Space transformation and change in mass housing in Nicosia, North Cyprus

ABSTRACT: Throughout history housing has been a basic human need in the environment. In time, due to the modernazition in the world, social, political, economic changes and ever growing population, altered housing concepts and mass houses have started to appear. Today, houses are not only shelters for human beings as they gain more meaning together with their habitants. Concordantly, housing and habitants are in interaction with each other and houses represent a huge variety according to their users’ identity. Mass houses are constructed in Cyprus as well as in the world. During the history, many civilizations ruled the island and left their cultural heritage to the island. Mass housing constructions are one of the significant examples for such heritages that were left by different civilizations. Most of the mass houses were constructed by different civilizations from 1878 especially in Nicosia since it was the capital city of Cyprus. These mass houses have survived until today. Nowadays these mass houses are used by different groups of people in comparison to old times. This has affected the space of mass houses and consequently significant changes have been observed. Life style, family size and economic status of the users of mass houses have been a sign of societies’ habits and traditions. The most important issues with the changes in a community are families’ daily lives and the way of using the houses. Housing form and its spaces are the symbol of habitant’s identity. During the time, changes in habitants’ profiles have affected the identical mass housing form and caused space transformation on mass houses. The main purpose of this research, which is basically composed of five chapters, is to identify the space transformation and changes in mass housing in Nicosia (which were constructed in different time spans over the time) from the original context in terms of its habitants together with the explanation and reasons for alterations. In this research, for achieving the results, time span is separated into five periods and mass houses are selected from five different period spans. In total, fifty five mass houses are selected and analyzed in terms of spatial, functional and formal transformations based on different habitant profiles who have variety of socio-cultural backgrounds. After the analysis of current criteria, mass houses in Nicosia are compared to each other and according to the findings, evaluations and comments are made on them. Eventually, transformations/alterations have been found in the mass houses which have standard architectural structures. Accordingly, these mass houses are observed to lose their original identity. Keywords: Mass Housing, Socio Cultural Factors, Space, Transformation, Space Syntax …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………