TURKISH ARCHITECTURE IN THE REPUBLICAN PERIOD

The Search for Identity: 1st National Architecture Movement

The trend towards nationalism that followed the proclamation in 1908 of the 2nd Constitution brought about new research in architecture. In Turkish architecture, the period known as Neoclassic Turkish Style or a National Renaissance in Architecture, which began at this time, was headed by the architects Kemalettin Bey and Vedat Bey. Later, during the Seventies, this style became known as the First National Style. This new form of architecture tended to use a great number of the decorative features found in classic Ottoman architecture.

Efforts were made through a revival of classic Turkish architecture in the buildings of this period to create an architectural Renaissance or Turkish national architecture. During this revival, Islamic nations began to secede one by one from Ottoman rule and as a result, in the face of Pan- Islamism the movement towards Pan-Turkism , that is, the creation of the concept of nationhood began. In architecture, this trend towards so-called nationalist style was more an attempt to implement the use of the wide eaves, domes, pointed arches, pillars, overhangs, triangular stalactite-like capitals and tiled facing found in the old religious buildings. This style was predominately used in public works and did not really affect residential-building.

The First National Architecture could not keep pace with new technology or meet the requirements of the new age so remained a movement which in style was remote, selective, sensitive, formalized and academic.

Foreign Architects of the Young Republic

Building requirements increased rapidly particularly in the new capital, Ankara.. There were not enough architects to meet these needs so after 1927 a new period began when the hegemony of foreign architects predominated. Architects such as Clemens Holzmeister, Ernst Egli, Theodor Jost, Hermann Jansen, Martin Wagner, Martin Elsaesser, Bruno Taut, and R. Oerley, who took up posts in Turkey as teachers, consultants, planners and implementers, influenced the architecture of the Republic through their own personal leanings. During this period it was the Viennese school of European architecture, in particular, with its monumental traditional form of neo-classicism that was imported and became the dominant influence on Turkish architecture. Symmetric design, refined decoration, symmetric facades with plain lines, a rhythmic arrangement of windows, flat or concealed curved roofs, monumental staircases, pillared entrances or pillars rising several storeys up the fronts of buildings are among the characteristic features of this period. This becomes a public statement of the monumental concepts and authority of the State..

The New Approach Towards the Contemporary Movements

Pioneering thought in the West which centred on Bauhaus and CIAM was not slow in coming to Turkey..In the 1930's some Turkish architects followed the contemporary International Style closely, and for about ten years constructed buildings which followed the Western trends of cubism and the use of reinforced concrete.

A New Perspective on National Architecture: 2nd. National Architecture Movement

Following a period of approximately ten years (1930-1940) during which attempts were made to keep pace with positive trends in world architecture, an reaction against the hegemony of foreign architects, which had been going on since 1927, caused a trend towards a new national architecture to begin. This return to tradition was influenced by the Fascist movement in Italy and the rise of National Socialism in Germany with their totalitarian ideas The new trend, which tended towards romanticism and aimed to create a new national architecture, influenced architecture in Turkey between 1935 and 1950. The movement, first under the name of the National Architecture, and later called the Second National Architecture, aimed at finding and using traditional features in its architectural style. Sedad H. Eldem was influential in creating a rational basis for this style through his work at the Academy of Fine Arts in establishing a seminar under the name of the National Architect Seminar which devoted itself to the sudy of traditional civil architecture in Turkey. The separatist understanding of the totalitarian regimes of the time which took over in countries such as Russia, Germany and Italy had a role in these nationalistic ideas. Moreover, the architects Kemalettin Bey and Vedat Bey were a source of new strength to this movement which had never been entirely extinguished. However, in this new phase, the preference was for the use of simple features from the domestic architecture of the past rather than the religious type of detail which had been used by the First National Architecture. Relying on producing the essence of these, importance was giving to symmetry, stone faced facades, and a monumental effect. This style lasted until the 1950's. It ended when it became necessary to keep up with the new developments and requirements in technology, in other words, with contemporary ideas about architecture.

The decline of the Second National Architecture Movement came with the 3rd competition in 1948 for the Istanbul Courts of Justice in which the rational approach of the joint design of S. H. Eldem and E. Onat won first prize. It had completely ended by the time the competition for the Istanbul Municipality Headquarters was held in 1952.