Assessing the Afyonkarahisar Millet Hamam in the Context of Reuse Adaptation and Sociocultural Sustainability

An adaptation action to re-use has social, cultural, economic,and ecological benefits. When re-use is being analyzed withthe sustainability concept, it can be said that the contributionlevel especially to social and cultural sustainability of the newfunction would be high in sustainability of function and also inensuring continuity of the building’s life. We performed a spacestudy on the historic Millet Hamam in Afyonkarahisar city centerto investigate the contributions of the cultural entity, whichhas been adapted to reuse as a district and cultural home, tosocial and cultural sustainability. In this study, the componentsof social and cultural sustainability are defined undertwo main titles as (i) social, cultural, communal componentsand (ii) components related to adaptation to the building andthe new function. Survey, observation and interview processeswere used. The contribution of the new function to social andcultural sustainability was analyzed using surveys applied tothe users of the district and cultural home. The results wereimported as indicating the success level related to the social,cultural and communal components and adaptation to reusecomponents. With this study, we show the practical benefits ofalternative use for the baths (hamams) in Anatolia, which canno longer serve their original purpose.