Restoration / Architecture · Design and Construction
Guide · YOY Mimarlık
My historic building collapsed — what now?
If your registered building has collapsed, the process is not over. But what you do first matters as much as what you avoid doing: the right step taken before the debris is touched prevents losses of evidence that cannot be made good later.
First: do not touch the debris
In a collapsed registered building the most critical loss happens when the debris is cleared without control. On a site swept clean by machinery, the foundation walls, floor levels, courtyard paving and original ashlar blocks go too. These are the only physical evidence on which restitution — the evidence-based re-establishment of the building’s original state — can rest.
Traces lost this way cannot be recovered by any later document. An archive photograph may show a facade, but it will not give you the storey height, the wall thickness or the courtyard level.
For this reason the first step is not to clear the debris but to speak to a specialist before it is touched, and to wait for the permit of the Regional Conservation Board. Debris removal is carried out under that permit, supervised, and layer by layer.
Is the registration cancelled?
No. The physical loss of the building does not by itself cancel its registration. The parcel retains its protected status, and anything built on it remains subject to permission from the Regional Conservation Board.
Contrary to what most owners assume, this is not a restriction but a right: with the correct documentation, the reconstruction of the building can be requested. The board approves it where the evidence is sufficient and the urban value of the building requires it.
Most of the work we have carried out in the Antakya Historic City Centre since the February 2023 earthquakes is exactly this: bringing wholly collapsed registered buildings back into existence through excavation survey, restitution and reconstruction projects.
Which documents should you gather?
A restitution is only as strong as the evidence behind it. The following documents speed up the process and make the project more solid:
The title deed and the registration record if there is one; photographs of the building from any period — even family snapshots where it appears in the background are useful; any project, survey or alteration drawing prepared earlier; correspondence, board decisions and permits relating to the building.
Alongside these, one of the most valuable sources — and the one most often underestimated — is oral history. People who lived in the building, former tenants and neighbours know which wall was built later, when the last repair was made and how the rooms were used. This information exists in no archive, and the people who hold it become harder to reach as time passes. Have it recorded if you can.
On the parcels we work on in Antakya, the 1929 Ville d’Antioche French cadastral sheets have been a very strong source, showing parcel boundaries and building footprints as they stood before the earthquake. Reaching those sheets is our job — what you need to gather are the documents specific to your building.
How does the process run?
Broadly, there are five stages. It begins with controlled debris removal, carried out under board permit and supervision; the architectural data revealed in each layer is measured and photographed before removal proceeds.
Next comes the excavation survey: foundation walls, floor levels and material remains are transferred to scaled drawings. The third stage is restitution, where the excavation data, archival documents and oral history are brought together to redraw the building’s original configuration.
In the fourth stage the reconstruction project is prepared — the original configuration is re-established together with current seismic safety requirements. The final stage is board approval and construction.
The total duration varies with the state of the parcel, and the board’s agenda plays its part. But one thing can be said plainly: what extends the process most is trying to make good a wrong step taken at the beginning.
What is lost is not only the building
Everything on this page describes a technical process: documents, measurements, the board, the file. But for the owner of a house that has collapsed the matter is never only technical, and an account that ignores this is incomplete.
Field research with earthquake survivors in Antakya shows that a house is a “place” for a person — a source of identity and an irreplaceable centre. The longer someone has lived in a house, the stronger their attachment to it. What is lost when the house is lost is the frame the memories hold on to: once the frame is gone, the memories bound to it are themselves at risk of being lost.
For our work this has a concrete counterpart. A measured survey and a restitution are not only a legal requirement; they are also a way of rebuilding that frame. The measured drawing of a collapsed house, the photograph of a door knocker, the mould dimension of a cement-tile pattern, the position of the tree in the courtyard — before they are appendices to a file, these are the record of somebody’s life. That is why in an excavation survey there is very little we count as unimportant.
A practical suggestion: do not throw away the small elements that can be recovered from the debris — a door leaf, a knocker, a cupboard door, a tile fragment, a piece of carved stone — and where you can, note where each came from. Some of them can return to their places in the reconstruction. Those that cannot will remain as the record of the building.
Frequently Asked Questions
The debris has already been cleared. Is it too late?
Not too late, but harder. Even when the debris has been cleared, foundation traces usually remain in the ground and can be uncovered by excavation. Combined with cadastral sheets, the photographic archive, any earlier surveys and oral history, restitution is still possible on most parcels. The first thing to do is to document the surviving traces before they suffer further damage.
Can I build a new, modern building instead?
On a registered parcel this decision is not yours but the Regional Conservation Board’s, and the board considers the building’s urban context. Within a conservation area, in a fabric read together with registered buildings on neighbouring parcels, the height envelope and facade order are binding. In practice the right course is usually reconstruction; a documented rebuilding also speeds up the permit process.
How long does it take, and when should I start?
The project and board approval stage usually takes a few months; construction varies with the size of the building. As for when to start: the earliest moment possible. As time passes, the traces surviving in the ground deteriorate, witnesses become unreachable and archival work grows harder. If the debris has not yet been cleared, speak to a specialist immediately.
Source
For the findings on how earthquake survivors perceive home: Dağlı, F., Aslan, M., Koç, F. & Dinç, Y. (2026). A Study on the Changing Meanings of “Home” in Earthquake Cities: The Case of Antakya (Hatay). Aegean Geographical Journal, 35 (1), 97–117, DOI: 10.51800/ecd.1880393. The account of process and regulation is our own; confirmation should be sought from the relevant Regional Conservation Board Directorate before proceeding.