Between Civilization and Culture: Appropriation of Traditional Dwelling Forms in Early

Republican Turkey
Author(s): Gülsüm Baydar Nalbantoğlu
Source: Journal of Architectural Education (1984-), Vol. 47, No. 2 (Nov., 1993), pp. 66-74
Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Association of Collegiate Schools of
Architecture, Inc.
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 Between Civilization and Culture:

Appropriation ofTraditional Dwelling Forms in Early Republican Turkey

GOLSOM BAYDAR NALBANTOGLU, National University ofSingapore

Modernity outside the West is generally conceptu-

theory and practice, the non-West becomesthe modernist and nationalist discourses that
alized with the aid of such dualities as civilization
accompany them.' The relationship between
versus culture, international versus national, and either the provider of cultural objects of fasci-
modern versus traditional. The first part of each nation or a mere follower offering lesser ex-architectural forms and the discourse on
pair is associated with progress, scientific rational-
amples of western products. This perspective these forms is often mediated by forces exter-
ity, and westernization; the other signifies historical
is reinforced by a number of factors both ex-
continuity and local identity. A close analysis of the nal to architecture per se. Furthermore, the
appropriation of traditional dwelling forms by the trinsic and intrinsic to the discipline of archi-correspondence between architectural mod-
Turkish architects of the 1920s and early 1930s
tecture and its history. The former-largelyernism and modernity as a social and cultural
renders this perspective problematic and raises
significant historiographical issues. First, these a cultural and political factor-is the phenomenon is always indirect and ambigu-
architects' use of the traditionalist discourse as orientalist one, which is rooted in colonialous. What then does modern architecture
a means to assert modernity rather than to coun-
practices and which consolidates the mean to those cultures where modernity itself
teract it underscores the explanatory power of du-
alist perspectives. Second, the absence of any hegemonic status of the West. The latter hasis an imposed condition in the form of an of-
ficial program? How is architectural knowl-
critique of modernity, urbanism, and capitalism to do with a narrow reading of architectural
from the traditionalist position in Turkey renders
history as a formal/aesthetic history that ex-edge produced and reproduced under such
the latter significantly different from seemingly
plains nonwestern forms as outcomes of a circumstances? How far does the use of tradi-
similar western developments such as the
Heimatschutz movement in Germany. Having linear historical influence of the West. Suchtional forms guarantee liberation from the
elitist rather than populist or nationalist overtones,
intellectual constructs, however, have re-universalist paradigms of modernism? Are
the appropriation of traditional dwelling forms in
early republican Turkey was a modernist enter- cently been challenged on various fronts thatsuch paradigms totally dispensable? These
prise committed to internationalism, rationalism, inspired and informed the framework of thisand similar questions attempt to probe into
and scientific methods. Such historical moments
the conditions of modernity outside the West
article. First, critical theories offered by such
display the impossibility of providing unilateral ex-
cultural critics as Edward Said and Gayatri
planations for the use of traditionalist vocabularies to present multiple histories that cannot be
and call for a deeper understanding of the different contained within a singular understanding of
Spivak have largely contributed to the undo-
manifestations of modernity depending on the par-
ing of the political and cultural myths ofthe state of being modern.
ticularity of the cultural and architectural context
in question. Eurocentric positions. Recent scholarship on The traditional/modern duality is me-
modern western architecture, on the otherdiated predominantly by nationalistic ideolo-
gies in countries that came into being as a
hand, has begun to unveil multiple histories
hitherto homogenized under the banners ofresult of independence movements. Turkey is
CIVILIZATION/CULTURE, GESELLSCHAFTI GEM- the Modern Movement and International such an example. It saw the historical emer-
einschaft, modernity/tradition, West/non- Style. Cultural readings of architectural formsgence of modernity not as a critical, liberating,
West, and international/national are have exposed the power of architecture to le- and multifaceted project emerging from
significant dualities constructed in the mak-
gitimize or to challenge the existing structureswithin, but as an official program to be imple-
ing of modernity and modern architecture.
of power. mented by a bureaucratic and professional
Many architectural positions have consoli- Critical probings reveal modernity elite. Although modernist institutional re-
dated on either side of these, both within and
outside the West as a multilayered plural forms had been on the political agenda of the
outside the western world. The first part of
phenomenon irreducible to the explanatory Ottoman ruling elite since the eighteenth cen-
each pair is associated with progress, urban-
power of binary opposites, such as West/non- tury, the establishment of the secular nation
ism, technology and rationalism; the other West and modern/traditional. Indeed, terms state in 1923 marked a crucial turning point
like modern and traditional take on entirely
represents the organic character of communal in Turkish history. After decades of political
organization. Although recent critical workdifferent meanings, depending on their use unrest, economic instability and warfare de-
in modern European architecture has ques-
by modernist or antimodernist positions in stroyed the Ottoman Empire, the Kemalist
different cultural contexts. In architectural
tioned the construction of such binary oppo- project of modernization attempted to bring
sites, the modernist experience in the
terms, neither the pristine geometries of Turkey into the European economic, cultural,
nonwestern world is still viewed behind dual-buildings inspired by Neue Sachlichkeit ideas, and political milieu as an equal partner.2 The
ist spectacles and is often interpreted as nor
a their vernacular-inspired counterparts, dominant political ideology advocated nation-
mere extension of the developments in the which define themselves in opposition to in- alistic idealism and progress through modern-
West. While the West is identified as the lo- ternationalist utopias, can be explained solely ization. Many cultural bonds with the
in reference to their formal characteristics and
cus of paradigmatic developments in both Ottoman past were cut through a series of

