Özet:

Abstract Balıkesir is a city where traces of historical texture can be observed and examples of architectural heritage take place. The railway, which started to be used after the second half of the 19th century in the city, which had a local commercial dynamism for centuries in its geography, became the gateway of Balikesir to other cities, and commercial relations became more widespread. After the proclamation of the Republic, the local production market developed and industrial activities gained speed in Balikesir. The city, which is located on the Izmir-Bursa trade axis, has entered a period in which its national and international recognition has increased depending on the industry and trade intensity. Commercial dynamism, which has been active in the city since the 17th century, has played an important role in shaping the urban environment with the use of railways. After all, the development movements in the city have gained momentum. Streets and streets drawing the boundaries of the historical city center were opened, and architectural structures began to diversify in terms of function. In the historical city center, which is the center of trade and temporary accommodation, 19th century inns and caravanserais that support commercial activities and 20th century accommodation buildings are included in the city form. In 1941, the first zoning plan of the city was prepared by the architect Ernst Egli and entered into force in 1944. In the development plan explanation report, which envisages a station-oriented urban development, 5 squares that constitute the focal points of the historical city center and the circulation axes connecting them were identified, and new settlement proposals to support the physical development of the city were defined. After the Egli Plan, the commercial life, which was limited to a few streets in the past, has spread to 3 important trade axes and the region across the Station Square that welcomes the visitors to the city by railway. With the commercial dynamism based on local production in the historical city center and the planned development in the city after the 1940s, it has also spread to other circulation axes of the city. This situation caused the accommodation buildings to gather in certain axes and regions directed to the Station Square. Thus, it can be said that temporary accommodation culture is related to the city and its main trade axes. The historical city center of Balikesir has entered into a reconstruction process as a result of the earthquakes in 1898 and 1942, the Egli plan that came into effect in 1944 and the fire that broke out in the city center in 1950. The historical texture has been greatly damaged due to the applications made in new housing areas and historical urban spaces. The city center, which showed a rapid development, experienced a period of demolition especially in the post-1970 period and was filled with high-rise buildings after the 1980s. Due to this destruction process, the accommodation buildings and many immovable cultural assets, which are common in trade axes/regions, have been greatly affected, many of them have not survived or have lost their original structural character. The issue of preserving the historical city center and immovable cultural assets in the 20th century has been an uncertainty since the first planned development movements in Balikesir. A limited part of the city center was declared as an urban site in 1977, but this boundary was narrowed in 1981 due to the new construction conditions in the city center, and although a conservation plan was developed for the city center in 1983, it was decided to cancel the conservation plan in 1986. In 1987, preparations for a second development plan started, on the other hand, many examples of modern architectural heritage have been registered and preserved in this process where inventory studies of cultural and natural assets are still continuing. In this study, 19th and 20th century accommodation buildings located in the historical city center of Balıkesir and shaping the urban texture were investigated, and examples of qualified accommodation buildings that took place in the memory of the city were tried to be documented and interpreted. It is among the aims of the study to create an awareness about defining buildings as cultural heritage and understanding their cultural/structural values. Within the scope of the study, examples of qualified accommodation structures that were learned to be built in the 19th and 20th centuries in the historical city center were determined. The accommodation buildings built in the historical city center until the 1980s, the ones that are still physically present today and the ones that could not survive due to various reasons have been categorized in two separate groups. Based on the data obtained from the written and visual sources, the city dwellers and hotel operators who had been in commercial activities in the city center for many years, personal interviews, photographs and city archives, 31 accommodation buildings were reached, and 22 of these buildings were found to be physically erased from the memory of the city. Ensuring the continuity of these structures in the urban memory is one of the main objectives of the study. For the remaining nine buildings, a visual record was obtained by making documentation work with photographs, and documented with photographs by interpreting in many ways in relation to the context in which they were located.

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