Rural architecture heritage example in Seyitgazi: Unal Sen houserestoration project

Ünal Şen House, built in integration with the rock formation in Eskişehir province Seyitgazi district; It is one of the few examples of rural architecture, which has the characteristics of plan, facade, construction technique and material, reflecting the special relationship between the benefits of nature and human production. The building is located in an important position in the silhouette of Seyit Battal Gazi Kulliye, which is a magnificent cultural heritage, is one of the extant examples of traditional architecture and contributes greatly to the cultural landscape of the district by reflecting the integrated spatial fiction in an aesthetic way. Ünal Şen House, located on a rocky land in harmony with the topography, provides a dominant view of the district in terms of its ground level. There is a storage space carved into the rock on the ground floor of the building, living areas on the upper floor, and the floor sits on the rock mass. The facades of the building are plain and there are no consoles. The traditional materials used in the building built with the masonry technique vary. The building is abandoned today and is in danger of collapse. For this reason, the structure should be documented, appropriate conservation interventions should be determined and passed on to future generations. It is a cultural landscape area of Seyitgazi, which has cultural layers belonging to different civilizations throughout history, with its unique geological structure and natural beauty (ICOMOS, 2013). By using Seyitgazi as a settlement by different civilizations; varied cultural and social features were reflected in the urban space and life, offering an important cultural diversity and richness. These values, created by different cultural layers, should be preserved in the context of historical continuity. Basically, Ünal Şen House, which is a part of landscape areas that combine various cultural and aesthetic values formed by the interaction of human and nature, in Seyitgazi, is one of the rare examples that reach today as a concrete evidence of the architectural production of the living society with a balance between cultural and natural heritage environment. Within the scope of this thesis; the current situation of the Ünal Şen House was documented and transferred to the survey drawings, the changes that the building has undergone from the past to the present were investigated and restitution studies were carried out. A restoration project has been prepared for the preservation of Ünal Şen House, which was created by considering with the natural geological formation, by renovating it with a suitable function and participating in urban life.