BETWEEN BEING AND BECOMING: IDENTITY, QUESTION OF FOREIGNNESS AND THE CASE OF THE TURKISH HOUSE A Ph.D. Dissertation by UMUT ġUMNU Department of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design Ġhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University Ankara January 2012 BETWEEN BEING AND BECOMING: IDENTITY, QUESTION OF FOREIGNNESS AND THE CASE OF THE TURKISH HOUSE Graduate School of Economics and Social Sciences of Ġhsan Doğramacı Bilkent University by UMUT ġUMNU In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE DEPARMENT OF INTERIOR ARCHITECTURE AND ENVIRONMENTAL DESIGN ĠHSAN DOĞRAMACI BĠLKENT UNIVERSITY ANKARA January 2012 I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Interior Architecture and Environmental Design. --------------------------- Assist. Prof. Dr. Meltem O. Gürel Supervisor I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Interior Architecture and Environmental Design. --------------------------- Prof. Dr. Ali Cengizkan Examining Committee Member I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Interior Architecture and Environmental Design. --------------------------- Assist. Prof. Dr. Ahmet Gürata Examining Committee Member I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Interior Architecture and Environmental Design. --------------------------- Assist. Prof. Dr. Çağrı İmamoğlu Examining Committee Member I certify that I have read this thesis and have found that it is fully adequate, in scope and in quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Interior Architecture and Environmental Design. --------------------------- Assist. Prof. Dr. İnci Basa Examining Committee Member Approval of the Graduate School of Economics and Social Sciences ------------------------------ Prof. Dr. Erdal Erel Director ABSTRACT BETWEEN BEING AND BECOMING: IDENTITY, QUESTION OF FOREIGNNESS AND THE CASE OF THE TURKISH HOUSE Umut Şumnu Ph.D., Department of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design Supervisor: Assist. Prof. Dr. Meltem O. Gürel January, 2012 How were those narratives telling us about the Turkish House shaped? How did they come to contribute to the formation of our understanding of the history [and theory] of modern Turkish architecture? And respectively, how did they dominate our conception of modern Turkish identity? In light of these questions, this dissertation looks at the historiography of what is the so-called Turkish House as it emerged from Ottoman obscurity into the consciousness of the new Republic of Turkey, between the closing decades of the 19th century and the end of the 1930s. And, following the arguments of post-structuralist (architectural) theorists and the texts of the architectural historians in Turkey, this study intends to open up an ontological discussion around modern Turkish identity, and respectively around the Turkish House, as its architectural translation. Through looking at culturally and politically thick textual descriptions in journals, books, novels and stories; and visual representations in pictures, drawings, and architectural projects of the era, this study first of all underlines that idea/image of the Turkish House appeared and was formed as a response to the question of „foreignness‟. Then, from a de-constructive perspective, in order to challenge the term‟s de-facto usage, this study most productively brings the „foreign‟ voices of several architects - like Ernst Egli, Bruno Taut and Seyfi Arkan, who were practicing their designs in the late 1930s in Turkey- to the discussion, to reveal a more „dialogical‟, more „contingent‟, and more „pluralized‟ conception of the term modern, and to trace an alternative understanding of the Turkish House. Although in cultural and historical terms, the designs of these architects do not fit into the typological and stylistic principles of traditional dwelling forms, the works, which concentrates on not the „essential modern‟ character of the Turkish House, but the „inevitably national‟ character of modern house help us to position a more experimental, more spatial and more universalistic understanding of the Turkish House, rather than a stylistic, decorative, romantic, and culturally relativist one. In other words, through works, one can find a chance to shift from the morphological perspective of modern (and, of national); to show that the terms modern and national cannot be reduced into fixed architectural definitions; to portray a modern-national identity that is slippery, mobile, multiple, heterogeneous, incomplete, and subject to change; and more importantly, to surface an understanding of Turkish House