**3. Morphology of Vernacular masonry structures in Adana-Tepebağ traditional houses**

In general, the traditional houses in Adana-Tepebağ were built in the nineteenth century up to two to three floors. The load bearing and timber frame system were used on the structures of those houses. Oriels and eaves were the architectural units of those houses.

In this chapter, the construction materials and construction techniques that were used in Adana-Tepebağ traditional house structures were examined.

#### **3.1 Building materials**

In the Adana-Tepebağ region, dry soil, stone, and timber were the primary construction materials in traditional buildings. The building materials were an essential step for getting the historical texture. Mainly timber was used in a vast area.

Stone, brick, and adobe were widely used as masonry wall materials and infill materials in historical structures in Adana.

The construction materials and their application areas were varied in historical buildings. The dry soil is used in flat roof structures to provide extra heat to the interior spaces. Stone material was used in basement wall structures identically used in Turkish house construction. And the timber was used on the upper floors as a frame system with infill of brick, stone, and adobe blocks for keeping the temperature in the interior space and providing a light structure for the upper floors against the seismic action. Besides this specification, the timber frame wall with infill materials provides airflow and prevents humidity inside the wall [4, 6].

*Morphology of the Vernacular Masonry Structure in Adana City and Its Qualitative Analysis… DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.108692*

### **3.2 Building techniques**

Three primary structural systems were used in traditional houses in the Adana region. The load-bearing system with stone or brick was widely used in these buildings (**Figure 4**). The second technique was timber frame with stone, brick, and adobe infill. Generally, brick was used for the infill material around the Tepebeğ region. The corners of the building were strengthened with timber bracing for the seismic actions. Besides, timber beams were passed inside the stone masonry walls to provide horizontal strength for the masonry structure. In last, "Bağdadi" was a construction system with a timber frame covered with timber lath and finished with plaster.

The traditional houses in Tepebağ were raised from the underground water with stone masonry, and after, brick masonry was knitted on a stone base. The brick masonry structures were supported with 80–90 cm timber beams on the outer walls. The timber lintels were placed on upper and lower parts of the window and the door openings. The masonry wall thickness of the ground floor was 60–65 cm (**Figure 5**).

The space between timber studs was 120, 200–250 cm, which was used to build timber frame walls with infill materials to support timber beams on the first and above floors of traditional Tepebağ house structures. The timber bracings were used on the corners of the timber walls to prevent collapse under seismic effects.

The timber beams inside the brick masonry walls were placed with a checker pattern. The general use of the timber beams was 8–10 cm. The dimension of the timber studs was 20–25 cm. The corner studs of the walls are thicker than others.

**Figure 4.** *The elevation of the traditional Adana-Tepebağ house [7].*

**Figure 5.** *The cross section of the traditional Adana-Tepebağ house [6].*

The roofs were designed as flat or hipped roofs with the use of dry soil or timber [4, 6]. The oriels were supported with 15–15 cm timber bracings, which were repeated with 80–100 cm space horizontal. The balconies were designed in half cantilevers with 100–150 cm lengths.
