Do You Remember When?: Apartment Space in the 1950s Te?vikiye-Ni?anta??

Abstract

This essay examines the spatial reconfiguration of Istanbul through a case study of the Teşvikiye-Nişantaşı district between 1945 and 1960, a period during which the physical fabric of the neighborhood gradually transformed from traditional Ottoman konaks (mansions) to multi-story apartment buildings. It pays particular attention to the reorientation of traditional extended families within the context of the newly dominant mode of "apartment dwelling" in the 1950s as the government launched and developed a new spatial image, which aimed to fracture the traditional urban fabric and Ottoman social relationships in the city. Along with nostalgic stories of its inhabitants, I explore how residents of the neighborhood appropriated the space in these newly developed multi-unit buildings in the 1950s and how, they contested and adapted to state power in their efforts to launch urban development projects in and around the district.