Architecture in Turkey

The paper dwells on the religious architecture of
south-east Anatoly under the Artuqids – local dynasty,
which became stronger after the weakening of Great
Seljuks. In the second half of XII century Artuqids
undertook active construction of city mosques,
leaning on the most accessible “Syrian type” of Muslim
building, but using Persian and Seljuk models as
well. It resulted in building domed basilicas, which
later became the basis for Turkish mosques.

The conversion of the Ankara Exhibition Hall into the Turkish State Opera in 1948 was one of the most debated incidents of the architectural and urban history of Early Republican Turkey. During this conversion, the modernist aesthetic of the exhibition hall was replaced by a classicistic and monumental language, which transformed the facet of its urban context in an irreversible way. Departing from this background, the study describes the mentioned conversion process and discusses the politico-cultural approaches leading to and accompanying this transformation. The focus of this discussion is the political role attributed to the art of opera and to the opera house as an urban center. While describing the conversion process, the focus is also set on discussions on nationalism, modernism and aesthetic value in Early Republican architecture with respect to a global context as well as the emergence of a new understanding of modern architecture in postwar Europe.

Bu kısa deneme Nafi Çil’in 2007 yılında yaşamını konu ederek kaleme aldığı ve dünyayı bir mimar ve sanatçı olarak nasıl gördüğünü aktardığı “Mimar Olmak” kitabı üzerine izlenimlerimi paylaşmak. Öncelikle belirtmeliyim ki niyetim akademik bir tarih anlatısı örmek değil, Çil’in yazdıkları ve yaptıklarına biraz daha yakından bakmayı denemek, mimarlık ve sanat üretimi adına dile getirdiği kaygılara tanıklık etmek, yazdıkları ve yaptıkları arasındaki bağlantıyı anlamaya, kurmaya çalışmak

Although vernacular architecture is one of the most popular fields of discourse production in Turkey, no practice of literature exists in this field that is as productive and varied. Thus, this paper primarily intends to analyze the writings of a group of researchers regarded to be the representatives of the early period of this field, through a set of arising questions. An overview of the vernacular discourse which is dealt with in the first part of the article demonstratres that different writers have similar discourses recurring over the years. These discourses, and their linguistic and theoretical characteristics, are defined as “essentialism” oriented in the article, for they intend to draw boundaries particularly by assigning appellations for the houses, identify the main components, and determine origins. The essentialism oriented vernacular discourses create the perception that traditional houses have specific values and associate the societal values of "true" and "real" with these houses. However, those who attach certain values to structures and societies are obviously the people themselves who generate these discourses. To shed light onto the ideological nature of essentialism oriented vernacular discourses, the second part of the article analyzes the Turkish discourse on vernacular through the “unspoken” rather than the already spoken. To this end, it questions the subconscious of the vernacular rather than reads it for direct meaning. With this psychoanalytical reading, it aims to deal with both the spoken and unspoken aspects of Turkish vernacular discourse.