Conservation project about water mills located on Trabzon Agasar brook in between Sayvançatak village and Black Sea

With the industrial revolution, changing and developing production processes have caused to abandonment of traditional methods in production. Water mills, one of the most important production structures until recently, have also affected from this situation and have gradually decreased their use. As a traditional production structures these buildings have witnessed a period of the history and also they are the values that should be conveyed to future generations in the context of cultural property. For this reason, in this study; the conservation problems of these water mills, which are in danger of extinction due to developing technology, migration from rural to urban, decreased conventional agricultural activities, and the methods of sustainable conservation have been researched. The Ağasar Stream, which is selected as a study area, starts to flow from Sis Mountain through the Şalpazarı district and meets the Black Sea in the boundaries of Beşikdüzü district. The stream and their limbs breaks the land and creates deep valleys, thereby the area has a rugged structure. As a result of this, agricultural areas are limited and the mechanization in agriculture is quite less. The region has a humid climate and it is not suitable for wheat farming, therefore corn is the most grown cereal. The locals has made their bread from corn until very recently and this has greatly increased the importance of the water mills. Water mills are valuable for the people of the region not only for their economy but also as a part of the social life. Within the scope of this research, there are nine water mills on which located Ağasar Brook in between Sayvançatak village and Black Sea that corresponds 26 km length. Two of them documented by photographs, other seven documented by detailed drawings. Through these studies, working principles, technical and architectural features of the water mills have been examined. This research is not restricted to mill buildings but also they are evaluated with their surroundings such as their canals, water gutters, bridges etc which are important in terms of the operation of the mills. In the literature survey conducted as a support to the field research, although there are researches about water mills in Black Sea Region, it is determined that there is no academic study about water mills in this area before. In this thesis firstly, geographical information, architectural features, social life, cultural values and economic activities of the research area were described. In this stage, due to the unsufficient written sources it was benefited from oral knowledge and field observations. The historical development and the types of the mills were investigated and the general characteristics and working principles of the water mills which located on Agasar Stream were explained. With the documentation study water mills were described extensively and the essential values that needs to be protected (with the aspects of cultural property and landscape) were determined. In addition to this, the conservation problems were defined and proposals were developed to solve these problems. In order to conserve these water mills as a production tecnology and part of technology history, not just a historical building, they should continue to be used. In this context, to conserve these mill structures with their authentic values, it has been considered that holistic approach should be developed instead of singular evaluation.