Caravan life in the context of post-modern urbanism

The history of caravans, one of the types of mobile space, goes back a long way. Caravans started to be used as houses on wheels in the 1920s. However, it is possible to say that caravanning in Türkiye does not have a long history and has become more popular in recent years. Space has a significant impact on urban perception and lifestyles. In this respect, this study was designed to understand the reasons why urban individuals move away from urban spaces and live in caravans in today's conditions where post-modern understanding continues to be effective. In order to realize this aim, semi-structured interviews were conducted with caravanners in the field in the environments where they live in the caravan and in-depth information was obtained from the participants. It was designed with a phenomenological approach, one of the qualitative research designs, in order to enable urban individuals to express their perceptions, feelings and perspectives about caravan life and to understand how they experience this life. A total of 15 participants were interviewed using the snowball sampling method. The findings obtained in this study were grouped under five main themes: socio-demographic characteristics of the participants, reasons for preferring caravan life/caravanning as a lifestyle, continuity of caravan life, caravanners' view of urban life, and caravan life in terms of daily life practices. Under the heading of caravanning as a lifestyle, the reasons for the participants' preference were discussed as freedom, disasters, living in nature away from the city, economic reasons and minimal life. The findings were discussed in relation to the theoretical framework of the study and the related literature.