The Silent Faces of Kaleiçi: The Beginning of a Project on Unrestored Houses

Walking through the narrow streets of Kaleiçi, you sometimes hear an old breath lingering behind a door. Those houses with peeling paint, broken windows, and creaking staircases… For me, this project began with a pursuit of that very sound.

This work was born to document the quiet beauty of unrestored historic houses. Every crumbling wall reflects the resilience of the past; every peeling layer of paint bears the hand of time. These houses speak not to the gleaming face of modern Antalya, but to the profound silence of the past.

Today, many of them lie forgotten. Their doors are locked, their windows sealed with spiderwebs. But when I look through my camera's viewfinder, I still feel a warmth: perhaps the echo of children's laughter, perhaps the scent of the sea wafting through the window one morning.

The first step of my project focuses on the exteriors of these houses. Because the exterior is like the part of a character that can be read at first glance, cracked by time, faded by the sun, yet still standing. In the next step, I will delve into its interiors: the traces of life left behind the walls, the silence of the objects. And finally, I will juxtapose these silent witnesses with the restored and repurposed buildings.

This project is a way of bringing the past into the present. I want to remind you that it is possible to live without renewal, to reconcile with the past. Because sometimes, the most poignant beauty seeps through an unhealed crack.

The unrestored structures of Kaleiçi are not houses racing against time, but rather houses at peace with it. As they avoid modern interventions, their authenticity becomes even more apparent. Some of these houses still breathe with their inhabitants; others sit in a quiet state, ivy hanging from their windows.