The emergence of Mediterraneanism discourse in modern Turkish architecture and the special position of Cengiz Bektaş (original) (raw)
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The study of medieval and early modern architecture located in Anatolia, from the Byzantine to the Ottoman Period, has focused on the region as a landmass, marked by mountains, rivers, and steppes. Defined in geographical texts of the Islamic world as Lands of Rūm (Bilād al-Rūm) and understood as a frontier region between various polities and empires, as well as between Christianity and Islam, the region and its buildings emerge from the literature as solidly tied to land, connected through trade routes overland through Iran, Central Asia, and all the way to China. At the same time, attention to trade and its routes can help shift the narrative towards the sea, and a better understanding of Anatolia in a Mediterranean context. Major ports existed in Alanya and Sinop; new ports were created in Balat-Miletus and Ayasuluk-Selçuk-Ephesus, to replace silted-up antique ones. While these facts, and their impact on the economic and cultural setting of individual sites, have been studied, a synthetic approach to the question of what it means to conceive of Anatolia as a Mediterranean region is yet to be endeavored.
A Mediterranean Lesson for Contemporary Architecture
ATHENS JOURNAL OF MEDITERRANEAN STUDIES
Mediterranean landscape has been a great muse for artists of all ages. During the XX century, architects used the Sea-and the land lapped by the sea-as a reservoir of ancient knowledge, using the journey as a tool in a fluid experimentation laboratory in which new ideas about spaces, forms and sites were born. In this paper, I aim to discuss the XX century's Mediterranean lesson in Architecture, following the journeys of Gunnar
Learning from L’Architecture d’aujord’hui: A way of designing a modern for the 1950s’ Ankara
Reactive Proactive Architecture, 2018
Revivalist attitudes in architecture began to be outdated in Turkey from the end of the 1940s, and modern approaches were becoming the ongoing architectural trend during the 1950s. In a period, when the country was open to political, economic and cultural reforms from the impetus gained by the developments of being part of the West since the end of the Second World War, Turkish architects were strongly influenced by the International Style, and they simultaneously gave iconic examples of Turkish modernism of the 1950s. In this context, this study aims to discuss the reasons for the widening impact of the International Style then in Turkey, and Turkish architects’ sources of inspiration. Having analyzed the current literature, this paper examines the mediation, which an international magazine (i.e. L’Architecture d’Aujord’hui) establishes in the dissemination of modern language in architecture, through one of the early works of Turkish architect Nejat Ersin (1924-2010).
MODERN ARCHITECTURE AND MEDITERRANEAN CONTEXT
CAUMME 2012, Global Impacts and Local Challenges, Proceedings, 2012
The modern way of living alienated us from natural environment, cultural, historical and traditional heritage as well from other people. Contemporary materialistic spirit and way of living imposed a sense of existence and had an essential impact on the architecture. This sequence of events had a series of consequences that we feel with more and more intensity, and then we become aware of the necessity of a change in thinking and behavior. Construction in accordance with the immediate and present context minimizes negative impacts on the environment which becomes imperative to explore and should seek for. Maturation of the idea of harmonious and sustainable building is possible through a research of the traditional construction in the past with modern treatment and positive findings from the present. With its appearance modern architecture has brought revolutionary changes in the understanding of what house should provide to the user by insisting on transparency, sunshine, open plan, organization and orientation of space. Quality achievements of modern architecture in many cases lean on purity of forming, rationalism and functionality of vernacular traditions of the Mediterranean. According to stated facts, contextualization of contemporary architecture in the Mediterranean can be based on the philosophy of modern design with compliance of the all specifics of every particular location followed by principles of ecological sustainability. The paper use studies of relevant authors and thoughts of famous architects to affirm contextual thinking and find their establishments in a numerous of recent examples some of which are presented in this study.
Geographical Imaginations of the Mediterranean Along Dichotomies of East-West/North-South
Marmara University Journal of Political Science, 2018
This article endeavours to analyse the European and Turkish discourses regarding the concept of the " Mediterranean " and its variations both in temporal and spatial terms. The theoretical inspiration of this article comes from the " geographical imagination as a way of thinking about world politics and considering the relative importance of places and the relationships between contested narratives of a specific region or territory ". Hence this study will examine different geographical imaginations of the Mediterranean region that are projected onto both Turkish and European political discourse. The perspective which is engaged here involves the historical geography, or geosophy put forward by J. K. Wright (1946) who assumed that geographical knowledge is not only a knowledge of physical characteristics and natural resources, but is also something being defined and redefined by the political imagination of the perceiver. So in this article a " geosophical " perspective will be applied to the Mediterranean region that plays both a historical and strategic role in Euro-Turkish relations. Öz Bu makalede Avrupa Birliği ve Türkiye'nin siyasal söyleminde " Akdeniz " kavramı mekânsal ve tarihsel boyutlarıyla ele alınıyor. Makalenin teorik zemini dünya siyasetinde coğrafi imgelemin oynadığı rollerden ilham alıyor. Bir tahayyül olarak coğrafi anlatılar zaman zaman örtüşen zaman zaman çatışan eksenlerde karşımıza çıkabiliyor; makalede Akdeniz örneğine bakarak Avrupa ve Türk söyleminin bu bölgeyi nasıl tahayyül ettiği tarihsel ve siyasal anlatıların nerelerde çakışıp nerelerde birbirinden ayrıldığı konu edilmekte. Konuya yaklaşım şekli J.K Wright'in " jeozofi " olarak adlandırabileceğimiz perspektifinden güç alıyor. Jeozofik yaklaşım sayesinde coğrafi epistemolojinin sadece fiziksel ve doğal kaynaklardan ibaret olmadığı, insan tahayyülünün de coğrafi bilginin şekillendirici bir parçası olduğu tartışılıyor. Böylelikle AB – Türkiye ilişkilerinde önemli rol oynayan " Akdeniz " anlatısı ve bu bölgeye dair stratejiler iki farklı açıdan tartışmaya açılıyor.
