Tourism-led adaptive reuse of the built vernacular heritage: A critical assessment of the transformation of historic neighbourhoods in Cappadocia, Turkey

Abstract

Since the last quarter of the twentieth century, increased tourism in traditional settlements have led to the adaptive reuse of built vernacular heritage to serve the tourism industry. The adaptive reuse of historic buildings is considered a conservation strategy and an alternative to new constructions in historic environments. Nevertheless, the adaptive reuse of built vernacular heritage and its socio-spatial impacts have not yet been sufficiently investigated. To fill the gap, this paper, focuses on Cappadocia, Turkey, where adaptive reuse of individual vernacular houses has recently paved the way for the transformation of an entire neighbourhood, the historic neighbourhood of Kayakapı, into a ‘holiday village.’ This study argues that traditional settlements and communities in Cappadocia have been subjected to ‘gentrification’ and so-called ‘Disneyfication.’ Such historic environments are facing controversial physical interventions, detached from local communities and devoted to a single function, namely tourism, becoming ‘stereotypical and depersonalised.’ The study further argues that the current situation is incompatible with international heritage and conservation policies. Correspondingly, to reveal the potential conflicts, the recent revitalisation project of the historic neighbourhood of Kayakapı in Cappadocia is examined as a case study.