An Evaluation of the Rural Landscapes as Heritage from Habitus Perspective

Rural heritage areas consist of natural and built environments produced concerning local and traditional life practices, production-consumption habits, and intangible values of societies. This environment is created vernacularly using local materials and construction techniques due to the topographical features where it is built and is in contact with local users. For this reason, it is valuable to explain the meaning of vernacular architecture to understand its users and the habitus that emerges from it. Historical rural settlements, which have found their place in conservation theories over time, attract attention with their traditional and vernacular architecture. These areas, called “rural landscape as heritage” by definition developed by ICOMOS-IFLA, are accepted as a whole with their tangible and intangible components such as natural, archaeological, and architectural. Today, plenty of research is about integrated conservation issues of rural landscape heritages. The study, differently from theirs, plans to discuss the rural landscapes through habitus. It is possible to interpret the vernacular architecture produced in rural landscapes by understanding its user and the habitus in which it emerges. Moreover, there is a dynamic link between the traditional rural areas and the habitus of societies that produce and are produced by their daily lifestyles, traditions, collective memories, and histories. The habitus, which is always transformed, begins to adapt its environment to the change by this link. In this changing process, effects such as industrialization, technological developments, and globalization threaten rural landscapes to lose their authentic values. The first step in the conservation of rural landscapes lies in understanding these areas and their values and making change predictable. From this point of view, this study questions the role of habitus in the formation and life cycle of rural heritage. The research and the hypothesis created aim to contribute to the studies about sustainable living in rural landscapes by revealing the structuring effect of the habitus between the rural landscapes and their natural, built, and socio-cultural environments. In the study, the method developed from the literature to understand rural landscapes and their dynamics without studying the case is presented for use in rural landscape heritage conservation studies. Habitus connects the natural, tangible, and intangible components of rural landscapes by the balance it creates and contributes to the formation and maintenance of the spirit of place. In order to understand this balance and draw attention to holistic conservation approaches, the network of relations has been tried to be revealed in detail. Within the scope of the study, the definition of habitus was explained through the environment and practices, and its relationship with the rural landscape was conveyed through a single structure and settlement. The transition of living heritage is inevitable, but when it cannot be managed according to international regulations, the consequences will be the loss of rural heritage, which represents societies’ traditional lifestyles. The proposed approach needs to be customized and re-estab-lished for each different rural landscape heritage site. Because each heritage site is unique and has its own conservation problems. It is critical to raise awareness about the effects of habitus change in rural landscapes and their management and to emphasize the importance of creating resilient rural heritage areas that can accom-pany change by preserving authentic values.