Day: May 25, 2020

An overview of the architectural changes and developments in Turkey

~ bensuacarakcay ~ Leave a comment

     This article describes the development and changes in the field of architecture in Turkey. It is a research and review article that connects social, cultural, political and economic reasons and concludes these reasons with examples in order to understand these contexts more easily.

     Firstly, as in the 20th century, many countries in the world, Turkey also for social, economic and political areas, exchanges, transformations; there has been an age of breakthroughs, especially in the path of science, technology and art. The reflection of these rapid developments has also been seen in the architecture of our country. In the first change in the sense of architecture in Turkey. We can say that the second Constitutional Monarchy began when it was announced. Because close political relations with the West started to be established in that period, and these established political relations also accelerated the interaction in the architectural sense. The first interaction in Turkey, we have the First National Architecture Movement and predominantly prevalent between 1908 and 1930s led to the emergence of an architectural style. The most important representatives of the First National Architecture Movement are primarily Architect Kemalettin and Vedat Tek, and Giulio Mongeri, an architect of Italian origin. This style, although it began during the Ottoman Empire period, though, showed the main effect of the Republic of Turkey. This architectural style aimed to create a Turkish national style. While doing so, the goal of being a nationalist was aimed, but architectural elements and ornaments in classical Ottoman buildings were frequently used. Although Ottoman architectural elements were frequently used, unlike that trend, architectural elements such as domes and eaves, which were used only in religious buildings, were used more frequently in other public buildings during the First National Architecture Movement period. The effect of this trend was limited to public buildings only. One of the important examples of this trend, the Great Post Office building in Istanbul Sirkeci was built by Architect Vedat Tek. The building has an entrance dominated by the symmetrical understanding raised by the stairs, where the entrance sections are particularly emphasized. The two corners on the facade were brought to the fore and these were covered with domes. Tiles suitable for Classical Ottoman ornaments were used in the building. Failure to keep up with technology is one of the most common criticisms towards this trend; a selective and formal trend is shown.

     Secondly, not only between the West and Turkey in political, social, economic or cultural relations are not limited to, those relationships at the same time greatly affect their architecture I mentioned in my previous paragraph of both sides. Turkey in the First National Architecture while the current effects, emerged a new movement called the International Style in the West, and this style has more technological progress than the other. In particular, a great simplification of the current applied in the material did not take long come from the West to Turkey. Some architects have observed and researched the International Style closely in the 1930s and started building buildings that were mainly influenced by this style. After the proclamation of the republic, the need for new and modern buildings in the country started to increase. The government thought that in order to meet this need of the country, it was necessary to work with Turkish architects together with foreign architects. As a result, Turkey began working with foreign architects like Jensen, Holzmeister. These architects, Turkish architecture during the time they lived in Turkey began to affect their own knowledge and experience. Symmetrical design, a rhythmic arrangement of windows, flat or concealed curved roofs, monumental stairs, direct access to the facades of buildings or columns are some of the main features of this period. The Ministry of National Defense, which shows most of the features of this period, was the first building built in Ankara by Holzmeister between 1927 and 1931. In this structure, there is an oval entrance, symmetrical facades and rhythmically placed windows on these facades in order to give movement to the facade.

     Another important factor affecting the sense of architecture in Turkey is the Second National Architectural Movement. This current, between the years of 1940 and showed the effect in the 1950s and the period of the Republic of Turkey is influenced by the nationalist thought and style. Stylistic features one of the most important turning points in the Republic of Turkey is the start of the Second World War. The demand for returning to national values ​​in the field of architecture has emerged due to the economic negativities brought by the war, the fact that the necessary building materials could not be brought from abroad due to the war, and the increase in reactions to foreign architects in parallel with the extremist nationalist environment of the period. The most important representatives of the Second National Architecture Movement are Sedat Hakkı Eldem and Emin Onat. In this period, as in the First National Architecture Movement, we can say that the architectural features of the Ottoman architecture and especially the Seljuk buildings were seen. In this trend, it is noteworthy that the elements of modern architecture are widely used. An easy-to-build lightweight structural system and wooden architectural elements that allow more comfortable use of sunlight in spaces are examples of the modern architecture that this trend wants to apply. One of the examples that best reflect the characteristics of this trend is the Faculty of Arts and Science building (1944-1952) of Istanbul University, built by Sedat Hakkı Eldem and Emin Onat. One of the most distinctive features of Istanbul University Faculty of Arts and Sciences is that it gives importance to symmetry and monumental. In this respect, although it carries Nazi architecture elements especially as a result of the interaction brought by the war, we see that it gives reference to the Ottoman residential architecture with some architectural elements such as fringes.

