CIPA 2003 XIX th International Symposium, 30 September - 04 October, 2003, Antalya, Turkey 
As no major architectural changes on the outside and the 
character of the building had been strived for, basic restoration- 
permission was given by the authorities of the local protection 
board. The concept of saving as much of the traditional building 
and its particular character as possible and combine it with 
actual modern functions caused many stages of compromises 
which all had to be balanced very sensibly. Even though most of 
the cave-dwelling dates back to early Byzantine times, many 
rooms are now connected to the internet and have modern, but 
carefully designed bathrooms and invisible under-floor heating 
systems. 
As the slowly growing restoration process continues, many 
variations have been discussed with specialists, revised and 
sometimes even rejected. The experience on the site shows, that 
an „organic“ approach to restoration was needed to find 
optimal, and in many ways, multifunctional solutions for the 
site. Most of the details and complex contexts only became 
obvious during the time of bringing the place back to life. 
Therefore many aspects, which had been by no means clear at 
the beginning of the restoration process, could be taken into 
consideration during the restoration process. This method of 
“organic restoration” is also an aspect of the traditional 
vernacular way of the nonarchitectural building history in 
Cappadocia, which developed considering the spatial needs of 
the local population and regional resources. 
4. RECORDING AND MONITORING OF THE 
ENVIRONMENT 
4.1. Photography 
As the author also documented the area of Cappadocia in visual 
ways for twenty years, he built up a negative-archive on clear 
defined objects within the village of Goreme and surrounding 
areas. The rapid changes of housing and building style became 
obvious by comparing photographs from the same positions, but 
from different time periods. With the use of computers, 
scanners and digital cameras, a visual database had been created 
to be able to search for specific headwords. The aim is to extend 
this visual database and even cross contact with other archives 
of regional photography in the future. 
Example of a vernacular cave-dwelling site in change. 
Goreme, 1984 
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Example of a vernacular cave-dwelling site in change. 
Goreme, 1990 
4.2. Plans and Survey 
The general area of Cappadocia’s villages and surroundings is 
surveyed and documented in ground plans of different 
measurements via the land registry office. Scientific work and 
research was done mainly in the beginning of the 1970’s to 
document the general area in terms of nature, geology and art 
history. Older works concentrated on Byzantine art and the 
documentation of cave-churches and the multiple frescos of the 
region. Of course, architectural surveys and detailed plans have 
been worked out by numerous architects in Cappadocia for 
individual building projects, most of them related to tourism. 
4.3. Ethnographic Documentation and Oral History 
The author’s interest as a cultural anthropologist is also the 
ethnographic documentation of objects of traditional use. With 
the methods of museology an ethnographic database had been 
developed to record different, more or less „valuable” objects 
from the local village. This includes all kind of materials and in 
particular the „oral history” recordings related to the objects. 
This database is just the beginning of a bigger approach of a 
recording, which could include other samples of the 
development of local and traditional architecture as well. This 
can provide a clearer definition of resources, local knowledge 
and historic values. 
4.4. CD-Rom 
A further result of Cappadocia Academy’s „platform c” 
activities was a cooperation project with historians, 
anthropologists, geologists and multimedia specialists to 
prepare a scientifically well-founded CD-Rom on Cappadocia 
to provide interested people with some basic information on the 
area and multiple animated panoramic views. The CD will be 
published at the end of 2003 by www.mediacultura.de. 
4.5. Modern Technology 
As most of the recent monitoring and projects related to this 
field were done with more or less „classical” methods, major 
focus must be laid on the use of new technologies for 
documenting processes in Cappadocia. Rapid development in 
computer technology and digital processes like photogrammetry 
and its related fields provide new chances of documenting, 
preservation and restoration of endangered architectural 
monuments. This should include the documentation of selected