November 1993 JAE 47/2 66

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westernizing reforms inaugurated from the
mid-twenties to the thirties. Changing the al-
phabet from Arabic script to Latin, adopting
,,, i'.: * ? . ...
the Swiss Civil Code, and replacing the Otto-
man fez with the European-style brimmed cap
I r';I 'f
*fc..I
signified determined breaks from past associa-
tions with the Ottoman heritage, the Middle
East, and Islam. The Kemalist project was de-
termined to ensure that the march toward
contemporary western civilization would not
be hampered by residual signs of an oriental
past. The ideas of late Ottoman intellectuals
like Ziya Gokalp, who distinguished between
western civilization (read "science and tech-
nology") and national culture (read "morality
and art") began to lose relevance. Unlike their
Ottoman predecessors the nationalist leaders
of the young republic were quite ambivalent
about the nature of the cultural identity they
aspired to assume. The most apparent para-
dox of their nationalism lay in its attempt to
reconcile an anti-orientalist discourse with a 1. Arif Hikmet Koyunoglu, Ministry of State Monopolies, Ankara, 1927. (Photo by author.)

modernist one based on western cultural con-

structs; the former, the anti-orientalist dis-
course, called for the sublimation of nativist
and nationalist perspectives, the latter required
their suppression.
The making of modern architecture in
Turkey embodied such paradoxes embedded
in the process of cultural modernization. By
the late twenties it became clear that refer-
ences to Ottoman monumental buildings
were no longer desirable to the architects and
building patrons of the new nation-state. The
Ministry of State Monopolies of 1927 was
one of the last historicist buildings of its kind
2. Bekir ihsan, project for a small house, 1933. (Mimar 2 [1933]: 53.)
that attempted to combine modern construc-
tion techniques with Ottoman characteristics
displayed by its monumental symmetrical
layout, banded pointed arches and ornate
pediments (Figure 1). Elements of an alterna- zontal window strips, and white plastered past (Figure 2).3 The modernist vocabulary,
tive vocabulary based on modernist ideas, was surfaces, which became increasingly popular however, never remained totally unchal-
introduced to architectural education and among young Turkish architects, were well lenged in the architectural discourse and
practice by the late twenties, mostly through received by the educated urban elite as signs practice of the new nation state because of
the efforts of European architects invited by of contemporaneity and progress and as solid the paradoxical relationship between the in-
various government offices. Flat roofs, hori- images of the self-conscious break with the ternationalist promises of modernization and

