Migrating Spaces (2012 – 2016)
There are houses in Turkey that are somehow German, but Turkish too. These photographies show different types of houses built by returned migrants
Gabled roofs, apricot-coloured rough plastering and apple trees in the garden – if there wasn’t such humidity hanging in the air, if the surrounding area wasn’t so scrubby and overdeveloped, one might think one was on the edge of a medium-sized German city. Over the decades, the ‘Almancı’, returned Turkish former guest workers, have become part of German culture. Back in Turkey, they use all their knowledge and savings to realise their dream of their own home, based on a German model, which they often built with their own hands and without an architect.
Remigration architecture is homonymic as a form of social experience. They correspond to different spatial-social experiences that express expectations of future life in Turkey, transfer influences from life in Germany, architecture and interiors and translate memories from one’s own childhood in Turkey. Historical models and house forms play no role here. They translate and take with them ideas and concepts from their own perspective: the presence of what they have seen and experienced during their own lifetime in Germany.
There are three main types:
l . The model house, which refers back to a fixed image in appearance and design, an image which is the basis for a concrete idea at the beginning of the construction project and is usually built within a specific timeframe.
2. The ‚two-faced‘ house, which has been built on the one hand in a German and on the other a local, standard Turkish way, with two equal parts that are visibly separated from each other.
3. The multi-layer house, which has been built over many years, usually by the owner themselves during holiday periods, and the construction process of which is reflected in different construction styles and German construction material.
