Designing a Village Museum Ecologically: Reuse of Historic School Building

• Main Author: Özlem Karakul
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Athens Institute for Education and Research 2019-10-01
• Series: Athens Journal of Architecture
• Online Access: https://www.athensjournals.gr/architecture/2019-5-4-2-Karakul.pdf

The number of the village museums has highly increased in recent years parallel to the increase in the care of the ways of life, intangible cultural heritage of societies. Designing village museums necessitates to understand the tangible and intangible characteristics of village accurately, specifically, both the architectural language of traditional buildings and the cultural practices of people. This study aims to present a process of designing a village museum in a historical building in the village as a common design problem between the disciplines of interior design and conservation. The reuse of the historic building primarily necessitates to deal with both the structural system and the values of the building which constitute the reasons for conservation of the buildings and the architectural significance of the building besides the natural, economic and cultural characteristics of its context. The reuse of historic buildings necessitates its adaptation to the program of the new function by certain interventions, like, new extensions. This study presents a specific framework for reusing of a historic school building in Botsa Village in Konya as a village museum developed within an interior design studio. The design framework is mainly based on discovering the ecological principles of local architecture and oriented to the needs of villagers emerging within cultural and touristic developments.