Turkish Architecture: in the republican era and after

TURKISH ARCHITECTURE IN THE REPUBLICAN ERA AND AFTER

TIMELINE 1st National Architecture Movement Foreign Architects of the Young Republic The New Approach Towards the Contemporary Movements 2nd National Architecture Movement The 1950's and Modernism 1960’s 1970's up to the Present

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND In the 19th century the strengthened nationalist movements in Europe brought Ottoman Empire to its unavoidable end. As the European communites have broken away from the Empire one by one, the Ottoman intellectuals expecting remedy from Islamic solidarity, or Panislamism, turned their faces to East. Therefore, the 19th century and early 20th century were the period of Ottoman-Islam synthesis.

However, after the Arabian countries' break away from the Empire, it would be understood with deception that the Panislamism was not the remedy either. The following movement would be Panturkism and the remedy would be sought in "back to the origin". In lieu of religious bounds, Nationalism was in the foreground from then on. Reflections and influences of all these social and political developments can be seen in the architectural movements of the time.

THE SEARCH FOR IDENTITY:

I. NATIONAL ARCHITECTURAL MOVEMENT The trend towards nationalism that followed the proclamation in 1908 of the 2nd Constitution brought about new research in architecture. In Turkish architecture, the period known as Neoclassic Turkish Style or a National Renaissance in Architecture, which began at this time, was headed by the architects Kemalettin Bey and Vedat Bey. Later, during the 1970s, this style became known as the First National Style. This new form of architecture tended to use a great number of the decorative features found in classic Seljuk-Ottoman architecture. Efforts were made through a revival of classic Turkish architecture in the buildings of this period to create an architectural Renaissance or Turkish national architecture. In architecture, this trend towards so-called nationalist style was more an attempt to implement the use of the wide eaves, domes, pointed arches, pillars, overhangs, triangular stalactite-like capitals (mukarnas) and tiled facing found in the old religious buildings. This style was predominately used in public works and did not really affect residential-building.

The pioneers of this movement, the architects Kemalettin Bey, Vedat Tek, Arif Hikmet Koyunoglu and the Italian architect Giulio Mongeri tried to rid architecture in Turkey of foreign influences and choose local styles Their efforts had a great effect on building, not only in the last period of the Ottoman Empire but also during the first years of the Republic. In architecture attempts were made to create a new kind of architecture which, in place of the Islamic-Ottoman features used during the previous period, would this time use details from Seljuk-Ottoman architecture. These attempts may be interpreted as a return to classic Ottoman architecture.

The First National Architecture could not keep pace with new technology or meet the requirements of the new age so remained a movement which in style was remote, selective, sensitive, formalized and academic.

Büyük Postane İstanbul, 1909 Vedat Tek

IV. Vak覺f Han 襤stanbul, 1911-26 Mimar Kemalettin

Ankara Palas Ankara, 1924- 27 Vedat Tek Kemalettin Bey

Ziraat Bankas覺 Ankara, 1926-29 Giulio Mongeri

FOREING ARCHITECTS OF THE YOUNG REPUBLIC Building requirements increased rapidly particularly in the new capital, Ankara. There were not enough architects to meet these needs so after 1927 a new period began when the hegemony of foreign architects predominated. . Architects such as Clemens Holzmeister, Ernst Egli, Theodor Jost, Hermann Jansen, Martin Wagner, Martin Elsaesser, Bruno Taut, and R. Oerley, who took up posts in Turkey as teachers, consultants, planners and implementers, influenced the architecture of the Republic through their own personal leanings. During this period it was the Viennese school of European architecture, in particular, with its monumental traditional form of neo-classicism that was imported and became the dominant influence on Turkish architecture. Symmetric design, refined decoration, symmetric facades with plain lines, a rhythmic arrangement of windows, flat or concealed curved roofs, monumental staircases, pillared entrances or pillars rising several storeys up the fronts of buildings are among the characteristic features of this period. This becomes a public statement of the monumental concepts and authority of the Government.

Bruno Taut Evi İstanbul, 1938 Bruno Taut

THE NEW APPROACH TOWARDS THE CONTEMPORARY MOVEMENTS Pioneering thought in the West which centred on Bauhaus and CIAM was not slow in coming to Turkey. In the 1930's some Turkish architects followed the contemporary International Style closely, and for about ten years constructed buildings which followed the Western trends of cubism and the use of reinforced concrete.

