Reuse of historical buildings in the scope of current needs: The transformation process of the Meryem Ana Church in Kayseri, to a library

Historical buildings reflect the historical and cultural background of a nation, a geography. It is very important to preserve the buildings in order to carry them to the current period and to provide information from the past. These structures are faced with various environmental, chemical and physical threats over different time periods. Despite this, it is seen that the majority of the structures that have survived these negative factors have lost their functions due to the changing living and comfort conditions. In this context, restoration practices aim to keep historical buildings alive and up to date. It is almost an inevitable necessity for the buildings to be re-functionalized in case they lose their functions, to use these values in daily life, that is, to remain active and not to be forgotten. In this thesis, the restoration work of the Virgin Mary Church of Kayseri, which is an important example among many structures opened to public use by re-functioning in our country as well as in the world, has been examined. In this thesis study, which consists of six main sections, the first section is about restoration and re-functioning legislation in general, and the concepts of Library Function and Re-functioning are discussed in the second section. In the third part of the thesis, Kayseri's Cultural Heritage and Re-functional Buildings are discussed. Chapter 4 covers the analysis of the Virgin Mary Church of Kayseri. In the 5th chapter, the success of this building, which is currently functioning as a library, was evaluated in terms of its compliance with the conservation criteria and its librarianship function, according to its post-restoration status. In the conclusion, the failures and successes of this structure as a current conservation work and how it can be an example for later re-functionalization applications are emphasized.