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Landscape & Identity of Turkey

With landscape, certain identities can be identified such as from the form and structure of the location and its geographic itself. Identity can be determined from the culture such as the way how Turkish people dress up, their religious beliefs and also their dietary restrictions.

However, all of this will be effected by their religion and as for Turkey’s case, Islam is their main religion therefore their Islamic faith demands conservative dress, actions, and so much more.

Turkey also can be identified by their arts and crafts as well as their traditional food. For many of the ethnic minorities their primary means of identifying is based on their ethnicity, such as the ethnic Kurds. Among these ethnic minorities, many live in the eastern part of the country and are much more conservative Muslims; this strong affiliation to Islam is a very strong identifying feature for many of these people, if not their primary means of identity.

Any elements of a cultural landscape make little cultural sense if they are studied outside their geographic or location in context.

Common landscapes-however important they may be- are by their nature hard to study by conventional academic means.

The Axiom Of Landscape as a Clue to Culture explains that culture is seen through what humans have created and put on the Earth. This provides strong evidence of what kind of people we are, are we and are in the process of becoming.

A Bit About Turkey

Turkey is a country of sun and history. Turkey is located where the three continents making up the old world which are Asia, Africa and Europe are closest to each other and straddle the point where Europe and Asia meet.

Because of its geographical location, the mainland, Anatolia, has witnessed the mass migration of diverse peoples shaping the course of history. The home to countless civilisations, Anatolia has developed a unique synthesis of cultures, each with its own distinct identity, yet each linked to its predecessors through insoluble treads.

Sources of Valuing Landscape and Identity

As what E.A. Gutkind has said, “Two basic relationship between man and nature, I-thou and I-it…”

Gutkind has identified 4 stages in man’s changes in attitude towards landscape.

·         Stage 1. Fear & Insecurity

·         Stage 2. Confidence & Adjustments

·         Stage 3. Aggressiveness & Disintegration

·         Stage 3. Responsible & Unification

I-thou

-          Fear & Insecurity

-          Confidence & Adjustments

I-it

-          Aggressiveness & Disintegration

-          Responsible & Unification

As advanced technology takes place in our society, there is no longer fear and insecurity towards landscape. For example, in Turkey itself, many natural places has been developed into urban area and this process has to go through I-thou and I-it, or we can call it as an evolution.

In Turkey, 98% percent of the population are Muslims and as we all know, way before that back in thousands of years ago when Islam has not took its place there yet, the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power especially a personal God or Gods was the only religion and belief that they believed in.

Besides religion, culture and tradition takes place highly as well as culture is human methods of meeting physical environmental challenges. Tradition is the transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation or the fact of being passed on the way.

Thirdly, knowledge that is not related or connected to religious or spiritual matters that are acquired from schools, universities etc. People learn new values and beliefs as well as ideological position here.

Construction & Design Process: Modifications