Pınar Aykaç
Middle East Technical University, Architecture/ conservation, Faculty Member
- History, Architecture, Visual Studies, Cultural Heritage, Architectural History, Museum Studies, and 31 moreIstanbul, Heritage Conservation, Urban History, Urban Planning, Cultural Heritage Conservation, İSTANBUL KENT TARİHİ, Archaeology, History of Istanbul, Cultural Heritage Management, Urban Studies, Tourism Impacts, Constantinople, Urban Studies: Constantinople/Istanbul, Urban Transformation, European Capital of Culture, Late Antique Archaeology, London, Cultural Tourism, Byzantine Studies, History of Planning, Topography of Constantinople, Ottoman Archaeology, City and Regional Planning, History of Museums, Urban Geography, Environmental Preservation through Tourism, Byzantine Archaeology, Late Antiquity, Berlin, Mimarlık, and Urban Regenerationedit
The workshop aims to bridge the gap between on-site museums and the archaeological sites themselves, by discussing the potential role of museums in realising the effective management, conservation, and presentation of archaeological sites.
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In 2020, the waters of the Ilısu Dam Reservoir reached Hasankeyf, a historic town in the southeast of Turkey. Despite the public outcry, the ‘New Hasankeyf’ had already been constructed across the historic town, including an open-air... more
In 2020, the waters of the Ilısu Dam Reservoir reached Hasankeyf, a historic town in the southeast of Turkey. Despite the public outcry, the ‘New Hasankeyf’ had already been constructed across the historic town, including an open-air museum. Comprising of a cultural park, a new museum building and an archaeological park, the open-air museum presents some of the monuments transferred from the historic town together with museum displays exhibiting Hasankeyf’s architecture and everyday life. The main motive of the Turkish authorities was to ‘presence’ the once-living Hasankeyf through the urbanism and architecture, its open-air museum, and the narratives of museum displays. This article discusses how musealisation has been used as a strategy to conciliate the opposition for the loss of a once-living Hasankeyf and how the new open-air museum is in fact an absent presence, a constant reminder of what is being lost. By outlining the approaches and strategies used to transfer and present historic monuments, fragments, and artefacts in the open-air museum, the article argues that the musealisation of Hasankeyf is a clear manifestation of lost heritage, which should be regarded as ‘absent heritage’.
Architectural space is an outcome of complex relations, embracing the physical, functional, social, and economic features of the period in which it was built or used. Likewise, production spaces dating back to the preindustrial and... more
Architectural space is an outcome of complex relations, embracing the physical, functional, social, and economic features of the period in which it was built or used. Likewise, production spaces dating back to the preindustrial and industrial eras are reflections of past production and manufacturing systems. Due to their specific requirements related to function, production buildings possess distinctive architectural features, building materials, construction techniques, and installations. Soap factories evolved as a new building type in the Ottoman territory in the Mediterranean basin, where olive cultivation was widespread, especially from the 19th century onward, due to the increase in trade. Although a broad range of building types from the Ottoman period have been discussed widely in the literature, soap factories have been largely overlooked to date. This paper analyzes Ottoman soap factories as a building type from a functionalist perspective and investigates how olive oil and soap production shaped the form and character of architectural space by documenting the Okten-Aselcioglu Soap Factory in Antakva (Antioch), which can be considered a significant example in terms of its original architectural features and installations. The building also offers insights into soap production technologies from different periods, since it functioned as a soap factory from the 19th century until the 2000s. The relationship between the production process and the architectural space will be discussed through an investigation of the flow of spaces, spatial requirements, specific installations, and construction techniques that are unique to olive oil and soap production
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The main subject of the thesis is “multi-layered historical towns” which are formed as a result of collective creation process and continuous inhabitancy that new buildings, edifices and open areas superimpose in time forming a specific... more
The main subject of the thesis is “multi-layered historical towns” which are formed as a result of collective creation process and continuous inhabitancy that new buildings, edifices and open areas superimpose in time forming a specific character which can be defined as multi-layeredness. Considering the specific character of multi-layered towns, the principles for the presentation of historical stratification is the foremost objective of the thesis. The thesis focuses on ‘presentation principles” based on cultural significance of multi-layered historical towns so as to conserve, sustain and present their specific character as an integral part of the conservation process. Therefore, the aim of this thesis is to determine “presentation principles” for multilayered historical towns in order to reveal and conserve their historical stratification by assessing the historical continuities, interruptions and transformations based on the cultural significance of multi-layeredness. Focusing ...
