Boundaries of gendered space : traditional Turkish house

Abstract

This work looks at the traditional Turkish house and its two boundaries from the point of gender-space relationship. Acknowledging that gender and space mutually construct each other, this thesis explains both the manifestation of gender difference in the built environment in general, and how the domestic environment in Ottoman architecture and gender mutually construct each other. The two boundaries of the hayat house are analyzed, as regards the body and the gaze of the woman. These are the house-street boundary (street façade and its components, also living areas which are adjacent to the street façade’s interior and exterior) and the house-garden boundary (garden façade and its components, also living areas which are adjacent to the garden façade’s interior and exterior). In this respect, the boundaries of the house are thresholds between the public and the private, the exterior and the interior, therefore they express the binaries that these bring within. By looking at the body and gaze of the woman at these thresholds, the oppositions of these thresholds are illustrated.