IRCICA undertakes a multiple range of activities, including educational programs and field studies, relating to the registration, preservation, promotion and use of architectural heritage in the Muslim world. One of the priority themes of these activities is traditional/vernacular architecture. Within this framework, the program of workshops and field studies titled “Preservation of Traditional Vernacular Architecture and Carrying It to the Future” was conducted by IRCICA’s Architectural Heritage Section in collaboration with Abdullah Gül University (Kayseri), Istanbul Technical University, Gazi University (Ankara), and the University of Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, on 26 July-2 August 2025. The program emphasized the questions of documentation, evaluation, preservation and re-use of traditional housing architecture with focus on the construction techniques and materials of three stone and adobe buildings in the Develi region of Kayseri dating at east one hundred years, which were designated for the purpose by the Municipality of Develi.
Professors from the partner universities who joined the teaching staff, accompanied by their students and graduate students, were Prof. Burak Asiliskender, Dean of the Faculty of Architecture, and Assoc. Prof. Buket Metin from Abdullah Gül University Prof. Nerman Rustempašić and Prof. Amir Čausević from the University of Sarajevo; Assoc. Prof. Ömer Dabanlı and Assoc. Prof. Lana Kuduović from Istanbul Technical University; Assoc. Prof. Ammar İbrahimgil from Gazi University; Dr. Alidost Ertuğrul, Chief of the Architectural Heritage Section, IRCICA. A total of twenty students and seven graduate assistants participated in the program. The resulting documentation and recommendations will be compiled by IRCICA in a booklet.
The Centre will continue to organize international programs with regional focuses to underline vernacular architecture in the Muslim world as heritage to be preserved and possibly re-used or emulated in combination with the latest materials and techniques.
