Turkey’s 300-year-old ‘eco-mansions’

It was a sunny June morning when I arrived in the historic city of Safranbolu in northern Turkey. The former Ottoman town was abuzz with life – an old caravanserai was welcoming new guests and alluring boutiques were selling everything from handmade soaps to saffron-flavoured lokum (a Turkish dessert). Yet, what caught my eye were the hundreds of timber-laced mansions that dotted the town’s quaint alleyways. With gleaming white stone facades, red-gabled roofs and brown casement windows, they looked straight out of a fairy tale.

Nestled deep within the Karabuk province of Turkey’s Black Sea region, Safranbolu was an important caravan stop along the Silk Road, the ancient trading route between China and the West. The city was known for its burgeoning saffron trade and became a prominent Ottoman town in the 18th Century, its cobbled streets chock-full of mosques, hammamsand these traditional Turkish mansions called konaklar (singular, konak).

Today, there are more than 2,000 Ottoman-era konaklar in Safranbolu. Many are home to locals, while others have been transformed into boutique hotels, restaurants, cafes and museums. Not only are they beautiful to look at, but these konaklar are outstanding examples of sustainable architecture and socially responsible building design. However, while their importance saw the city inscribed on the Unesco World Heritage list in 1994, many people outside Turkey still remain oblivious to their existence.

I chanced upon the city serendipitously while leafing through a local travel brochure in Istanbul. The picturesque houses kept beckoning to me until I decided to take a train, a bus and a taxi to get to Safranbolu, located about 400km north-east of Istanbul. By the time I arrived, it was past noon and the day was getting hot. However, as soon as I stepped into Çamlıca Konağı, a 300-year-old konak-turned-boutique hotel that has been welcoming guests for the past six years, I felt cool air sweep over me. It was almost as if the air conditioning had been switched on – except there was no AC in sight, only the plain stone walls of the hallway.

“Safranbolu houses are designed to keep you cool in summer and warm in winter,” explained owner Özlem Özen, welcoming me to my home for the next two days with a smile.

Safranbolu has a unique topography and climate. The Old Town is located on the slopes of a deep ravine. Summers are balmy and clear, whereas winters are cold and snowy. Çamlıca Konağı, like hundreds of other Safranbolu konaklar, is perfectly designed to adapt to these temperature variations.

“Our homes are made with locally sourced wood and stone that provide excellent thermal insulation across seasons, without harming the environment,” said Fatih Dökmeci, a local architect who has restored more than 100 konaklar in Safranbolu, including Çamlıca Konağı, over the last 20 years.

As I walked through the wide stone hallway of Çamlıca Konağı and climbed the wooden stairs to my spacious suite on the first floor, I was surprised by how well ventilated the entire mansion was, even in the middle of a hot summer’s day. The sofa room – a central hall that connected all other rooms on the first floor – was especially airy and comfortable.

“The sofa rooms of all Safranbolu mansions widely use cumba architecture, a traditional Ottoman design used to achieve increased natural ventilation and lighting,” Dökmeci explained. A cumba is an added extension of the room on an upper floor that is fitted with windows on one or more sides. This structure allows air to flow from all directions and therefore makes the sofa room cooler than the rest of the house. “In summers, no doubt, you’ll find all of us in the sofa,” Özen noted with a smile.

BBC