Les maisons d’oiseaux ottomanes comme canal d’échanges interculturels entre l’Est et l’Ouest de la Méditerranée au XVIIIe siècle

From the earliest examples designed by Pacello da Mercogliano for the French court, aviaries, have provided a novel platform for experimentation within the culture of Western architecture since the early sixteenth century. As Natsumi Nonaka observes, this architectural typology proved particularly fruitful for the development of ogival roofs—an element distinctly new and imbued with an oriental character. This architectural innovation traversed a long journey from the eastern shores of the Mediterranean to France, coinciding with the historical context of the alliance between Francis I and Suleiman the Magnificent. While Italian and French architects were incorporating this element to formulate a typology of buildings that evoked strong references to the Eastern world, their Ottoman counterparts engaged in a parallel process of assimilating Baroque forms, notably through birdhouses. The extent to which these birdhouses reflect Western architectural and artistic influences has yet to be the subject of systematic scholarly investigation. This study seeks to analyze how eighteenth-century birdhouses in Istanbul exemplify the peculiar Ottoman cultural synthesis, highlighting their ties to the Western architectural traditions. Beyond architecture, connections with sculpture and furniture design are also explored, investigating the adoption and reinterpretation of specific stylistic features of Italian and French origin. Starting from the birdhouses, these novelties were subsequently incorporated into broader, human-scale architectural works. Among these features are the undulation of walls, the use of architectural orders on façades, and the revival of ogival roofs within Ottoman architectural culture, reimagined through the lens of the avian microstructures. By examining these elements, this study sheds light on the intricate cross-cultural exchanges that shaped architectural and artistic practices across the Mediterranean basin during the early modern period.