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Heritage-making is a process of valorization carried out using complex exchanges, contestations, and negotiations between various actors. State actors attempt, through various strategies, to employ heritage-making in order to construct a... more
Heritage-making is a process of valorization carried out using complex exchanges, contestations, and negotiations between various actors. State actors attempt, through various strategies, to employ heritage-making in order to construct a unified heritage discourse and avoid multivocality. One of these strategies is the control of state archives, an approach that seeks to dictate what is accessible and inaccessible and thus to dominate conceptualizations of heritage. This paper discusses how research in state archives sheds light on heritage-making in Istanbul's historic peninsula and how the state's tendency to restrain access reflects the contested nature of Istanbul's heritage. The restriction or denial of archival access becomes a significant component of heritage-making in Turkey, shaped not only by the past but also by the present. Therefore, archives and the practice of archival research become both a tool for the researcher and at the same time a subject worthy of...
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This paper argues that the early Republican attempts to reintegrate the Ottoman past into nationalist narratives later found their reflections in discussions regarding the preservation of İstanbul’s diverse heritage, coinciding with the... more
This paper argues that the early Republican attempts to reintegrate the Ottoman past into nationalist narratives later found their reflections in discussions regarding the preservation of İstanbul’s diverse heritage, coinciding with the redefinition of Turkish nationalism in the 1940s, incorporating Islam and marking a departure from the foundation ideology of the Republic of Turkey. In 1939, the Republican authorities decided to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1953. The Commission for the Preservation of Antiquities (Muhafaza-ı Asar-ı Atika Encümeni)—the body responsible for the preservation of historic monuments in İstanbul—was tasked with conducting restoration and repair works for the celebrations. Although the celebrations did not receive much attention in the following years, the annual celebrations in the city have now become a significant aspect of present-day İstanbul, which glorify its Ottoman-Islamic past. By presenting its neg...
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As culture-led urban regeneration has become a widely adopted strategy for dilapidated historic cities, the museum as a concept has become a key aspect of this regeneration. With the tangible and intangible aspects of culture being... more
As culture-led urban regeneration has become a widely adopted strategy for dilapidated historic cities, the museum as a concept has become a key aspect of this regeneration. With the tangible and intangible aspects of culture being presented in museums, many historic buildings are repurposed as museums, urban, or archaeological sites designated as open-air museums, and the boundaries between museums and historic cities have been dissolved. This article discusses how the museum concept expands from the boundaries of a single building into the historic city itself. Defining this expansion as musealization, this article evaluates its contribution as an urban process in the transformation of Sultanahmet in Istanbul’s historic peninsula, which has been the major subject of conservation studies from the nineteenth century until present day.
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Kültür eksenli kentsel dönüşüm politikalarının bir parçası olarak müze kavramı yapı sınırından kente yayılmış ve kentsel dönüşümün önemli bir bileşeni haline gelmiştir. Müzeleşme olarak adlandırılan bu dönüşümün sonucunda; kentsel... more
Kültür eksenli kentsel dönüşüm politikalarının bir parçası olarak müze kavramı yapı sınırından kente yayılmış ve kentsel dönüşümün önemli bir bileşeni haline gelmiştir. Müzeleşme olarak adlandırılan bu dönüşümün sonucunda; kentsel alanların bazı nitelikleri kasıtlı olarak öne çıkartılıp, korunup, sunulurken; diğer nitelikleri ihmal edilmiştir. Bu nedenle müzeleşme, çoğunlukla yaşayan bir kent parçasının turistlere yönelik kurgulanmış bir sahne olmasına neden olur. Günümüzde, kültürün somut ve somut olmayan pek çok özelliği müzelerde sunulmakta, terkedilmiş yapıların çoğu müzeye çevrilmekte ve tarihi alanlar müze alanları veya açık hava müzelerine dönüştürülmektedir. Türkiye göz önüne alındığında ise; Sultanahmet Bölgesi, Aya İrini’nin 1846’da sergi mekânı olarak düzenlenmesinden günümüze kadar, kent ölçeğinde değişen müzeleşme yaklaşımlarının izlendiği en önemli alanlardan biridir. Bu bağlamda makale, Sultanahmet Bölgesi üzerinden müzeleşmenin yapı sınırlarından çıkıp kente nasıl yayıldığı ve değişen ideoloji ve kültür politikalarıyla geçmişin müzeleşme yoluyla kent formunda yeniden nasıl oluşturulduğu ve kavramsallaştırıldığını tartışmaktadır.
