Özet:

Indeed, architectural heritages are considered as aggregation of a civilization’s economic, social and cultural background. Accordingly, restoration, conservation and any intervention aimed at such valuable heritage are of great importance. Design approaches of interventions to historical buildings are among the ongoing discussions in the field of architectural conservation and restoration. This study aims to reveal the spatial and functional changes of a historical educational structure as a result of additions made according to its characteristics. The İdadi historical school in city of Mardin whose construction dates back to the late 19th century is chosen as the case study of this investigation. Mardin is located in the southeastern Anatolia region of Turkey and is one of the most crucial, historical and cultural poles of the country. Consequently, a diverse range of historical constructions including churches, monasteries, mosques, social complexes, traditional houses and pavilions are located in the city. There are a considerable number of studies investigating these constructions in the literature but there is no up-to-date work on historical educational buildings of Mardin. This study chose the İdadi historical school as a case study to fill this gap in literature. The spatial transformation of the İdadi school, which is considered to be the first educational structure of the city of Mardin, was evaluated in accordance with contemporary preservation principles. The method of the study was based on determining the constructional and functional changes in chronological periods as a result of the new functions being determined for the İdadi historical school. Integrated additions to the historical building were examined and comparisons were made over various time periods. The method applied can be considered as a contribution to the field of impact assessment and determination of the impact process in cultural heritage structures. It was determined that the İdadi historical school preserved its original form with similar and harmonious functions until today and the annex was designed in a different style, so as not to override the existing historical building. In this case, with successful additions and by preservation of the İdadi school structure it can be reintegrated to the society by providing continuous use. Particularly, appropriate refunctioning of a historical building is the most chief step in conservation, maintenance, contribution to the city’s skyline, revitalization of its peripheral context and contribution to the economy of the city. Since preparing survey and restitution projects and restoring the building alone is not sufficient for the protection of historical buildings and cultural heritages, sustainable conservation of a historical building would be more successful by appropriate refunctioning and maintaining its continuous use. For the reason that unfunctional structures remain vacant, such neglected constructions get more vulnerable to turn into ruins. However, according to the findings of this research, any changes to construction in accordance to refunction the historical building should not damage the originality of the structure. Accordingly, it has been concluded that the interventions to a historical structure in general and in this case to Mardin’s historical constructions should be in proportion to the original historical building rather than re-using by changing its constructional scale with non-recyclable interventions.

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