B7 Nalbantoglu

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the nationalist search for identity. The preva-
lent historiographical trend that clearly differ-
entiates between internationalist tendencies
in the thirties and nationalist ones in the for-
ties calls for re-evaluation in the light of this
paradox.4 I will argue that the interest in ver-
nacular forms did not necessarily correspond
. ~ n ...
... ? .,. r
to nativist ideologies and could, in fact, be i: TI'
*I:- . - . , > I-
I?:~~~~~
comfortably situated within a perfectly mod-
ernist approach to architecture. Indeed, dur-
ing the twenties and early thirties the interest
in vernacular architecture was framed within
an ahistorical rationalist vision, entirely com-
patible with the premises of scientific-mod-
ernist thinking, which assigns a large degree
of autonomy to architecture.
In the early years of nation building,
the traditionalist discourse in Turkey was
relatively free from any polemics regarding
meaning in architecture. That European ar-
3. Ernst Egli, Ismet Pasa Women's Crafts Institute, Ankara, 1930. (Photo by
chitects played a significant role in introduc-
ing traditionalism to the Turkish context
bears testimony to the potential dissociation
sive propriety.
race or nationality, determined documentation of Turkish vernacular
of traditionalism from explicitly nationalist
The inward-oriented traditional Anatolian buildings since his student years at the acad-
sentiments. Many foreign and native archi-
tects were ardent advocates of the country's house, with its interior courtyard "opening emy. The drawings for his 1928 Paris exhibi-
vernacular tradition, not because some cul- up to the starry night" turned away from the tion, "Countryside Houses for Anatolia,"
tural or nationalist value was attached to in- dusty streets and responded best to local cli- could have illustrated Egli's article (Figure 4).
digenous forms per se, but because the latter mate. Despite this romantic regionalism, Egli These drawings consisted of a series of mas-
were seen as rational products of given physi- did not totally dispense with the idea of inter- terfully rendered images of detached
cal environments. A Swiss-Austrian, Ernst national modernism. "Modern architecture Anatolian houses in hypothetical countryside
Egli, was a key figure in that respect. He makes sense," he stated, "only if its interna- settings. They depicted timeless landscapes
came to Turkey in 1927 at the invitation of tionalist seeds are used in the bettering of re- with no trace of labor, community life, or
the Ministry of Education to be an architec- gional forms." All references to use, culture, economic transaction. The buildings looked
tural adviser for new school buildings. In production, or consumption were eliminated like magically planted objects naturalized by
1930, he was appointed by the Academy of from Egli's argument. Modern architecture their surroundings.
Fine Arts in Istanbul to launch curricular re- meant international style, culture was identi- At first sight Egli's and Eldem's ap-
forms along modernist lines.5 The same year, fied with nature. Indeed, his practice in Tur- proaches resemble those of Heimatschutz ar-
he published an important article entitled key consisted predominantly of modernist chitects and the romantic populism of the
"Architectural Context," which favored a re- buildings reminiscent of contemporary European modernists of the late teens. The
gionalist approach. Egli defined context as Viennese trends and hardly contained any Heimatschutz movement's emphasis on indig-
"the things that are in proximity to a building references to his regionalist discourse (Figure enous culture and the maintenance of tradi-
... light, air, sun, wind, topography, water, 3). Sedad Eldem, a Turkish architect who tion and Heinrich Tessenow's passionate calls
landscape, the harshness or charm of nature, was Egli's assistant at the academy, extended for Handwerk and Kleinstadtseem to lurk be-
the irresistible quality of nightfall, the myste- this line of argument to its limits in the late hind the traditionalist positions consolidated
rious music of dusk."6 These, he stressed, not twenties. Eldem had been involved in exten- in Turkey. Walter Gropius and Adolf