     Thirdly, we can say the 1950s as a complete turning point in Turkish architecture during the republic period. Although the First National Architectural Movement and the Second National Architectural Movement Period can always be determined with precise lines, many insights, styles and thoughts occurred simultaneously after 1950. One of the most important benefits of the 1950s in terms of architectural thought is to organize project competitions. The result of organizing project competitions is the establishment of a large number of longer-lasting freelance architecture offices. In a sense, we can say that this is a period of “freelance architecture offices” and “architectural competitions”. Competitions played a pioneering role in spreading the thought of bringing solutions with free forms in architecture. Between 1950 and 1960, it was a period when Turkish architects tried to apply the currents in the west, sometimes limited only by formal imitations. Another point of criticism of some architects is that social issues are not included to the required extent. In the 1960s and after, in the 1950s, the critical points started to come up slowly. One of the most obvious reasons for this is the changes in the political and social sphere. The 1960 revolution, it started a new era in Turkey and architects began to work on social issues. As a result of which architects and urbanists have been able to raise issues that were not considered before. Also, in this period, noticeable studies and applications were carried out on university planning on the one hand, and on mass housing and industrial structures on the other.

     Three main architectural approaches can be mentioned in the post-1950 period. The first is to adopt architectural approaches in developed countries. According to the new century in Europe, as a result of the rational approach emerged in Turkey, creating new architecture and a number of political and economic events occur. In the 1950s, the western sense did not show under the technical competence and financial resources to activities have been implemented by Turkey adapted Rationalism limited conditions. The Hilton Hotel (1953), co-designed by the American SOM group and Sedat Hakkı Eldem, is an example of the Rationalist attitude.

     At the end of the 1950s, especially Brutalism, which appears with Le Corbusier’s work it is seen as widespread in Turkey after 1960. Brutalism is to be concurrent with the implementation of applications in Turkey in Europe is also important. The main feature of the current is to ensure that the structure is recognizable by exaggerating one or more of the functions (carrier system-material, etc.) in the structure, and the materials and functions can reflect themselves in their most original form, without being dependent on patterns, certain geometric forms, as in Rationalism. This attitude is very common in our architecture, especially in traditional residential architecture. For example, there is no need to hide the carrier system in Safranbolu houses, it is common in Bursa houses that buttresses are used only to carry closet rooms. This situation has created the infrastructure to be Brutalism spread rapidly in Turkey. Another reason for this rapid spread is that Brutalism is much easier, faster and more economical than the Rationalist attitude that requires advanced techniques. Istanbul Orduevi and Ankara Stad Hotel are one of the first examples of Brutalist conscious practices in Turkey.

     The speed of migration to cities that started in the 1950s and accelerated in the 1960s increased even more in the 1970s. Illegal structures and slums became widespread in the cities during these periods due to the housing shortage in the metropolitan areas where long-term planning was not made and the competent institutions and organizations and local administrations did not take adequate measures. In this way, crooked urbanization marked the 1970s more. The buildings that were built with modern and different understandings in the first years in the state buildings left themselves to the monotonous, mediocre and architectural development of the period since the 1960s and 1970s. The Atatürk Library, designed by Sedad Hakkı Eldem and financed by the Vehbi Koç Foundation, is one of the well-known architectural works of the period. Built between 1973 and 1975 in the Taksim, Istanbul, this building was originally designed as a cultural building where library, museum and exhibition halls will be located, but only its library was built. One of the most prominent visual features of the structure is the use of hexagonal geometry with triangular grids.

IMG_0905

     Lastly, the process from the 1990s to the present has been a period when different architects started to experiment in different styles due to globalization and with the spread of the internet. These new searches showed themselves mainly on the facades as they are narrow and compacted constructions in a certain area. In this period, mass housing practices started to become widespread. A majority of the mass housing constructed were built with repetitive façade and plan schemes. In addition, another form of construction that started in the 1990s and accelerated in the 2000s was high-rise buildings with parks, landscape arrangements, terraces and pools. Especially since the 2000s influenced the architecture in Turkey, including Istanbul to increase the flow of capital together with the spread of the Internet. These changes had more impact on the physical and social fabric of Istanbul, where capital was concentrated. This process is still ongoing, developments in the field of architecture in Turkey in recent years can be summarized as follows: One of the examples brought by globalization is that the architects of foreign origin are in parallel with the developments in countries around the world in designing structures for different purposes.

REFERENCES: