Spatial Sustanability of Intangible Cultural Heritage: Production, Representation, and Visitor Interaction in the Odunpazari Glass Workshops

Abstract

The present study investigates the spatial characteristics of craft practice in glass workshops and the contribution of interior design to the cultural tourism experience in a row of historic towns in Eskişehir known as Odunpazarı. In my view, craft workshops are production sites rather than hybrid spaces that mix production, experience, and narrative. This study, which follows a comparative case study design, is specifically crafted around three active glass workshops in Odunpazarı, Eskişehir, Turkey. Supplementing the previous qualitative research framework, data collection included on-site observation, photography, and spatial analysis of the workshops. They were then considered in terms of their spatial organisation, production visibility, thresholds, sensory qualities, and the producer-to-visitor interaction model. The analysis demonstrates that the workshops differ from one another not because of their common regional background, but because each workshop has its own spatial logics: participatory/porous; institutional/pedagogical; and domestic/memory-oriented. The positioning of the workbenches, the circulation routes, and the proximity or distance of the materials to each other turn the craft practice into a site where visitors can observe a performance space for technical practice. It demonstrates that the sensory qualities of the space, such as heat, light, and sound, are part and parcel of shaping visitors' experience with authenticity. In modern life, interior design contributes significantly to the continuity of crafts and transfers cultural heritage from one generation to another. The workshop's spatial organization is a cultural interface between local identity and the global tourism economy. To maintain traditional techniques, it is critical to find spatial environments where crafts can be displayed as living know-how.