Restoration / Architecture · Design and Construction
Guide · YOY Mimarlık
Why is a building registered? The criteria for conservation
There is no arbitrary answer to the question “why is my house registered?”. The decision rests on three criteria — documentary value, age and aesthetic value — and the group a building falls into determines directly what you may do to it.
What is conserved is a matter of choice
It is not possible to pass on to future generations every trace that survives from the past; no country’s resources stretch that far. Development pressure, neglect, the weathering of materials and natural disaster steadily reduce the number of historic buildings. Conservation therefore works with criteria that help select, first of all, what must be kept.
The criteria are defined so as to be independent of personal taste. The decision to conserve a building or group of buildings is taken by weighing its importance in terms of documentary value, age and aesthetic value. Possessing one or more of these qualities is enough for the registration decision that is the first step of conservation.
In Turkey, the value a building carries and the group it will fall into are settled through discussion in scientific boards made up of specialists from archaeology, history, art and architectural history, architectural design, restoration and urban planning.
The three criteria
The documentary criterion. A building may carry documentary value through its association with a historical event or person, or because it reflects a historical process. That value is not confined to great events: a Roman walling technique, a vault lightened with terracotta pipes and pots, a plaster relief showing classical-period ornament — each documents the building knowledge of its time. Oil presses, mills, tanneries and soap works operating with an abandoned technology are likewise documents in terms of production technique and building type.
The criterion of age. How long after construction a building counts as a historic monument varies from country to country; in the Netherlands buildings over fifty years old are covered, while in France the Villa Savoye of 1929–30 is registered as a monument. In Turkey, under Article 6 of Law No. 2863, buildings erected before 1900 fall within the scope of protection. For twentieth-century buildings, particular qualities are sought: being the work of an important architect, representing an architectural movement, or forming part of a series of buildings.
The aesthetic criterion. Beauty strengthens the case for conservation, but the judgement “beautiful” is not objective; it varies between individuals, between societies and over time. Seeing the beauty of a ruined building’s original design and assessing it within its own period calls for specialist experience. That is precisely why registration decisions do not always coincide with popular taste.
Group 1, Group 2: what do they mean?
Registration alone is not the whole story; the group a building falls into also defines the limits of what may be done to it. The assessment system currently in force in Turkey rests on principle decision no. 378 of the High Council for the Conservation of Immovable Cultural and Natural Property, dated 28 February 1995.
Group 1 buildings possess architectural value at universal, national or regional level and must be conserved for their historical, commemorative and aesthetic qualities. In this group the scope for additions and alterations is restricted; the building is conserved with both its exterior and its interior arrangement.
Group 2 buildings are those that make up the urban setting, give the locality its character and were built with traditional techniques. Here changes that do not show on the elevation may be permitted, and the buildings can be adapted to a new use with minor internal alteration. Most of the buildings forming Antakya’s courtyard-house fabric fall within this definition.
The distinction is decisive in practice. In a Group 2 building that has lost its floors and ceilings to fire or neglect, and for which no adequate evidence of the original design survives, a new internal arrangement may be permitted. In a building of high plan and interior value, by contrast, what is expected is not a free internal layout but a solution that keeps the memory of the historic spaces alive.
Monument or conservation area?
Immovable cultural and natural property is protected in two forms: monuments and conservation areas (sit). A single building or a complex of buildings is a monument. When the notion of the monument is extended to cover a whole city, the term “site” is used instead.
Sites are classified by their character as natural, historical, archaeological, urban, rural or composite. An urban conservation area comprises streets, quarters and spaces that have kept the coherent order, architectural integrity and amenities of an old city. A composite site carries at least two of these characters at once — the historic centre of Antakya, where urban and archaeological layers interlock, falls under that definition.
The distinction matters, because within a conservation area a building that is not itself registered is still within the scope of protection. Every element contributing to the whole deserves conservation: not only the buildings, but the walls enclosing the streets, the paving, the trees, the burial enclosures and the squares are all part of the inventory. When one of the small parts dismissed as unimportant disappears, the integrity is broken and a process that is hard to reverse begins.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I find out which group my building is in?
If the group is unknown, a file containing the cadastral situation at 1/500, a measured survey at 1/50 and interior and exterior photographs is submitted to the Regional Conservation Board covering the building, with a request that its status be determined. The survey must include plans, sections and elevations sufficient to describe the building fully, and must note the materials and the condition of the architectural components. In fixing the group, the board also defines the rules that must be followed.
Does registration restrict my ownership?
Registration does not take ownership away from you; it makes interventions in the building subject to permission. The decision is notified to the land registry and entered in the record, and the opinion of the relevant Regional Conservation Board must be obtained for any intervention, including maintenance and repair. In return the building comes under legal protection and the limits of its inviolability are defined. The extent of the restriction varies by group; in a Group 2 building the flexibility of internal arrangement is usually wider than people expect.
My house is architecturally ordinary. Why is it registered?
Because the assessment measures a building not only on its own but as part of a whole. Among the urban-planning criteria are being important for the appearance of the city, being taken as a landmark of its locality, standing beside an important monument as an indispensable component that gives it scale, and forming part of an architectural ensemble. A courtyard house in Antakya may be modest on its own, yet irreplaceable within the street silhouette and the continuity of the fabric.
Source
The principal reference for the criteria and the assessment system is Zeynep Ahunbay, Tarihi Çevre Koruma ve Restorasyon (Historic Environment Conservation and Restoration), YEM Yayın, Istanbul 2009, Chapter 2: Values to be conserved and criteria of assessment. Legal framework: Turkish Law No. 2863 on the Conservation of Cultural and Natural Property and principle decision no. 378 of the High Council for Conservation, dated 28 February 1995.