November 1993 JAE 47/2 68

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 tion processes in the realization of this project
and voiced their anticapitalistic sentiments.
In 1919, for example, Adolf Behne, Bruno
Taut, and Walter Gropius, who had gathered
around the Arbeitsratfiir Kunst, wrote about
a true feeling of human brotherhood that
would develop through work done in com-
mon, separated from all practical, petty, and
restricted goals.10 Gropius's Sommerfeld
House reminded one contemporary German
critic of "ancient prototypes in old Saxony
that still affect us so deeply today."1 The
architect's romantic utopia of the Bauhiitte
obviously went beyond an interest in the re-
presentation of traditional forms at the time
when he wrote about Baubriiderschaften,
Volksbauten, and colonies for craftspeople
and artists. Likewise, Heinrich Tessenow,
whose ideology was laden more with nostal-
gia than utopian populism, justified his
4. Sedad Eldem, watercolor displayed at 1928 Paris exhibition.
volkisch architecture on the basis of particular
(Bozdogan, et al., Sedad Eldem, p. 31.)
production processes. In 1919, in his defense
of the Kleinstadt Tessenow wrote, "The large
Meyer's Stickle House or Bruno Taut's early Heimatschutz tradition, the Turkish passion
city has never been very maternal, never a
Siedlung projects were as removed from the for tradition and indigenous culture wasgood birthing place but it has always excelled
vernacular reality of Germany as Eldem's never dissociated from a strong commitment at what it is best at being today: a place of
drawings of Anatolian houses were from to contemporary life, industrialization, new
commerce, a center of traffic, a place of enter-
Turkey's. Although I know of no direct con- materials and, modern technologies. tainment, etc.... At the opposite extreme are
nection between the leading proponents of These similarities should not be exag-barn and stable. In between are the domestic
this particular stream of German architectural gerated however. As recent studies carify, the
living room and the workshop, or small town
thought and the Turkish architects, I think it populist utopia of the German architects was and handicraft. Of necessity, these two de-
is safe to assume that the architectural context deliberately articulated with cultural and po-
pend on each other; one without the other is
in Turkey did not develop completely inde- litical concerns beyond architecture.9 Issuesan impossibility."'2 The reference point in
pendent of the German one. Eldem, who had of production, urbanity, and industrializationthis line of argument was the economy of the
spent most of his childhood and youth in were never absent from their discourse which
metropolis. The utopia of the small town was
Germany, must have been familiar with the was largely inspired by a strong contempt for backed by an image of simple, honest, pro-
ideas of the Heimatschutz tradition. As an as- the devastating effects of industrialization on
ductive people uncontaminated by the evils of
all aspects of the built environment. Their
piring architectural student, he had been in- the metropolis and, in the final analysis, capi-
terested in the work of Bruno Taut and
concerns echoed a yearning for a lost centertalism. If modernity meant fragmentation
Adalbert Niemeyer, who worked in the
and an irrecoverable harmony that lay with and anonymity, a brutally alienated and at-
handwerk tradition.7 Frank Lloyd Wright, ontradition, custom, and Gemeinschaft. Theseomized society, tradition was to assert a cen-
architects were motivated by a desire to re-
the other hand, provided an obvious link be- ter for stability, an anchorage to secure
tween the Turkish and German traditions. gain these qualities through the maintenance individuality. Similarly, Wright's interest in
Adolf Meyer, Gropius, and Eldem all ac-of continuity with the past without the un- the suburb, not unlike the German ideal of
wanted effects of industrialization. Many of
knowledged the impact of the Wasmuth pa- the Kleinstadt emphasized an intellectual po-
them recognized the importance of produc-sition in relation to the capitalist city. For
pers on their thinking.8 Furthermore, like the

B9 Nalbantoglu

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him, not unlike Tessenow, the suburb was
the concentration point of the contradiction
between the reality of the city and the dream
:I

of regaining a rural existence.13 W*.h .:.

At the heart of these architects' search

I

for modern spaces outside capitalism and the

metropolis lay a fundamental realization of
the paradoxes of modernity and a conscious
-- L

attempt to overcome them. Their positions

coexisted with alternative ones ranging
from the "negative thinking" of Adolf Loos
to the universalist premises of the Neue
Sachlichkeit. The European scene manifested
the ambivalent character of modernity which
generated paradoxical experiences irreducible
to celebratory expressions of emancipation
and progress. Egli's position in Turkey is in-
teresting in that respect. Although he was far
from being a leading theorist, his references
to "starry nights," "the mysterious music of capitalism.
dusk," and the undesirable dust of the streets The material conditions of the Turkish
can be read as antiurban sentiments. It seems, context are of paramount significance here.
however, that his European background en- In the early years of nation building, eco-
abled him to enjoy noncommittal fascination nomic reconstruction, and enrichment, when
with the environmental qualities in a nonin- the vast majority of the population dwelt in
dustrialized setting. In Eldem's case, how- villages and small towns, the critique of capi-
ever, we begin to decipher significant talist production had no urgency, at least in
differences. Like Egli, Eldem always advo- the field of architecture. It is not surprising,
cated the reinterpretation of traditional Turk- therefore, that the discourse and practice of
ish dwellings in modern terms. Whereas Egli early republican Turkish architects embodied
praised the local significance of these dwell- a rhetoric of modernity very different from
ings, Eldem was attracted by their interna- that of their European counterparts. Not suf-
tionality. After an extended study and fering significantly from the ills of massive
documentation of traditional Turkish dwell- urbanization, capitalism, and the environ-
ings, he wrote, "These studies revealed the mental impacts of technological growth, their
nature of Turkish architecture from a totally utopia was based not on a critique of the
new perspective.... It became clear that the present, but on hopes of filling a cultural void
characteristics of Turkish houses had been created by the self-conscious denial of the im-
embodied in a variety of traditions ranging mediate past. Hence, the dualities of
from ancient Chinese domestic buildings to Gemeinschaftversus Gesellschafi or Kultur ver-
the residential works and architectural prin- sus Zivilisation did not have the same impli-
ciples of the most modern masters like F. L. cations in the Turkish context as in the

