Measured drawing: A nationalist reaction in early republican Turkey

Abstract

A measured drawing, by definition, includes the existing condition of the historic building, including graphical notes of alterations, additions and subtractions occurred during the lifetime of the edifice. These particular graphical records annotated with notes and surface measurements inform heritage conservation and research activities. When conducting research on the built environment, repairing a historic material or restoring the building to a significant phase in its life, measured drawings provide the analytical information for physical interventions. With the proclamation of Republic of Turkey in 1923, the nation state became the major steward to protect architectural heritage in a landscape tainted with decades of wars. Measured drawings were prioritized as scientific tools for repairs, physical interventions and methodical classification of historic properties. What has been taken for granted as scientific documentation, however, suited context-independent and historically constructed interpretation of building forms and traditions. Fuelled with the implementation of Turkish History Thesis, the contents of measured drawings could not escape from the formalist understanding of nationalist historiography. The drawings became idealized depictions of perfect monuments, rather than an acute graphical replica of ailing built environment. Reading measured drawings as a graphical arrangement of formalism, this article addresses the early republican desire to invest the built heritage with nationalist inquiries.