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Heritage-making is a process of valorization carried out using complex exchanges, contestations, and negotiations between various actors. State actors attempt, through various strategies, to employ heritage-making in order to construct a... more
Heritage-making is a process of valorization carried out using complex exchanges, contestations, and negotiations between various actors. State actors attempt, through various strategies, to employ heritage-making in order to construct a unified heritage discourse and avoid multivocality. One of these strategies is the control of state archives, an approach that seeks to dictate what is accessible and inaccessible and thus to dominate conceptualizations of heritage. This paper discusses how research in state archives sheds light on heritage-making in Istanbul's historic peninsula and how the state's tendency to restrain access reflects the contested nature of Istanbul's heritage. The restriction or denial of archival access becomes a significant component of heritage-making in Turkey, shaped not only by the past but also by the present. Therefore, archives and the practice of archival research become both a tool for the researcher and at the same time a subject worthy of research in and of itself. This paper argues that the attitudes of state institutions and the discourses they adopt in restraining access to archives are in fact objects of enquiry in the understanding of the precise boundaries of their scope of authority and, as such, can provide further insight into the fragmented nature of the state and state archives.
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This paper argues that the early Republican attempts to reintegrate the Ottoman past into nationalist narratives later found their reflections in discussions regarding the preservation of İstanbul's diverse heritage, coinciding with the... more
This paper argues that the early Republican attempts to reintegrate the Ottoman past into nationalist narratives later found their reflections in discussions regarding the preservation of İstanbul's diverse heritage, coinciding with the redefinition of Turkish nationalism in the 1940s, incorporating Islam and marking a departure from the foundation ideology of the Republic of Turkey. In 1939, the Republican authorities decided to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople in 1953. The Commission for the Preservation of Antiquities (Muhafaza-ı Asar-ı Atika Encümeni)-the body responsible for the preservation of historic monuments in İstanbul-was tasked with conducting restoration and repair works for the celebrations. Although the celebrations did not receive much attention in the following years, the annual celebrations in the city have now become a significant aspect of present-day İstanbul, which glorify its Ottoman-Islamic past. By presenting its negotiations and contestations with other state actors in the context of these preparations, this paper explores the role of the Preservation Commission in appropriating the inherited remnants of İstanbul's multifaceted past as "national monuments."
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12 bin yıllık tarihe sahip Hasankeyf ile pek çok canlıya ev sahipliği yapan Dicle Vadisi, yakın gelecekte geçtiğimiz yazdan itibaren su tutmaya başlayan ve 50 yıl ömrü olduğu öngörülen Ilısu Barajı’nın suları altında kalıyor olacak. TOKİ... more
12 bin yıllık tarihe sahip Hasankeyf ile pek çok
canlıya ev sahipliği yapan Dicle Vadisi, yakın
gelecekte geçtiğimiz yazdan itibaren su tutmaya
başlayan ve 50 yıl ömrü olduğu öngörülen Ilısu
Barajı’nın suları altında kalıyor olacak. TOKİ
tarafından oluşturulan yeni yerleşim alanına
tarihî yapıların ‘taşınması’ için Hasankeyf’in
tarihî çarşısının da yıkımının gerçekleşmesi
üzerine süreci ele alan yazarlar, yapımı daha
önce defalarca durdurulan Ilısu Barajı projesinin
Hasankeyf’e etkilerini ve bu projeyi durdurmaya
yönelik mücadeleyi kültürel miras hakkı
üzerinden tartışıyor.
canlıya ev sahipliği yapan Dicle Vadisi, yakın
gelecekte geçtiğimiz yazdan itibaren su tutmaya
başlayan ve 50 yıl ömrü olduğu öngörülen Ilısu
Barajı’nın suları altında kalıyor olacak. TOKİ
tarafından oluşturulan yeni yerleşim alanına
tarihî yapıların ‘taşınması’ için Hasankeyf’in
tarihî çarşısının da yıkımının gerçekleşmesi
üzerine süreci ele alan yazarlar, yapımı daha
önce defalarca durdurulan Ilısu Barajı projesinin
Hasankeyf’e etkilerini ve bu projeyi durdurmaya
yönelik mücadeleyi kültürel miras hakkı
üzerinden tartışıyor.
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The debates over contemporary restoration practices in Turkey have become heated in recent years especially after the reopening of the Hagia Sophias in İznik and Trabzon as mosques. Iconic Byzantine churches that functioned as mosques in... more
The debates over contemporary restoration practices in Turkey have
become heated in recent years especially after the reopening of the
Hagia Sophias in İznik and Trabzon as mosques. Iconic Byzantine
churches that functioned as mosques in the Ottoman period,
these monuments had been functioning as museums for decades
following the museumification of Istanbul’s famous Hagia Sophia.