Wright and Le Corbusier."14 Here the ratio- German one. For the Turkish modernists,
nalist utopia, traces of which we have already civilization represented a conflict-free future,
seen in Egli's discourse, came full circle. Not equated with modernity, to be attained by
only was the Turkish house celebrated for determined social transformations. Culture,

November 1993 JAE 47/2 70

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 into practice these types could be modified as
squares, none of which is adorned by a figure,
exemplified in Eldem's own designs for de-in these streets, the dust and the mud of
tached houses for the westernized Istanbulwhich we daily brave, in the face of these
bourgeoisie. The Agaoglu House is an ex-
people whose ears are deaf to any pleasant-
ample that was inspired by the oval sofa plan
ness, whose eyes are blind to any beauty, who
type (Figure 6). In the vernacular examples,
squat at night in coffee houses with their col-
the semiprivate sofa is both the formal and,
orfully printed nightgowns listening to the
equally important, the social center of the
tube of a gramophone vomit belly-dance
tunes, I find the seeds of their sickness."'6 In-
house, which gives access to self-sufficient
deed, everyday lives in traditional Anatolian
private rooms for members of extended fami-
lies. The Agaoglu house consists of three
houses were one of the most explicit targets
6. Sedad Eldem, Ahmet Agaoglu House, Istanbul, 1936-1937. of contemporary cultural politics. Daily
apartments: two without sofas on the ground
(Bozdogan, et al., Sedad Eldem, p. 47.)
newspapers and popular journals regularly
floor and a larger one on the upper floor. The
featured articles and instructions on western
oval sofa of the latter is placed between the
dining area and the master bedroom. The
codes of civility, ranging from table manners
functional separation of the rooms, the de-
to hairstyles; radio channels were instructed
on the other hand, was ambivalently con- tachment of the sofa from the main circula-to broadcast classical western music; dress
nected to an unwanted premodern past, not codes
tion, and the use of wide glazed surfaces are banned the veil. In short, all social and
yet redefined by the nationalist imagination, signs of contemporaneity and mark signifi-cultural reminders of the prerepublican pe-
to be projected to a determinate future. The riod that were still alive outside the limited
cant differences from the traditional prece-
tensions between the past and the future, be- dents. Eldem used his typological studies to
circles of the modernist elite were being re-
tween premodern and modern, were identi- capture the formal characteristics of the
placed by imagined signs of western moder-
fied as problems to be solved, rather than Turkish vernacular in numerous similar ex-
nity. The foundation of People's Houses
conflicts to be reckoned with. Eldem's ratio- amples. In attempting the impossible synthe-
(halkevlern) in 1930 was a paradigmatic enter-
nalist approach to the Turkish vernacular was sis of the modern and the traditional, he was
prise in that respect. Two hundred and nine
one such attempt. It found ultimate expres- bound to overlook the real ties between ar-
of these houses were established throughout
sion in his efforts to found a typological ma- chitecture, history, and culture. the country between 1932 and 1939 to edu-
trix for Turkish house plans which he Within the contemporary cultural mi-
cate the people in an informal atmosphere on
classified according to the form and location lieu of early republican Turkey, architectural
a variety of topics, including history, music,
of the sofa (a semiprivate hall) as the organi- regionalism could only be sustained in its re-
sports, and literature. The aim was twofold:
zational element (Figure 5). His method was ductionist purity. A closer reading of the to educate the masses on such topics as west-
that of a natural scientist rather than a histo- Anatolian house would have called for a ern music, theater, literature, and history,
rian. As a matter of fact, history hardly deeper understanding of the life-styles andand to institutionalize folk culture by docu-
played any role in that project. Neither the customs that had produced it and were in- menting regional histories, folk songs, and
ethnic diversity of the users nor their social compatible with the Kemalist modernization
the like. The sentiments of the westernizing
status, customs, or life-styles were seen as im- project, which was based on progress and sci-
elite were summarized by one of the leading
portant. Hundreds of Turkish houses, rang- entific rationality. The collective constraints
journalists of the period: "I want to see Euro-
ing from eighteenth-century konaks of the of the community, traditional values, and re-pean peasants and villages on the Anatolian
Istanbul elite to townhouses in eastern ligious morality were obstacles to be con-plateau."'7 An ideal project for a village house
Anatolia were first diligently documented,
quered in the march toward a secular modernby Arif Hikmet is exemplary in displaying the
society. In a story by one of the leading Turk-
then surveyed under the learned gaze of the projected vision of village life by the modern-
ish intellectuals of the period, Yakup Kadri,
modern professional to serve as objects of ist elite.18 Carefully lined against a sidewalk-
the oppressiveness of folk culture was de-
analysis to be classified and categorized. The an alien urban element for Turkish
picturesque charm of the "Countryside scribed by a westernized Turk as follows: "In
villages-the compact building seems to have
houses of Anatolia" series was now replacedthis stagnant air, none of the atoms of whichbeen inspired by existenzminimum housing
is moved by a melodious sound, in theseprinciples (Figure 7). The identification of
by the rigor of scientific method. Translated

