Effect of life experiences on Houses: The Cypriot (Case /Culture)

Abstract

The cultural differences in architecture and the analysis of the relationship between culture and architecture have both gained great attention in the recent years. The island of Cyprus has been through many invasions and migrations since ancient ages. Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots formed the Republic of Cyprus which left behind a number of migration stories after the wars IN 1963 and 1974. The Green Line divided the island into two as north and south, and between the years of 1963 and 1974 nearly 500,000 people were forced to migrate across the island. Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, who lived through the difficulties of clashes, war and migration together but shared the same geography and nature, have been close neighbors for many years and adopted different aspects of the rich cultures of many nations that visited the island throughout history. This paper tries to analyse the structure of old Cypriot houses in the Arabahmet region of the Turkish Cypriot part and on Ledra Street in the Greek Cypriot part, and aims to highlight the similarities in Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot cultures, from an architectural point of view.