AN ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY OF THE MOVIE THEATERS IN ANKARA A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY ELİF KAYMAZ IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE SEPTEMBER 2019 Approval of the Graduate School of Social Sciences Prof. Dr. Yaşar Kondakçı Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts. Prof. Dr. F. Cânâ Bilsel Head of Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Master of Arts. Assist. Prof. Dr. Pelin Yoncacı Arslan Supervisor Examining Committee Members Prof. Dr. T. Elvan Altan (METU, AH) Assist. Prof. Dr. Pelin Yoncacı Arslan (METU, AH) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özgür Yaren (Ankara Üni., RTS) I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name : Elif Kaymaz Signature : iii ABSTRACT AN ARCHITECTURAL HISTORY OF THE MOVIE THEATERS IN ANKARA KAYMAZ, Elif M.S., Department of History of Architecture Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Pelin Yoncacı Arslan September 2019, 190 pages The purpose of this work is to study the movie theater as a product of the architectural culture of the 20th century and to develop a comprehensive discourse which allows for an understanding and discussion of such spaces, their social and spatial conditions and meanings in different times and places. Starting from the very experience of the spectator, touching the topics of the historical and architectural formation of the space of public exhibition and the practice of moviegoing, finally a conversation between modernity, cinema and architecture is established in relation to the movie theater, looking specifically at three distinct periods of movie theater construction in the city of Ankara. The ‘space as a stage’ is introduced as a theoretical comprehensive approach which allows us to recognize the inherent agencies of the movie theater: the owner/manager, governance, the architect, architecture itself, the cinema industry, and the audience. By adopting this perspective, this case study undertakes the task of understanding how those elements intersected, gelled and mutated in the local case of Ankara. Keywords: Movie Theaters, Architectural History, Ankara, Modernity iv ÖZ BİR MİMARLIK TARİHİ OKUMASI: ANKARA’DAKİ SİNEMALAR KAYMAZ, Elif Yüksek Lisans, Mimarlık Tarihi Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Dr. Öğr. Üyesi Pelin Yoncacı Arslan Eylül 2019, 190 sayfa Bu çalışmanın amacı, sinema yapılarını 20. yüzyılın mimari kültürünün bir ürünü olarak incelemek ve bu mekânların sosyal ve mekânsal koşullarını ve anlamlarını, çeşitli zaman ve coğrafyalarda algılamayı ve tartışmayı mümkün kılan kapsamlı bir söylem geliştirmektir. İzleyici deneyiminden başlayarak, kamusal gösterim mekânının tarihsel ve mimari oluşumunun konularına değinip, sinemaya gitme pratikleri irdelenerek, nihayet, sinema mekânı ile ilgili olarak modernite, sinema ve mimarlık arasında bir diyalog kurulmaktadır. Ankara’nın sinema yapılarının üç temel dönemi de bu diyalog öncülüğünde işlenmektedir. Kapsamlı bir mimari yaklaşım olarak ‘sahne olarak mekân’ düşüncesinin uygulanması ile sinema mekânına içkin aktörlerin belirlenmesi mümkün olmuştur: mülk sahibi, yerel / merkezi yönetim, mimar, mimari, sinema endüstrisi ve izleyici. Bu perspektif kullanılarak, bu aktörlerin, ilişkilerinin ve kentsel süreçlerin nasıl çakıştığı, birleştiği ve değiştiği Ankara sinemaları örneğinde incelenmiştir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Sinema Yapıları, Mimarlık Tarihi, Ankara, Modernite v To Lumière Brothers, vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to my advisor Assist. Prof. Dr. Pelin Yoncacı Arslan. Thanks to her support, guidance and patience, I was able to see this thesis through the end. I would like to thank Prof. Dr. Hilde Heynen for her guidance as a supervisor during my stay in KU Leuven, as she greatly contributed to the bases and maturing of my research. I would like to express my profound appreciation to Prof. Dr. Ahmet Gürata who believed in me and my project and supported me in every step along the way. I wish to thank the jury members, Prof. Dr. Elvan Altan and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Özgür Yaren for their insightful contributions. I owe special thanks to my mother, my father and my sister for bearing with me throughout the whole process and for the continued encouragement. I should address my heartfelt gratitude to my friends Onur, Bilge, Arturo and Jan who have always been there for lightening the pressure I’ve felt over time. Finally, I would like to thank my dear friend and colleague Xavier Gaillard for his immeasurable support and tolerance, for his linguistic guidance and for his fulfilling companionship. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM……….……………………………………………………………..……………………iii ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................... iv ÖZ ............................................................................................................................ v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ..................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................... xi CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 1.1. Background ................................................................................................... 1 1.2. The Aim of the Study & the Organization of Chapters ................................ 2 1.3. Definitions of Terms ..................................................................................... 6 1.4. Limitations, Delimitations and Assumptions ................................................ 9 1.5. Literature Review & Commentary .............................................................. 10 2. THE MOVIE THEATER ................................................................................... 18 2.1. A Cinematic Situation ................................................................................. 18 2.2. Light and Shadows: Precursors of Moving Image ...................................... 25 2.3. The Movie Theater and the Sources of Its Architectural Style ................... 27 2.4. Positioning Cinema and Architecture in relation to Modernity .................. 38 2.4.1. “The Opening of Another Dimension” ................................................. 38 2.4.2. Architecture, Cinema and the Two Sides of Modernity ....................... 41 2.4.3. Metropolis, Architecture and Movie Theater ....................................... 48 viii 2.4.4. Lessons Derived From an Architect’s Account On Movie Theaters .... 51 2.5. An Architectural and Methodological Approach to the Movie Theater ..... 57 2.5.1. Architecture as a Stage ......................................................................... 57 2.5.2. The Inherent Agencies of the Movie Theater ....................................... 64 3. A HISTORY OF MOVIE THEATERS IN ANKARA ..................................... 69 3.1. The First Years of the Cinematograph in Ankara ....................................... 69 3.2. 1929 – 1945: Various Faces of the Agency of State ................................... 78 3.2.1. Urban Conditions and Social Structure ................................................ 78 3.2.2. The Civil Efforts in Film Exhibition..................................................... 82 3.2.3. Yeni Sinema and Halkevi Sineması: State Sets Hands on the Movie Theaters ........................................................................................................... 84 3.2.4. The Other Audience, The Other Center ................................................ 91 3.3. 1946 – 1960: The Civil (yet Visionary) Partnerships ................................. 99 3.3.1. Urban Conditions and Social Structure ................................................ 99 3.3.2. Büyük Sinema: The Modernist Architecture of The Owner and The Architect........................................................................................................ 103 3.3.3. The District Cinemas .......................................................................... 112 3.4. 1960 - 1980: The Cinema Boom between Coup d'états ............................ 117 3.4.1. Urban Conditions and Social Structure .............................................. 117 3.4.2. Tunalı Hilmi Street and its Apartment Blocks with Movie Theaters . 123 3.4.3. Başkent Apartmanı and Kavaklıdere Sineması: The Owner, The Architect and The Architecture ..................................................................... 128 3.4.4. The Audience, The Street and The Five Theaters .............................. 140 3.5. After the 1980s: A Place in the International Market ............................... 149 4. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 153 ix BIBLIOGRAPHY ...............................................................................................