Meanwhile, Hagia Sophia in Vize has already been reopened as a
mosque without receiving much attention. The repeated statements
of Turkish authorities expressing their wish to see Istanbul’s famous
Hagia Sophia function as a mosque raise further concerns. While
Turkish authorities try to justify these transformations through the
ownership rights of pious endowments and religious freedom, the
multi-layered identity of these monuments and their symbolic
associations for different groups are commonly ignored. This paper
focuses on the recent transformations of four Hagia Sophias in
Turkey, which are regarded as ideological battlegrounds by Turkish
authorities. Challenging the most symbolic achievements of the
secular Republic, the concept of “restoration” is not only used as an
instrument to glorify the Ottoman pasts of these monuments but
also suppress their Byzantine and Republican pasts. This paper aims
to open up a debate on how to intervene in the past, as well as its
limits and effects, through the recent histories of four Hagia Sophias.
become heated in recent years especially after the reopening of the
Hagia Sophias in İznik and Trabzon as mosques. Iconic Byzantine
churches that functioned as mosques in the Ottoman period,
these monuments had been functioning as museums for decades
following the museumification of Istanbul’s famous Hagia Sophia.
Meanwhile, Hagia Sophia in Vize has already been reopened as a
mosque without receiving much attention. The repeated statements
of Turkish authorities expressing their wish to see Istanbul’s famous
Hagia Sophia function as a mosque raise further concerns. While
Turkish authorities try to justify these transformations through the
ownership rights of pious endowments and religious freedom, the
multi-layered identity of these monuments and their symbolic
associations for different groups are commonly ignored. This paper
focuses on the recent transformations of four Hagia Sophias in
Turkey, which are regarded as ideological battlegrounds by Turkish
authorities. Challenging the most symbolic achievements of the
secular Republic, the concept of “restoration” is not only used as an
instrument to glorify the Ottoman pasts of these monuments but
also suppress their Byzantine and Republican pasts. This paper aims
to open up a debate on how to intervene in the past, as well as its
limits and effects, through the recent histories of four Hagia Sophias.
Research Interests:
As culture-led urban regeneration has become a widely adopted strategy for dilapidated historic cities, the museum as a concept has become a key aspect of this regeneration. With the tangible and intangible aspects of culture being... more
As culture-led urban regeneration has become a widely adopted strategy for dilapidated historic cities, the museum as a concept has become a key aspect of this regeneration. With the tangible and intangible aspects of culture being presented in museums, many historic buildings are repurposed as museums, urban, or archaeological sites designated as open-air museums, and the boundaries between museums and historic cities have been dissolved. This article discusses how the museum concept expands from the boundaries of a single building into the historic city itself. Defining this expansion as musealization, this article evaluates its contribution as an urban process in the transformation of Sultanahmet in Istanbul’s historic peninsula, which has been the major subject of conservation studies from the nineteenth century until present day.
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With culture-led urban regeneration becoming a leading policy for the transformation of historic cities, museums and heritage sites have become a key aspect of this transformation. Given the increasing demands of cultural tourism, the... more
With culture-led urban regeneration becoming a leading policy for the transformation of historic cities, museums and heritage sites have become a key aspect of this transformation. Given the increasing demands of cultural tourism, the museum concept is expanded to incorporate the rest of the city and historic cities are presented as staged artefacts directed towards tourists, in a process known as musealisation. After the launch of the Istanbul Museum-City Project in 2004, musealisation was adopted as a common strategy for the regeneration of Istanbul's historic peninsula. Within the scope of the project, the Sultanahmet district would be converted into a museum-quarter. However, recent transformations reveal an underlying motive of glorifying the district's Ottoman past, in accordance with neo-Ottoman urban policies. This paper discusses the effects of musealisation on the transformation of the Sultanahmet district, by evaluating the policies and their implementation by concentrating on Topkapı Palace Complex, Hagia Sophia, the Great Palace Complex and Hagia Euphemia Martyrion. While the notion of built heritage always involves selection, the musealisation adopted for the Sultanahmet district is rather politically motivated, adding another level of selection through the signification of the Ottoman heritage and intentional neglect of the late-Roman and Byzantine heritage. ARTICLE HISTORY
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This symposium aims to open a discussion on the ways in which architectural researchers’ experiences during fieldwork and/or archival work shape architectural history and theory, with a specific focus here on recent and ongoing research... more
This symposium aims to open a discussion on the ways in which architectural researchers’ experiences during fieldwork and/or archival work shape architectural history and theory, with a specific focus here on recent and ongoing research in Turkey. Architectural researchers often encounter unforeseeable issues while working in archives or fields. How might they make these issues into the very stuff of the histories and theories they produce? The symposium explores this question through specific reflections and insights from Turkey, a context that over the past few decades has seen the sort of social and political fluctuations that amplify the unpredictability of fieldwork and archival work. It consists of a series of invited papers that discuss the following:
- changes in the positionality of the researcher;
- dynamics between intellectual autonomy and social debt to interlocutors;
- consent, constraint, surveillance, accessibility issues, and (self-)censorship;
- use and abuse of archives and other source material;
- psychological and ethical implications;
- narrative forms, structures, and styles through which the above might be written into architectural histories and theories.