2018
This session seeks to create a new understanding of the visualization and conceptualization of the architecture of the Orient and its introduction in architectural theory and practice in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, before the era that architectural historiography traditionally associates with Orientalism. The aim of this session is to improve our understanding of the ways in which eastern architecture was perceived, historicized, and conceptualized before a more generalized (if always problematic) notion of ‘oriental’ architecture emerged.
Mid-Century Modernism in Turkey
Mid-Century Modernism in Turkey, 2015
As the architectural modernism of the inter-war years spread well beyond its emergent locations after World War II, it was reproduced, transformed, and internationalized in the context of Cold War geopolitics and economics. Mediated through the flow of postwar aid and technical expertise, modernism became entangled with the politics of modernization, industrialization, urbanization, and the onset of decolonization. Distant and periphery lands-from Africa to Asia, from Latin America to the Middle East-became major experimentation sites for post-WWII modernism. Recent scholarship of the 1950s' and 1960s' architectural culture has brought into focus the significant attribute of postwar modernism across the globe in the context of an intellectual formation that has shifted not only research methods, but also sites where historians carry out their research. Shifting the lens from the work of "masters" and the canonical story of modern architecture to issues such as gender, race, economy, domesticity, politics, post-colonial histories of decolonization, nation building, and modernization has made it possible to illuminate modern trajectories in all their complexity and plurality. Such critical approaches have challenged the exclusive mainstream historiography of modern architecture. This book can be viewed as a contribution to contemporary studies that expand the confines of modernist production beyond what were viewed as its hubs, namely Western Europe and North America, by focusing on Turkey. 1 Following the global trajectory of modernism, this collection of essays ponders how architectural culture responded to ubiquitous postwar ideas and ideals, and how it became intertwined with the politics of modernization and urbanization, and with economics. Therefore, while providing a close reading of the era in the Turkish context, the book extends recent attempts to rethink and re-read postwar architectural culture and its global effects beyond simplistic, canonical, and ontological explanations, 2 while demonstrating the fluidity of architectural practices globally.
Architectural History of Mass Tourism in Turkey with the Lens of Mimarlık Journal (1963-1980)
Journal of Architecture and Life, 2021
Tourism began to grow into a global phenomenon in the post-World War II atmosphere of the 1950s. People in masses began to travel to new places. The tourist, package tour, (salaried) vacation, recreation, sightseeing, hotel chains, resort towns, etc. were all introduced throughout this period. Turkey, like other Mediterranean countries, gradually became a popular tourist destination for those seeking new leisure and travel experiences. This process raised new questions about how to turn the country into an appealing vacation destination, as well as how to profit from this new "industry." Mimarlık is the official journal of the Chamber of Architects in Turkey, published since 1963. In line with changing editorial policies over the decades, the journal presents a rich perspective on architectural history and its socio-political context. The lens of Mimarlık on tourism uncovers the complex history of large-scale spatial transformations that are not limited to the building scale. Tourism included opportunities for new architectural experiments and more confrontation with the international actors. The journal also provided a critical perspective on issues of public interest, environmental and archaeological heritage. Mainly, this study historicizes Turkey's tourism architecture via the lens of Mimarlık from its inception in 1963 until the late 1970s, using historical survey and critical analysis methods. A visual narration is also proposed using the journal's visual content.
Italian Architects and Builders in the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey: Design across Borders
This volume represents the first scholarly work in English devoted to the experience of Italian architects and builders in Turkey, as well as in many of the lands once belonging to the Ottoman Empire. Covering a complex cultural and political geography spanning from the Danubian principalities (today’s Romania) to Anatolia and the Aegean region, the book is the result of individual research experiences that were brought together and debated in an international conference in Istanbul in March 2013, organized in collaboration with the Italian Institute of Culture and Boğaziçi University. Grounded on a flexible notion of identitarian boundaries, the book explores a rich transcultural field of encounters and interactions, analyzed and evaluated by scholars from six different countries on the basis of hitherto uncovered archival materials. Forms, ideas, individual mobility of actors and materials, networks of patronage, material and political constraints, as well as religious and cultural difference all play a significant role in shaping the landscapes, buildings and architectural projects presented and discussed here. From late 18th and early 19th century experiences of interaction between neo-classical backgrounds and westernizing Ottoman forms to the Italian proposals for a Turkish republican iconic landmark like the Ataturk mausoleum in Ankara; from the design of the first Ottoman university building to Ottoman varieties of Art Nouveau and Art Deco, and to the infrastructures and urban developments of the 1950s in Turkey, the book is both a richly illustrated and documented overview of relevant cases, and a critical introduction to one of the most enticing areas of encounter in the global history of 19th and 20th century architecture and design.