MANIFESTATIONS OF IN BUILT

FORM

ISTANBUL, TURKEY

STRUCTURE OF PRESENTATION

• BRIEF HISTORY AND LOCATION

• METHODOLOGY FOR ANALYSING

POWER IN BUILT FORM

• ANALYSIS

In the course of the

centuries, Empires were built,

abandoned, demolished, and

rebuilt.

• EARLY SETTLERS- NOMADS

• GREEK COLONY- EARLY BYZANTIUM

• EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE (146 BC-395 AD)

• CONSTANTINE (306-337 AD)

• LATE BYZANTINE (EASTERN) (395-1453)

• OTTOMAN-ISLAMIC (1453-1922)

• MODERN ISTANBUL-WESTERNIZATION(1900-’50)

• ISTANBUL NOW (1950- )

ISTANBUL?

TURKEY

ISTANBUL- STRATEGIC LOCATION

• DIRECT- OVERT FORCE

• COERCION-

– DOMINATION/INTIMIDATION

– MANIPULATION

– SEDUCTION

• AUTHORITY

• SYMBOLISING NATIONALISM-IDENTITY

• POWER OVER BY TRANSFORMATION

• POWER OVER BY NEGLECT

• POWER DISPLAY BY DESTRUCTION

KIM DOVEY WAY OF ANALYSIS

• EARLY SETTLERS- NOMADS

• GREEK COLONY- EARLY BYZANTIUM

• EARLY ROMAN EMPIRE (146 BC-395 AD)

• CONSTANTINE (306-337 AD)

• LATE BYZANTINE (EASTERN) (395-1453)

• OTTOMAN-ISLAMIC (1453-1922)

• MODERN ISTANBUL-WESTERNIZATION(1900-’50)• ISTANBUL NOW (1950- )

CONSTANTINOPLE-NEW ROME-ON SEVEN HILLS

HIPPODROME

FORUMS, PALACES, CHURCHES, LAW COURTS

HAGIA SOPHIA CHURCH

OTTOMAN EMPIRE

Islambul, the Home of Islam

OVERT FORCE---

FORTIFICATION

• REPOPULATING

THE CITY

• MILLETS-

GREEKS, JEWS,

ARMENIANS

• MAJORITY

TURKISH

MUSLIMS

• ISLAMIC

CHARACTER

MAINTAINED

• REGULATIONS IN

BUILDING

• DIGNITARIES’

POWER

MESO—SIMILAR PLANNING TO

CONSTANTINE- CONTROL, AUTHORITY

DOMINATION

INTIMIDATION-MANIPULATION-

AUTHORITY—TOPKAPI PALACE

• Architect Sinan: Chief Ottoman architect

• His most famous work is the Suleiman Mosque .

• Sinan was also one of the first earthquake engineers in the world.

• In his autobiography he says that his masterpiece is the Suleymaniye Mosque in Edirne. While it was being built, the Christian architects saying "You can never build a dome

larger than the dome of Hagia Sophia and

specially as Muslims" was his main motivation while building that mosque.

• While when it was completed, Sinan claimed that it had the largest dome in the world leaving Hagia Sophia behind, the reality was that the dome height from the ground

level was lower and the diameter almost

identical to the millenium-older Hagia Sophia.

OSTENTATION (BOASTFUL SHOWINESS)-THE

EXPRESSION OF POWER- ALWAYS PRESENT IN

ISLAMIC ARCHITECTURE

• However, it is a more symmetrical, rationalized and light-filled interpretation of earlier Ottoman precedents, as well as the Hagia Sophia.

• The design of the Süleymaniye also plays on Suleyman's self-conscious representation of himself as a 'second Solomon.' It references the Dome of the Rock, which was built on the site of the Temple of Solomon, as well as Justinian's boast upon the completion of the Hagia Sophia: "Solomon, I have surpassed thee!" The Süleymaniye, similar in magnificence to the preceding structures, asserts Suleyman's historical importance.

SULEYMANIYE

COMPLEX

MANIPULATION-AUTHORITY-NATIONAL SYMBOL

SEDUCTION:

KAPALI CARSI

With sixty-six

streets and alleys,

over four thousand

shops, numerous

store-houses,

moneychangers and

banks,

a mosque, post office,

police station,

private security

guards and its own

health center,

Istanbul’s Kapali Carsi

is said to be

the largest covered

bazaar in the world.

KAPALI CARSI

BUT THE GLORY GRADUALLY DECLINED..

