ARCHITECTURAL INTERPRETATIONS OF MODERNITY AND CULTURAL IDENTITY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON SEDAD HAKKI ELDEM AND BRUNO TAUT IN EARLY REPUBLICAN TURKEY ZEYNEP ÇDEM UYSAL JULY 2004 ARCHITECTURAL INTERPRETATIONS OF MODERNITY AND CULTURAL IDENTITY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON SEDAD HAKKI ELDEM AND BRUNO TAUT IN EARLY REPUBLICAN TURKEY A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF NATURAL AND APPLIED SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY ZEYNEP ÇDEM UYSAL IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARCHITECTURE IN ARCHITECTURE JULY 2004 Approval of the Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences Prof. Dr. Canan Özgen Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Master of Architecture. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selahattin Önür 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 Architecture. Asst. Prof. Dr. Elvan Altan Ergut Supervisor Examining Committee Members Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ali Cengizkan (METU) Asst. Prof. Dr. Elvan Altan Ergut (METU) Asst. Prof. Dr. Cana Bilsel (METU) Asst. Prof. Dr. Esin Boyacıolu (GAZ Ü.) Dr. Haluk Zelef (METU) 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 : Zeynep Çidem Uysal Signature : iii ABSTRACT ARCHITECTURAL INTERPRETATIONS OF MODERNITY AND CULTURAL IDENTITY: A COMPARATIVE STUDY ON SEDAD HAKKI ELDEM AND BRUNO TAUT IN EARLY REPUBLICAN TURKEY Uysal, Zeynep Çidem M.Arch., Department of Architecture Supervisor: Asst. Prof. Dr. Elvan Altan Ergut July 2004, 163 pages The thesis aims to reveal the decisive influence of the tension that stems from the contemporary searches for cultural identity on the architectural production of the early Republican Turkey. It attempts to demonstrate the conceptual and practical strategies that were devised in contemporary architecture for the resolution of the cultural tension by examining the architectural attitudes and practices of Sedad Hakkı Eldem and Bruno Taut in the late 1930s and the early 1940s. In the first part, ‘cultural identity’ is examined from within the general discussion of ‘modernity’, where the relevant phenomena, such as ‘nationalism’ and the ‘nation-state’, are discussed. In the second part, the contextual developments and the architectural production of the early Republican period are examined through the theoretical discussions held in the previous part. In the third part, the architectural attitudes and practices of Sedad Hakkı Eldem and Bruno Taut are examined and analyzed as to reveal the conceptual and practical strategies in the resolution of contemporary cultural tension. iv In the conclusion, the significance of the architectural attitudes of Sedad Hakkı Eldem and Bruno Taut is re-stated in terms of their contextually sensitive efforts for the disband of the cultural tension in the light of the recent cultural theory. Keywords: Cultural identity, modernity, early Republican architecture. v ÖZ MODERNTE VE KÜLTÜREL KMLN MMAR YORUMLARI: ERKEN CUMHURYET DÖNEMNDE SEDAD HAKKI ELDEM VE BRUNO TAUT ÜZERNE KARILATIRMALI BR ÇALIMA Uysal, Zeynep Çidem Yüksek Lisans, Mimarlık Fakültesi Tez Yöneticisi: Yard. Doç. Dr. Elvan Altan Ergut Temmuz 2004, 163 sayfa Bu tez, Türkiye’de erken Cumhuriyet döneminin kültürel kimlik arayılarında ortaya çıkan gerilimin mimarlık üretimindeki belirleyici etkisini saptamayı; Sedad Hakkı Eldem ve Bruno Taut’un 1930’lar sonu ve 1940’lar baında oluan mimarlık tutum ve pratiklerini inceleyerek, bu kültürel gerilimin çözümü için dönem mimarlıında gelitirilen düünsel ve uygulamaya yönelik stratejileri saptamayı amaçlamaktadır. Çalımanın ilk bölümünde, ‘kültürel kimlik’ kavramı, genel bir modernite tartıması içerisinden, milliyetçilik ve ulus-devlet gibi ilgili olgularla birlikte tanımlanmaktadır. kinci bölümde, erken Cumhuriyet döneminin balamsal gelimeleri ve mimarlık üretimi daha önceden incelenmi olan teorik tartımalar ııında tartıılmaktadır. Üçüncü bölümde, Sedad Hakkı Eldem ve Bruno Taut’un mimarlık söylem ve pratikleri, dönemin kültürel gerilimini çözmek adına gelitirilen düünsel ve pratik stratejiler vurgulanmak üzere karılatırmalı olarak incelenmektedir. vi Sonuç kısmında, Eldem ve Taut’un bu kültürel gerilimi çözmek için gösterdikleri samimi çaba ve balamsal duyarlılıın önemi tekrar belirtilmekte ve yeni kültürel teoriler ııında tartıılmaktadır. Anahtar kelimeler: kültürel kimlik, modernite, erken Cumhuriyet dönemi mimarlıı. vii To the eternal memory of my grandmother Süheyla Sevim Alparslan viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I express my sincere gratitude to Asst. Prof. Dr. Elvan Altan Ergut for her constructive guidance and considerate insight throughout the research. I would also like to thank Assoc. Prof. Dr. Belgin Turan Özkaya and my jury members Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ali Cengizkan, Asst. Prof. Dr. Cana Bilsel, Asst. Prof. Dr. Esin Boyacıolu and Dr. Haluk Zelef for their valuable suggestions and comments in the development of this study. To my family and friends, I offer sincere thanks for their continuous faith, loyal support and lasting patience to endure with me the hardships of my endeavors. