VIRTUAL ISTANBUL HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

Contemporary sacred architecture inherits more than physical form; it inherits typological expectations through which publics recognize a building as part of a cultural and religious lineage. This paper examines how that recognition changes when mosque architecture departs from inherited vocabularies of dome, minaret, prayer space, atmosphere, and collective memory. Rather than treating heritage as object-based continuity, it asks how heritage remains legible, or contested, through public language. Drawing on Place Identity theory and digital heritage research, the paper proposes a continuity-distinctiveness tension model. Innovation remains legible when novelty is absorbed into typological memory. When novelty exceeds this threshold, public engagement may shift from affective-experiential language to cognitive-categorical language, conceptualized as discursive displacement. The study analyzes 243 validated online comments, reviews, and forum posts on six mosques across Turkey, Malaysia, and Thailand, ranging from vernacular and Ottoman continuity to modern nation-building, diasporic hybridity, and radical rupture. A theory-driven lexicon-based discourse analysis, supported by Key Word in Context validation, operationalizes two measures: Affective Salience, indexing atmosphere, spirituality, emotion, and material experience; and Identity Salience, indexing history, typology, culture, modernity, and classification. Findings suggest that radical rupture attracts lower affective density and discourse marked by comparison, debate, and attempts to define what the building is. By contrast, vernacular, hybrid, and nation-building cases sustain stronger heritage, atmospheric, or integrated registers. The paper treats digital public discourse not as generic sentiment, but as evidence of intangible heritage negotiation. It argues that sacred urban futures depend on how architectural innovation remains readable within, or productively unsettles, inherited cultural memory.