71 Nalbantoglu

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 bears testimony to the importance of this
project.21 Under the new society, a new gen-
eration of dedicated Turkish historians
shifted the young Republic's historiographi-
cal focus from Ottoman to Central Asian and
Anatolian cultures. Similarly, the Society for
Research on Turkish Language, founded in
1932, aimed at purifying Turkish from all
foreign influences and launched a thorough
research on its ancient Turkic roots. In con-
trast to the internationalist aspirations of the
previous decade, the thirties saw a conscious
attempt to propagate a nationalist ideology,
which was fueled by close relations with Nazi
Germany. Within this cultural climate, many
architects began to shift emphasis from inter-
nationalism to cultural continuity. The
Turkish vernacular, which formed a useful
in-between category beyond internationalist
7.AifHSOKAmet, pj fa149. Ia 3. modernism and Ottoman revivalism, repre-
7. Arif Hikmet, project for a village house, 1933. (Mimar 11 [1933]: 357.) sented a hypothetically pure quality similar to
that sought by the historians and linguists. In
other words, it provided an alternative center
for the Turkish architectural culture that lay
living room, bedroom, guestroom, and stor- contemporary Turkish culture could only bebetween history and modernity. Ardent
age and the arrangement of the dining table formed after the establishment of a civiliza-
modernists like Behcet Unsal began to advo-
and the beds take no account of the existing tion of advanced techniques. The absence ofcate the reconciliation of modern technique
physical and cultural conditions of village life. cultural references in the rationalist interpre-and standardization with traditional Turkish
Paradoxically, while Eldem was using the ver- tation of traditional architecture fit very welllife-style. An ideal scheme by Unsal, entitled
nacular house type for the villas of the urban into the prevalent cultural politics of the"Housing for People," projected row houses
elite, Arif Hikmet was dispensing with most young republic. Dissociated from folk cul-"embedded in greenery and fruit trees in the
vernacular references in his village house. ture, vernacular buildings could escape theauthentic Turkish tradition," using the tradi-
Hence, the differences between the urban condemnation of the modernist intellectuals
tional parti with rooms around central halls.22
and the rural were conveniently dissolved and could safely be admired as pure forms. A new architectural journal, Yapl, appeared
within a utopic vision of modernity. The ab- From the mid-thirties into the forties,on the scene in 1942 to counteract Eldem's
sence of any theoretical interest in the exist- however, the discourse on traditional formselitism by populist calls to create an architec-
ing reality that went beyond the will to took on an increasingly nationalistic fervor.19ture of Turkish revolution. Even Eldem's ra-
universalize led to a peculiar vision of the tra- As Benedict Anderson convincingly argues,tionalist emphasis took on increasingly
ditional stripped of tradition. all new nation-states seek the authoritative
nationalist overtones in the later stages of his
Within the ideological framework of support of historical continuity, and "the na- career. In a 1940 essay, for example, he ap-
the modernist elite folk culture could only tions to which they give political expression pealed to state sponsorship for the promotion
exist in sterilized form in the antiseptic clean always loom out of an immemorial past and, of a national style praising the Italian and
space reserved for civilization. Indeed in a still more important, glide into a limitless fu- German regimes' power in dispensing with
paradigmatic 1933 essay, Yakup Kadri de- ture."2" The foundation of the Turkish His- internationalist tendencies in architecture. 23
nied the categorical distinction between cul- torical Society "to begin a scientific research These attempts aligned the appropriation of
ture and civilization when he stated that on Turkish history and civilization" in 1930 traditional dwelling forms in Turkey with