Florya Deniz Köşkü İstanbul, 1934 Seyfi Arkan

A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON NATIONAL ARCHITECTURE:

2ND NATIONAL ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT Following a period of approximately ten years (1930-1940) during which attempts were made to keep pace with positive trends in world architecture, a reaction against the hegemony of foreign architects, which had been going on since 1927, caused a trend towards a new national architecture to begin. This return to tradition was influenced by the Fascist movement in Italy and the rise of National Socialism in Germany with their totalitarian ideas. The new trend, which aimed to create a new national architecture, influenced architecture in Turkey between 1935 and 1950. The movement, so called the Second National Architecture, aimed at finding and using traditional features in its architectural style. The pioneer architects of this movement were Sedad Hakk覺 Eldem, Emin Onat and Paul Bonatz. Especially Sedad H. Eldem was influential in creating a rational basis for this style through his work at the Academy of Fine Arts in establishing a seminar under the name of the National Architect Seminar which devoted itself to the study of traditional civil architecture in Turkey. The separatist understanding of the totalitarian regimes of the time which took over in countries such as Russia, Germany and Italy had a role in these nationalistic ideas. Moreover, the architects Kemalettin Bey and Vedat Bey were a source of new strength to this movement which had never been entirely extinguished. However, in this new phase, the preference was for the use of simple features from the domestic architecture of the past rather than the religious type of detail which had been used by the First National Architecture. Relying on producing the essence of these, importance was giving to symmetry, stone faced facades, and a monumental effect.

This style lasted until the 1950's. It ended when it became necessary to keep up with the new developments and requirements in technology, in other words, with contemporary ideas about architecture.

An覺tkabir Ankara,1942-53 Emin Onat

Ankara Fen Fak羹ltesi Ankara, 1945 Sedad Hakk覺 Eldem

Taşlık Kahvesi İstanbul, 1947–48 Sedad Hakkı Eldem

Opera Binas覺 Ankara,1948 Paul Bonatz

THE 1950’S AND MODERNISM During the 1950s Turkish Architecture came under the influence of Modern Architecture which was spreading through Europe and the USA at the time. Buildings of this period show a tendency towards rationalism. World War II was over and politically and socially Turkey was turning more and more towards the West.

In Turkish architecture, the 1950s was a period of universal rationalism, influenced and fed by foreign publications, without regard to technological, economic, social or environmental factors.

This approach, mainly through experiments with Western forms, lasted until ideas changed in later years from geometric purism to organic form. World-wide known architects such as Rohe, Wright, Aalto, Le Corbusier, Niemeyer and Scharoun had through the publication of their thought and works a great influence on architects in Turkey. Rather than leading to experiments of an independent character in design and implementation, giving importance to local and environmental values, this led to an approximation with what was suitable in trends from Western sources. On the surface Modern Architecture seemed to have arrived in Turkey but the technological infrastructure was still lacking.

Hilton Oteli 襤stanbul, 1952 Sedad Hakk覺 Eldem

1960’S From rationalism, the Sixties became a time of search for flexible and more fragmented forms.

During this period the search for a rationalism which united with local requiremnts increased.

Atatürk Kültür Merkezi İstanbul, 1956-69 Hayati Tabanlıoğlu

1970’S UP TO THE PRESENT From the 1970s onwards examples of pluralism, affected by post modernism and foreign influences, become seen more often. Late Modernism and Post- Modernism which spread through the West in the 1970s, began to be accepted in Turkey between 1980 and 1990. Architects appeared who followed peak Western trends such as Late Modernism , Postmodernism and Deconstructivism In general due to economic and social turbulance, Turkish architecture could offer few solutions to the rapid but uneven population development and the cultural problems which ensued. The belated start of an industrial revolution as well as the extreme rapidity of population growth and migration to the cities, resulted in unplanned, disorganized, dense and confused urbanization. This affected the aesthetic value of cities where the chaotic appearance of urban areas in which unorganized building, lacking in either identity or character, prevails, with perhaps a few isolated good buildings as the exceptions.

Recently, in Turkey as in other countries, the negative effects of early globalization, which has led to an erosion of ethic values, has been seen in architecture. This has particularly affected touristic buildings but other fields share this conscious or unconscious experimentation which is creating architectural chaos.

TBMM Cami Kompleksi Ankara, 1990-92 Behruz Çinici

REFERENCES  www.arkitera.com  www.arkiv.com.tr  www.wikipedia.org  www.istanbulkulturenvanteri.gov.tr  www.envanter.gov.tr  www.mo.org.tr  www.mimarlikmuzesi.org  www.degisti.com

Suzan İdil Şaşmaz

Nazlı Caymaz