Temelli (Samutlu) Model Village |
Model Villages and Temelli Model Village
The "Model Villages" built at the time of the Exchange of Populations generally consisted of a grid plan with a central village square, school, mosque, gendarmerie and guest house, and parallel streets with houses set in gardens. The villages were built with a total number of 50 housing units to keep a check on the population by number of households, the size of the administration unit and the building plan of the houses. "Samutlu Model Village", built for Bulgarian exchangees, is an interesting prototype that looks like a smaller version of the circular-plan "Ideal Republican Village" said to have been designed by General Kazım Dirik in the 1940s for Bulgarian migrants in Thrace, published by the Chief Inspectorate of Thrace, and of which many examples are known to have been implemented.