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM .................................................................................................... iii ABSTRACT.........................................................................................................iv ÖZ.........................................................................................................................vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .................................................................................ix TABLE OF CONTENTS......................................................................................x LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................... xiii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................1 2. MODERNITY AND CULTURAL IDENTITY......................................8 2.1. MODERNITY: AN EPISTEMOLOGICAL AND CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS ............................................................9 2.1.1. The Development of Modernity and the Related Phenomena .............................................................9 2.1.2. Modernity’s Crisis of Culture and the Traditional-Modern Dichotomy ........................................13 2.1.3. Modern Architecture between Societal Modernization and Aesthetic Modernity...................15 2.2. CULTURAL IDENTITY: AN ASPECT OF THE MODERN NATION-STATE ..........................................................17 2.2.1. Cultural Identity in the Nationalist Praxis...............................18 2.2.2. Culture as a Modern Phenomenon and Cultural Identity as the Construction of the Nationalist Discourse ..............................................................22 2.2.3. Architecture as the Expression of National-Cultural Identity .......................................................26 3. MODERNITY AND CULTURAL IDENTITY IN EARLY REPUBLICAN TURKEY ......................................................................29 3.1. THE SOCIOPOLITICAL CONTEXT AND THE ARCHITECTURAL DISCOURSE IN THE MODERN TURKISH NATION-STATE ..........................................................29 3.1.1. The Formation of the ‘Turkish National Culture’ and ‘National-Cultural Identity’.....................................................30 x 3.1.2. The Formation of the ‘National Architecture’ ........................36 3.2. ARCHITECTURAL DISCOURSE AND PRACTICE IN THE LATE 1930S AND THE EARLY 1940S ..........................41 3.2.1. The First International Style in the Service of the Westernizing State Ideology ..................................................42 3.2.2. The Second National Style in the Benefit of the Fervent Nationalism .............................................................................47 4. SEDAD HAKKI ELDEM AND BRUNO TAUT IN THE LATE 1930S AND THE EARLY 1940S......................................54 4.1 SEDAD HAKKI ELDEM: HYBRID CONCESSION OF THE ‘MODERN’ AND THE ‘TRADITIONAL’.......................56 4.1.1. Eldem’s Search for a New Turkish Architecture under the Dual Formation of Cultural Identity..................................57 4.1.2. The Traditional Turkish House as a Reference for a Modern Turkish Architecture .........................................65 4.1.2.1. ‘Turkish House’: The Definition....................................73 4.1.2.2. Spatial Constituents and the Planimetric Organization of the Turkish House ................................76 4.1.3. The ‘Turkish House’ Reference in Eldem’s Modern Turkish Architecture ...................................83 4.1.4. Nationalist Sentiment and Regionalist Tendency in Conflict................................................................................91 4.2. BRUNO TAUT: THE REVISION OF THE MODERN IN A DIALECTICAL TOTALITY WITH TRADITION ...............98 4.2.1. A Retrospective Account on Taut’s Architectural Disposition ......................................................100 4.2.2 Taut in Early Republican Turkey...........................................109 4.2.3 The Revision of the Modernist Precept and the Consequential Regionalist Attitude........................................113