not as a „thingness‟, as a being, but as a „movement‟, as a „becoming‟. Keywords: Modern (Turkish) Architecture, Architectural Historiography, Modern and Tradition, Foreignness, 1st National Architectural Movement, New Architecture, 2nd National Architectural Movement, Turkish House, Post- structuralism, Deconstruction, Being/Becoming, Tower of Babel, Incomplete-edifice, House. iii ÖZET VARLIK VE VAROLUŞ ARASINDA: KİMLİK, YABANCI SORUNSALI VE TÜRK EVİ OLGUSU Umut Şumnu Doktora, İç Mimarlık ve Çevre Tasarımı Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Yrd.Doç. Dr. Meltem Ö. Gürel Ocak, 2012 Türk Evi‟nin hikayesini dillendiren anlatılar nasıl şekillendiler? Bu anlatılar, modern Türk mimarlığına ilişkin tarihsel ve kuramsal bakışın kurulmasına nasıl katkıda bulundular, ve modern Türk kimliğini algılayışımızı nasıl etkilediler? Bu soruların ışığında, bu çalışma geç Osmanlı döneminden Yeni Cumhuriyetin ilk yıllarına uzanan bir süreçte Türk Evi denilen olgunun söylemsel olarak nasıl inşa edildiğine bakma ve bu belgelemenin arkasındaki teksesli-ideolojik yapıyı eleştirel bir gözle tartışma amacı taşımaktadır. Bu kapsamda, özellikle yapısalcılık-sonrası (mimarlık) kuramcılarının tartışmalarını ve Türkiye‟deki mimarlık tarihçilerinin metinlerini izleyerek, bu çalışma, modern Türk kimliği ve onun mimari temsili olarak Türk Evi üzerine varlıkbilimsel (ontolojik) bir tartışmayı yüzeye çıkarmayı amaçlar. Dönemin mimari ve görsel temsillerindeki, dergilerindeki, roman ve hikayelerindeki, öğrenci projelerindeki, ve açılan sergilerdeki kültürel-politik vurguya bakarak, bu çalışma ilk olarak Türk evi fikrinin/imgesinin ortaya çıkışında ve nesnelleşme sürecinde etkin olan „yabancı‟ sorunsalına işaret eder. Daha sonra, yapı-sökümcü bir perspektiften, Türk evi kelimesinin süre-giden anlamını aşındırma amacıyla, özellikle 1930‟lu yıllarda Türkiye‟deki mimarlık ortamında yapıt üreten Ernst Egli, Bruno Taut ve Seyfi Arkan gibi mimarların „yabancı‟ seslerini‟ tartışmaya getirerek, bu çalışma Türk Evi kavramına ilişkin alternatif bir bakış açısını sunmayı amaçlar. Tarihsel ve kültürel anlamda geleneksel konutların tipolojik ve biçimsel prensipleriyle akrabalık göstermese de, „yabancı‟ mimarların tasarımları bizlere Türk Evi‟nin „yabancı‟ bir üretim olarak da görülebileceğinin altını çizer. „Zaten özünden modern olan Türk Evi‟ kavrayışının yerine „kaçınılmaz olarak geleneksel ve ulusal olan modern ev‟ üzerine odaklanan bu mimarların çalışmaları biçimsellikten, dekoratiflikten uzak daha deneysel, daha mekansal ve daha evrensel bir Türk Evi algılanışını yüzeye çıkarırlar. Daha da önemlisi, bu çalışmalar sayesinde, modern ve geleneksel terimlerinin sabit mimari tanımlara indirgenemeyeceğinin, ulusal kimliğin hareketli, çoğul, tamamlanmamış ve değişime açık olduğunun, ve bu bağlamda Türklüğün evi olarak Türk Evi‟nin bir „şey‟ değil, bir hareket, bir oluş olduğunun altı çizilebilir. Anahtar Kelimeler: Modern Türk Mimarlığı, Tarihyazımı, Modernite, Modern ve Gelenek, Yaban(cı)lık, Ulusal Kimlik, 1. Ulusal Mimarlık Hareketi, Yeni Mimari, 2. Ulusal Mimarlık Hareketi, Türk Evi, Post- yapısalcılık, Yapı-söküm, Oluş, Babil Kulesi, Tamamlanmamış- Anıt, Ev. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Firstly, I would like to thank to my advisor Meltem Ö. Gürel, for her help, tutorship, encouragement and patience during the different stages of my thesis. Without her support, I would hardly find a route for my research, or complete this study. It is also my duty to express my thanks to my thesis interim committee members and final jury members Ali Cengizkan, Ahmet Gürata, Çağrı İmamoğlu and İnci Basa for the time they spent, and for their invaluable ideas in the development of thesis. I am grateful to all of my instructors- Zafer Aracagök, Gülsüm Baydar, Aykut Çelebi, Mahmut Mutman, Asuman Suner and Andreas Treske- for their trust in me, and for the excellent education I took in their courses during my Ph. D. study. I specially want to thank to my friends and my classmates Aykan Alemdaroğlu, Ersan Ocak, Özgür Özakın and Şafak Uysal for walking this long and hard path with me. Lastly, but not least, I am very grateful to my family; to my wife Ece Akay Şumnu, to my father Murat Şumnu, to my sister Burcu Şumnu and to my grandmother Enise Hitit. They supported me in many ways, especially during the hardest stages of this work. It would be impossible for me to complete this thesis without the great love and respect that I have for them. v TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………….. iii ÖZET……………………………………………………………………………………. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………