Since most of Gökçeada is a protected area, construction is kept under control. Architectural projects for old settlements must be prepared in accordance with the local texture and must be approved by the Board of Monuments.
Greek villages are the most striking places in terms of architecture. Stone houses, cobblestone streets, churches, laundries, squares where coffee and various shops are gathered form the architectural texture of the villages. Greek houses were generally built from natural stones extracted from the island, using the soil as mortar (masonry technique). In some buildings, it is seen that the mortar-free, dry stone wall technique is skillfully applied. There are also masonry houses where wood and stone are used together. In the gardens of the houses, there are definitely stone hearths. In houses built with a rectangular plan and tile roofs, it is an ancient tradition unique to the island to lay small stones on the tiles so that they do not blow away from the wind.
The lower floors of the houses, which generally have courtyards and two floors, were once used as animal shelters to benefit from the heat of the animals. Since life in Greeks takes place in front of the house rather than inside the house, in vineyards and gardens, much attention was not paid to interior spaces. The streets are arranged taking into account the distance that two loaded mules can cross side by side. There is at least one laundry and a church in each village. It is observed that school buildings established at the beginning of the 20th century were generally built next to churches.
Apart from the houses in the villages, there are country houses called dams on the island. These are sometimes found alone and sometimes collectively. Dams are simple and primitive structures built by the peasants dealing with the land to stay for a long time in the summer and use them for warehouse purposes. Most of them are not used today.
Settlement in Gökçeada was provided to Turkish villages that migrated from Anatolia since 1947. For this, 5 villages were built at different times. There are no striking features in the architecture of village houses, all of which are of the same type. Most of them are used as hostels in recent years.
Laundries Gökçeada has a laundry tradition from a time when the water had not yet flowed inside the houses. Laundries, places where laundry is washed collectively.
In the past, every village used to have a special laundry day in Gökçeada. The women of the village used to spend this day in a picnic mood with the food they brought from home.
Generally, laundries built where there are fountains, simple structures with wooden roofs and no doors. There are stoves, water channels and solid stones on which the laundry is beaten. In some villages, there are more than one and very large ones are also found. The largest is in Dereköy.
Monasteries Gökçeada draws attention in terms of the number of religious buildings. Small churches, popularly called monasteries, can suddenly appear on the top of a mountain, in a virgin bay or in the middle of a forest. Orthodox Greek islanders, who were under Catholic pressure at the time, are thought to set up monasteries in such deserted spots in order to continue their worship comfortably. Monasteries are simple, small and generally painted in white. Architecturally they are similar to each other. There are only icons of Christ and the Virgin Mary, wooden seats. Monasteries are built in the name of different saints in order to protect them from various dangers or to bring abundance. The locks of the doors are kept because they belong to the individual. There is a responsible family for each monastery. They take care of the cleaning and maintenance of the monastery. It is said that there are 360 churches and monasteries in Gökçeada and only 7 churches and 50 monasteries are used today.
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