MOLLY O'DONNELL JORDEN

This study of the Turkish Hayat House was completed to inform designs for affordable houses in the United States with non-Western traditions. This half-timbered courtyard house type in the Marmara region of Turkey took on the basic form of a yurt after the nomadic people began to settle more permanently in neighborhoods called manhalle. Customs of privacy produced inward-looking homes with geometrically patterned interiors contrasting minimally articulated exteriors along narrow streets. The architecture is a product of regional materials assembled according to cultural values and designed to contribute to the daily life of the community, namely the family.