the global climate issues and important in terms of maintaining the bird population.