Investigation of materials and bearing system of the traditional Dursunbey houses

Dursunbey, which connects Balıkesir to Bursa and Kütahya, is a province of Balıkesir. The life styles and cultures of the people in that region have affected the plans and cultures of Dursunbey Houses. Lacking of a work about that houses necessitated to work on them. The publecations about that issue have been searched thoroughly and under the light of these searchings, Dursunbey houses have been investigated.During the investigation, the types of the plans of the houses were seen to have been formed by external halls and mid halls and most of the cantilevers were observed to have ben built of bracketed cantilevers. The system of timber framing is formed of pillars, base stringers, ferrules, piles and internal partitions. The framework is divided into small sections and the combinations are secured by means of overlaps and wedges. The ground floors of Dursunbey houses are contructed by using stone or mud brick layings or both of them. Decoration items can not be seen in these houses.Every passing day, traditionally built houses are destroyed. The houses can be passed on the coming generations by restoring and the faults and lacks on the connections of framing system components can be determined and strenghtened. Due to the solidity of that timber framing system, it may be applied as a building system along with the reinforced concrete system, especially in earthquake areas. Those houses can be brought in to tourism by the way of improving upland tourism because of the area being appropriate.