Architecture and Intertextuality: Intertextual Traces in the Kasimpasa Salt Warehouse

Abstract

Intertextuality is built on the idea that texts exist through various relations they establish with previously written texts, and is concerned with the exploration and interpretation of the network of relations between earlier and later texts. Although intertextuality is generally used to refer to the relations between literary texts, it is possible to use the term in the field of architecture. This study argues that architecture is a form of intertextual production which contains intertextual methods. The main aim of this study is to show that intertextual methods can serve as a tool for reading architectural structures, and thus to create a resource for intertextual architectural readings. The study thereby seeks to bring forward possible discussions on 'intertextuality in architectural production. Thus, the study discusses architectural production within the framework of theoretical research on intertextuality and the methodology of intertextual architecture readings. It is safe to say that with this aspect, the study is a re-reading and interpreting attempt. The scope of the study covers restored historic buildings in which the relations between the earlier and later forms are indisputable. The refunctionalization of historic buildings, which undergo a restoration process in an infinite set of meaning patterns, ensures the maintenance of historical continuity and cultural values. This process allows the reproduction of structural, spatial and functional solutions and references in a new fashion, which are derived from the past and adapted to the current usage. This process and formation leave intertextual traces in buildings. The Kasunpasa Salt Warehouse was used to illustrate intertextual traces in buildings. The warehouse represents all forms of intertextual methods, which are associated with architecture. Thus, this study is a result of the attempt to explore, relate and make sense of intertextual traces in architectural production.