November 1993 JAE 47/2 72

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similar efforts in Western nations to con- the form
potential of Eldem's monumental project was of cultural reaction as well as affirmation and

can be associated with the political right as well as the

struct nationalistic discourses that empha- undermined, however, by his inability to see
populist left.
sized the customs and habits of the people and that architecture maintains a critical edge to 2. Named after the founder of the Turkish re-
the rural areas as a source of authenticity. the extent to which it engages with thepublic,
mate- Kemal Atatiirk.
Although the assimilation of the tradi- rial practices of the present through its rela-3. For the interpretation of some aspects of the
tionalist discourse by nationalist ideologies in tive autonomy. use of the modernist vocabulary and its relationship
with nationalistic discourses, see Sibel Bozdogan and
the forties is sufficiently emphasized in stan- The rationalist interpretation of tradi-
dard histories of modern Turkish architec- Giulsum B. Nalbantoglu, "Images and Ideas of'The
tional dwelling forms in Turkey challenges
Modern House' in Early Republican Turkey," unpub-
ture, the preceding period's association of the the orientalist constructions of modern/tradi- lished paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the
vernacular tradition with rationalist/modern- tional and western/nonwestern dualities and
Society of Architectural Historians, Albuquerque, NM,
Apr. 1-5, 1992.
ist tendencies is often overlooked. The prob- opens up a space to question the premises
lem is that both failed to see that architecture 4. The standard English text for modern Turk-
and limitations of the Kemalist project of
ish architecture is R. Holod and A. Evin, eds., Modern
and culture are much more closely interre- modernization in the field of architecture.
Turkish Architecture (Philadelphia: University of Penn-
lated than their proponents were willing to Such an enterprise seems particularly relevant
sylvania, 1983). Classifications-such as modernism to
acknowledge. The rationalist approach strips at a time when the entirety of the modern
designate the thirties and the Second Period of Turkish
NationalArchitecture to designate the forties-have
history from its cultural context and projects project is under attack, not only in Turkey
it to a unified future. The nationalist one lo- been useful to a certain extent but, like all classifica-
but at a global level, and when the total rela-
tions, have the potential to harden into homogenized
cates the seeds of the future in an imaginary tivism of the post-modern condition under-
totalities.
past. Both annul culture in the name of cul- mines all attempts to express locality, 5. For more information on Egli's career, see
ture and strip forms of context. Both seek le- identity, and authenticity. Hence, the Werner
aim is Aebli, Rolf Meyer, and Ernst Winkler, Stadt
gitimacy in the past and refuse to engage with neither to arouse appreciation ofund
some
Umwelt (Zurich: Eugen Rentsch Verlag, 1964).
6. Ernst A. Egli, "Mimari Muhit" (Architec-
the contradictions and tensions created by inconspicuious corners of the world nor to
tural Context) Turk Yurdu 4-30 (June 1930): 33.
the clash of modernist and nationalist imagi- promote specialized scholarship confined to
7. Sedad Hakki Eldem (Istanbul: Mimar Sinan
nations with the country's contemporary ma- the disciplinary boundaries of the academy.
Universitesi, 1981), p. 6.
terial conditions. The major difference On the contrary, by focusing on specific in- 8. Wolfgang Pehnt mentions that connection
between the two positions lies in their reverse stances of the constitution of the modern
for Gropius and Meyer's domestic work of the early
twenties based on verbal communication from Ernst
interpretation of the relationship between ar- project, such studies hope to bring to the sur-
chitecture and culture. The rationalist dis- Neufert and Walter Gropius's letter to Karl Ernst
face the critical powers and emancipatory
Osthaus in Oshaus Archives. Pehnt, "Gropius the Ro-
course gives precedence to architecture in premises of modernity to construct a cultural
mantic," Art Bulletin 53-3 (Sept. 1971): 383. For
attempting to locate a projected cultural dis- politics of difference beyond nationalistic
Eldem's discovery of the Wasmuth papers, see Sibel
Bozdogan, et al., Sedad Eldem (Singapore: Concept
course and practice within given forms. Ar- chauvinism and anonymous universalism.
chitecture takes the backseat in the Media, 1987), p. 33.
9. See, for example, Francesco Dal Co. Figures
nationalist discourse in which forms are justi-
ofArchitecture and Thought: German Architecture Cul-
fied in the name of culture. Are these differ-
ture 1880-1920 (New York: Rizzoli, 1990); Manfredo
Notes
ences merely discursive ones? I do not think Tafuri, "U.S.S.R.-Berlin, 1922: From Populism to
so. It is no accident that Eldem's buildings "Constructivist International," in Joan Ockman, ed.,
1. The international interest in traditional
can fully be appreciated on the basis of their Architecture, Criticism, Ideology (Princeton, NJ:
dwelling forms within the context of the nationalist
Princeton Architectural Press, 1985), pp. 121-81;
attention to detail, artisanry, and concerns
Christian Otto, "Modern Environment and Historical
ideologies of the thirties and forties, the populist out-
that are predominantly architectural. His ra-
breaks of the sixties, and the cultural commodification
Continuity: The Heimatschutz Discourse in Germany,"
tionalist interpretation of vernacular forms al- of the seventies and eighties bears testimony
processes Art Journal (Summer 1983): 148-57.
lowed a relatively autonomous space
to theto
shifting meaning of architectural forms, depend- 10. Pehnt, "Gropius the Romantic," p. 379.
ing on the mode of articulation of the architectural 11. Paul Klopfer, "Die Gropius-Ausstellung im
architecture which he fully exploited in his
field with other social and cultural practices. The im-
Staatl. Bauhaus zu Weimar," Allgemeine Thiiringische
built forms. These were some of the earliest
portance of these differences lies less in the forms of the
Landeszeitung, supplement Deutschland, Weimar, July
attempts in modern Turkish architecture to
buildings (after all, each culture has its own set of ver-
5, 1922, cited in Pehnt, "Gropius the Romantic," p.
speak the international through the national 383.
naculars) than in the roles they play as cultural objects.
As such,
and the universal through the particular. The the interest in vernacular buildings can take 12. From Heinrich Tessenow, "Handwerk und