While discussions on the above-mentioned topics are prevalent across various other disciplines such as anthropology, geography, and archaeology, architectural history and theory tend to gloss over them. This symposium, therefore, aims to create a platform for the exchange of scholarly tactics and strategies that help work through challenges of architectural research generally. A nuanced awareness of the challenges faced during spatially oriented archival research or fieldwork in an increasingly socially and politically volatile global context, we hope, will benefit not just those interested in the architecture of Turkey – or indeed in architectural history and theory per se – but also those operating in other settings or spatial disciplines marked by challenges to public space and critical thought.
To find out more and book a place, visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/field-as-archive-archive-as-field-architectural-insights-from-contemporary-turkey-tickets-32921488057
- changes in the positionality of the researcher;
- dynamics between intellectual autonomy and social debt to interlocutors;
- consent, constraint, surveillance, accessibility issues, and (self-)censorship;
- use and abuse of archives and other source material;
- psychological and ethical implications;
- narrative forms, structures, and styles through which the above might be written into architectural histories and theories.
While discussions on the above-mentioned topics are prevalent across various other disciplines such as anthropology, geography, and archaeology, architectural history and theory tend to gloss over them. This symposium, therefore, aims to create a platform for the exchange of scholarly tactics and strategies that help work through challenges of architectural research generally. A nuanced awareness of the challenges faced during spatially oriented archival research or fieldwork in an increasingly socially and politically volatile global context, we hope, will benefit not just those interested in the architecture of Turkey – or indeed in architectural history and theory per se – but also those operating in other settings or spatial disciplines marked by challenges to public space and critical thought.
To find out more and book a place, visit https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/field-as-archive-archive-as-field-architectural-insights-from-contemporary-turkey-tickets-32921488057
Research Interests: Geography, Human Geography, Urban Geography, Archaeology, Anthropology, and 19 moreArchival Studies, Architecture, Archives, Architectural History, Urban Studies, Turkish and Middle East Studies, Urbanism, Built Environment, Turkey, Architectural Theory, Modern Turkey, Architectural Conservation, Architectural Heritage, Ethnographic fieldwork, Anthropology of the built environment, History of Modern Turkey, Understanding Architectural Space, Architecture and the Built Environment, and Architecture and Public Spaces
Dünden Bugüne Bugünden Düne, kültürel miras, kimlik ve bellek inşa süreçlerinin birbirleriyle etkileşimlerini ve farklı ölçeklerde, muhtelif aktörler tarafından kurgulanış ve temsil biçimlerini Türkiye özelinde ele alıyor. Sosyal inşacı... more
Dünden Bugüne Bugünden Düne, kültürel miras, kimlik ve bellek inşa süreçlerinin birbirleriyle etkileşimlerini ve farklı ölçeklerde, muhtelif aktörler tarafından kurgulanış ve temsil biçimlerini Türkiye özelinde ele alıyor. Sosyal inşacı bir anlayış benimseyen bu derleme kitap üç bölümden oluşuyor. İlk bölümdeki yazılar, Cumhuriyetçi ve Yeni-Osmanlıcı milli kimlik ve geçmiş anlatısı arasındaki çatışmaların somutlaştığı mekanları merkeze alıyor. İkinci bölüm, kültürel miras yönetiminin farklı aktörler ve aidiyet ilişkilerini içeren çok katmanlı ve karmaşık yapısını tartışmaya açıyor. Son bölümdeki yazılar ise ‘unutulmaya yüz tutmuş’ geçmişi şimdide yeniden kurma ve canlandırma süreçlerine odaklanıyor.
Pınar Aykaç, Bahar Aykan, Sena Kayasü, Mesut Dinler, Sarper Ataşer, Burcu Selcen Coşkun, Hasan Münüsoğlu, Şule Tepe ve Sena Temel’in katkılarıyla…
Pınar Aykaç, Bahar Aykan, Sena Kayasü, Mesut Dinler, Sarper Ataşer, Burcu Selcen Coşkun, Hasan Münüsoğlu, Şule Tepe ve Sena Temel’in katkılarıyla…