Searching for flexible interior design solutions: Mass housing units in Istanbul

Starting from 1940’s Turkey witnessed important economic and structural reforms, which also changed the socio cultural structure of the population. Many families living in rural areas in Anatolia started to come to big cities in order to have better job and education opportunities. But getting involved in big city life necessitated creating their own solutions. Gecekondu (self built houses without any permission from authorities) settlements started to grow in the peripheries of big cities. In time these settlements were regarded as unhealthy and dangerous because of the great threat of earthquake. Subsequent to the great İzmit earthquake of 1999, the urgent need to renew old or high-risk housing brought about urban renewal projects into the agenda. The state founded the Housing Development Administration (TOKI) to solve the problem of public housing. During the last 2 decades many families living in gecekondu areas and other unplanned quarters of big cities started to move to new public houses. But these new houses were mostly apartment blocks constructed with the priority of reducing construction costs without any other further research about family structures and socio cultural requirements. Although many families are thankful and pleased to have their own houses, which have better living conditions regarding infrastructure and services, they have many difficulties in performing their daily activities. The apartments are small, impractical and very difficult to interfere because of the tunnel construction method. Especially crowded families try to create their own primitive solutions to use rooms for different activities during different times of the day. They also have difficulties in performing social rituals that necessitate the participation of neighbours and relatives. At this point the contribution of interior design is essential in order to create flexible solutions for crowded families with different physical and social requirements. Flexibility is not an unfamiliar issue for the Turkish living environment. In traditional house flexibility was a natural outcome of the need to use rooms for different purposes. But the spatial solutions created were outputs of years of experience and ingenious master ship. Today’s solutions for flexible interiors need to use contemporary approaches by also evaluating the values hidden in traditional houses