73 Nalbantoglu

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Kleinstadt" (Berlin: Bruno Cassirer, 1919), trans. 17. Falih Rifki, "Bizim Koy" (Our Village), 21. The goals of the society are quoted in Murat
Christiane Crasemann Collins, in Dal Co, Figures of Kadro 2/18 (1933): 17. Katoglu, "Cumhuriyet Tiirkiye'sinde Egitim, Kiiltiir,
Architecture and Thought, p. 315. 18. Arif Hikmet, "Koy Evi" (Rural House)
Sanat" (Education, Culture, and Arts in Republican
13. Giorgio Ciucci, "The City in Agrarian Ide- Mimar3 (1933): 357. Turkey," in (agdas Tiirkiye 1908-1980 (Contemporary
ology and Frank Lloyd Wright," in Giorgio Ciucci, et Turkey 1908-1980)(Istanbul: Cem Yayinevi, 1990), p.
19. This is not to say that the search for na-
al., The American City (London: Granada, 1980), p. tional architecture was completely absent earlier.422.
See For the conflicts and continuities between pan-
305. O.B. Celal, "Biyiik Inkilap Oniinde Milli Mimari
Turkist tendencies that ignore political frontier and the
14. Sedad H. Eldem, "Elli Yillik Cumhuriyet Meselesi" (The Issue of National Architecture Facing
Kemalist emphasis on the nation-state, see Mehmet Ali
Mimarligi" (Fifty Years of Republican Architecture), the Great Revolution), Mimar 3 (1933): 163-64. ItAgaogullari,
is "The Ultranationalist Right," in R. Benatar
Mimarlik 11/212(1973): 6. and I.C. Schick, eds. Turkey in Transition (New York:
interesting to note the editorial footnote stating that
15. Sedad Eldem, "Tirk Evi" (Turkish Oxford University Press, 1987), pp. 177-217.
some of the points made by the author did not reflect
House), Elli Yllizk Meslek Jiibilesi (Istanbul: Mimar
the editorial policies of the journal. The author's em- 22. Beheet Unsal, "Halk Iin Evler," Yapi
Sinan Universitesi, 1983). phasis on decorative elements of traditional Turkish(1942): 7.
16. Quoted in Serif Mardin, "Religion and
architecture was incompatible with the purity of ratio- 23. Sedad Eldem, "Yerli Mimariye Dogru,"
Secularism in Turkey," in A. Kazancigil and nal
E. forms advocated by Mimar. Arkitekt 10 (1940): 69-74.
Ozbudun, eds., Atatiirk Founder of a Modern State 20. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities
(London: C. Hurst and Co., 1981), p. 215. (New York: Verso, 1983), p. 19.

November 1993 JAE 47/2 74

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