Selahattin Ökten Soap Factory in Antakya and an Evaluation on Soap Factory Plan Typology

Abstract

The chemistry of primitive soaps made with herbal and animal products has been developed by many inventions and various methods. Over time, soap making has become an industrial sector. The most preferred raw material in the soap industry is olive oil. Therefore, soap production has also come to the fore in the centers where olive trees are grown. In addition, as it is understood from various documents, soap factories were built in such centers like İzmir, Urla, Ayvalık, Edremit, Burhaniye, Havran, Ayvacık, Antakya, Gaziantep, Nizip, Kilis and Birecik in the 19th century. Among these centers, Antakya has an important share in soap production. It is known from various sources that there have been lots of soap factories in Antakya. The Selahattin Ökten Soap Factory is one of those factories that survived to the present. The aims of this article are: the first is to introduce the architecturaland functional features of Selahattin Ökten Soap Factory which belongs to the second half of the 19th century, and the second is to reveal a plan typology together with the soap factories identified in other soap centers. For this purpose, general evaluations of the characteristics of each typology were made and exemplified. The place of Selahattin Ökten Soap Factory in this typology has been determined. As a result, it has been explained that although soap factories have similar features, they have differences in terms of plan typology and architectural features.

Keywords

• soap
• soap industry
• soap factory typology
• antakya