Traveling Words and Images: The Question of “Foreignness” in the History of Modern Architecture in Turkey

Abstract

Yeni Mimari (The New Architecture), written by a Turkish art historian Celal Esad (Arseven) and published in 1931, was one of the most significant media through which architects in Turkey became familiarized with “modern architecture.” Introducing to Turkey the contemporary modernist tendencies in architecture mainly as it developed in the European context, the book’s approach was in accord with the modernization attempts of the new Republic, which was founded in 1923 after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War. Architecture in Turkey then transformed by the development of a modernist framework. The Turkish state reoriented the country towards the “West” in all fields, including the construction of the built environment. Similarly, Celal Esad asserted that Turkish architects should be trained in line with the new architectural understanding resulted from contemporary developments so as to rival their European colleagues; and his stated goal in writing the book was to provide such an understanding. The title page of Yeni Mimari stated that it was written by adopting the French architect Andre Lurcat’s book about the new architecture. Although the full reference was not given, the book under concern was Architecture that had been published in 1929. Hence Celal Esad discussed the contemporary approach of the European modern movement as explained by Lurcat by also including illustrations of contemporary buildings and explanations about architectu [...]