SEDUCTION-PEOPLE ALLOWED TO SEE ROYAL LIFE

As the influence of empire declined, the Sultan wanted

to show the splendor and

of

the Ottoman empire and celebrated many festivals that

lasted for months.

ISTANBUL

1900-1950

• YOUNG TURK REVOLUTION

• WORLD WAR I

• EUROPEAN FORCES TAKING OVER

• OTTOMAN EMPIRE COLLAPSED

• REVOLT AGAINST EUROPEANS

• REPUBLIC OF TURKEY DECLARED IN 1923

• MUSTAFA KEMAL ATATURK

• RAPID MODERNISATION/WESTERNIZATION

• KEMALISM

• NEW ARCHITECTURE

TAKSIM SQUARE (IN NEW CITY)

ATATURK MONUMENT- MONUMENT F REPUBLIC TURKEYDOMINATION, INTIMIDATION, SYMBOLISM

• challenge to Ottoman

taboo that restricted the

depiction of the human form

• The 11 m (36 ft) high monument

portrays the founders of the

Turkish Republic esp Kemal

Atatürk

• The monument has two sides,

the side facing northward

depicts Atatürk at an earlier

period and the other one

facing Istiklal Caddesi has

Atatürk and his comrades

dressed in modern, western-

European clothing,

symbolizing him in both his

roles, as military commander-

in-chief and as statesman.

POWER OVER BY CHANGING BUILDING FUNCTION/CHARACTER

SECULAR MUSEUM

NEGLECT—DESTRUCTURING POWER

SHIFT OF CAPITAL---EMPIRE TO NATION STATE

HENRY PROST SCHEME

The grand avenues that crossed the historic

city and multiple secondary roads transformed

the introvert neighborhoods of the old Ottoman

city into an open structure.

"One of the biggest mistakes I made in my

life was the letter I wrote to Atatürk. If I

had not written this letter, I would have

been working on the plan of Istanbul in

place of my rival Prost. In this letter I

advised the greatest reformer of a nation

to conserve the city of Istanbul with its

centuries old dust. I realized the error I

had committed afterwords".

(Le Corbusier quoted by S. Demiren, 1948)

HENRY PROST SCHEME

The priority was given to the construction of administrative buildings symbolizing the power of the new regime, and to the educational, financial, social and cultural buildings, which were intended to support the institutional modernization as well as a modern social life.

Preservation of the Byzantine fortifications that surround the historical city. Labelled them as monuments, a zone of non-aedificanti covering an area of 500 m. outside and 50 m. inside the terrestrial walls, to conserve thewalls in their integrity, and also to emphasize their monumental total effect.

HIPPODROME-

DURING

CONSTANTINE

EMPIRE-OTTOMAN

EMPIRE-REPUBLIC

TURKEY

A plaza crowned with a grandiose monument dedicated to the Republic. Hence, three eras of Istanbul -the Byzantine, Ottoman and Republican periods-symbolized at one place.

POWER OVER BY DESTRUCTION

MONUMENTAL ARCHITECTURE GATHERS,

FOCUSES, STORES AND TRANSFERS SOCIAL

RESOURCES AT A CONCEPTUAL OR

IDEOLOGICAL LEVEL. A MONUMENTAL

BUILDING, THUS, IS A PHYSICAL STRUCTURE

CAPABLE OF STRUCTURING NON

PHYSICAL ASPECTS OF A GIVEN

CULTURE. THEREFORE, THE DESTRUCTION

OF IT HAS A PROFOUND EFFECT NOT ONLY ON

THE PHYSICAL, BUT ON NON MATERIAL

ASPECT OF CULTURE. IT ALTERS BEHAVIORAL

PATTERN AND ITS UNDERLYING SOCIAL

GRAMMAR. MONUMENTS ARE DESTROYED

NOT FOR WHAT THEY COTAIN, BUT FOR WHAT

THEY REPRESENT.

Many Historic

buildings from the

late Ottoman period

were demolished in

order to open the

perspective from the

plaza onto the

Marmara Sea, and to

make this grandiose

monument, located on

top of the colossal

retaining walls of the

Byzantine hippodrome,

visible far from the

sea.

GREAT REPUBLIC SQUARE-USED FOR OFFICIAL

FUNCTIONS AND MILITARY PARADES- AUTHORITY

ALSO TO OPEN UP SPACES- FOR

PARKS, POOLS AND RECREATIONAL

PUBLIC SPACES-SEDUCTION

MODERN

ISTANBUL

THE

CULTURAL

CAPITAL OF

EUROPE