Читать книгу The Borders of Europe - Группа авторов - Страница 10

Social life and conventions in Ankara in the late 1920s carried the message that international modernist aesthetics was on its way, even though the architectural packaging still had at least one foot in the rich traditional styles of the past. In the decade that followed, almost all construction work, except for that of residential buildings, was initiated by the public sector (Batur: 69). One of the goals was to create orderly conditions in urban environments, an understandable aim when one considers the outward aspect of many Turkish cities even today. As a relatively pristine town, Ankara offered opportunities for systematic planned development, thanks not least to the adoption of a comprehensive master plan in 1928.

It was the German architect Hermann Jansen (1869-1945) who won the international competition to develop a large-scale urban strategy, implemented from 1932. The plan contained important elements that one associates with modernist urban planning: fully paved roads, pavements, parks with fountains and open spaces, the zoning of different functions, and uninterrupted transport lines. Atatürk Boulevard was designed to serve as a principal axis in the north-south direction, with a second axis crossing it at Ulus. Along these axes the new developments would spread out independently of the older building substance, which was to be preserved. The commercial centre would remain in Ulus, while the new administrative centre would be located in Yenisehir. Residential blocks were laid out according to a grid system in the areas to either side of Atatürk Boulevard. Dead-end roads were to be eliminated from the existing districts, a measure that was implemented with little regard for the historical value of the buildings that happened to be standing where the new openings were required (Batur: 70).

In Ankara, the development of republican architecture continued, and in the period 1930-40 the regime consolidated both its Kemalist ideology and the architectural idiom that would constitute its physical, substantive face. According to Afife Batur, the republican middle classes were decisive in conferring approval on the new architectural methods in Ankara. Prominent citizens wanted a new, modern, Western lifestyle with no associations to the past, and they regarded the physical and architectural process of modernisation as a visible and concrete expression of the nation’s positive development (Batur: 78). A key socio-economic measure was the promotion of modern industry, and in the region of Anatolia in particular, which had hitherto been a predominantly agrarian society, industrial plants represented an entirely new building type. Some of the constructions from the mid-1920s were among the first to use modernist building techniques and styles: these include the Ankara textile factory and the Alpullu sugar refinery. The former had a flat roof, rectangular volumes, smooth white walls and horizontal ribbon windows.

The Russian Revolution was a clear source of inspiration for the new regime in Turkey, despite their very different origins and historical contexts. The situation was of course special in each of the two countries, albeit in different ways: in Russia a bloody revolution was initiated and pursued by the working class and the peasantry against a hereditary dynasty that had exercised absolute power for centuries. In Turkey the new state apparatus swept aside an equally traditional hereditary dynasty, and the political system underwent an equally fundamental change from a religious to a secular society. In both cases, however, a new hegemony was established. Systematic cooperation between the two nations began after Ismet Inönü, Turkey’s prime minister at the time, visited the Soviet Union in 1932. These links resulted in the cooperative body Turkstroj, which was meant to take care of industrial development in Turkey (Asiliskender: 216-223). Textile factories were built in response to government initiatives in Kayseri in Anatolia and Nazilli near the Aegean, and a steel plant was constructed in Karabük near the Black Sea coast. In 1933, the first five-year plan for industrial development was implemented, and according to Batur reforms were carried out under an increasingly dirigiste system (Batur: 68).

In the first decades, German architects represented a forceful presence in relation to Ankara’s major building projects. The three most distinguished, apart from Jansen, who was responsible for the urban master plan, were Theodore Post, Clemens Holzmeister (1886-1983), and Ernst Egli (1893-1974). Holzmeister designed an astonishing number of buildings for central government institutions and banks. With his strict, monumental style he left an indelible stamp on the administrative districts of the new capital. His buildings are of large dimensions, were built using modern construction techniques, and feature natural stone or brick in their façades. Window openings are distributed according to regular, repetitive patterns; and the bodies of his buildings rise from floor plans designed around closed rectangles, U-shapes or T-shapes. There is invariably clear emphasis on symmetry. The presidential palace from 1932, however, is an exception. The building’s volumes are organised on a rectangular shape, but one façade is broken up by a series of tall window expanses. The corner is curved and there is a hipped roof with a very low pitch and slightly overhanging eaves, which reflect the influence of Ottoman architecture. The classical idiom is stylised and reduced, indicating that, in its Turkish guise, the modernist aesthetic ideals may have found a certain foothold. Ernst Egli’s buildings are considerably more modern, with a freer distribution of building volumes, and clear, horizontal divisions in the façades. The integration of volumes of the kind familiar from early Viennese and Dutch modernism is also a characteristic feature.

Besides industrialisation, one of the main concerns of the Kemalist regime was the construction of homes for a growing population. There was a large and unmet need, both in Ankara and other major cities. Prestige projects for government departments generally went, as we have seen, to foreign architects, while in the early years Turkish architects generally made their mark promoting modernist practices in the context of smaller construction projects. Projects from the 1930s show that young Turkish architects were well informed about international architectural trends, and that they were competent at applying them in practice. Modernism eventually made its mark on the urban architecture of Turkish towns just as it did in the cities of other European countries, although many of the earliest modernist buildings no longer exist.

Naturally, many professionals in the field were unhappy about the fact that large and nationally prestigious projects went to foreign architects. The situation was changed by architects like Seyfettin Nasih Arkan (1902-1966), a major exponent of modernism in the history of Turkish architecture. Arkan was chosen to design the foreign minister’s residence and a large house for Atatürk’s sister, Makbule Atadan, in Ankara, and the president’s summer pavilion at Florya outside Istanbul. Completed in 1934, the foreign minister’s residence soon became an icon for the new republic. It was frequently depicted and referred to in foreign-language propaganda, such as La Turquie Kemaliste, published by the interior ministry (Akcan: 31). In addition to architectural design, Arkan was also responsible for the selection of fixtures and furnishings, as well as for the landscaping of the surroundings. The estate was not just the private home of a statesman, but also a place for official festivities and a showpiece for the new Turkey. This representative residence was meant to give foreign diplomats a clear impression of the state’s ambitions with regard to modernisation and westernisation, while also showing that the new republic was eradicating the oriental traits typical of the Ottoman Empire. The distinction between the private and public spheres was toned down, in strong contrast to the layout of traditional Ottoman-Turkish houses. Many of the features in the foreign minister’s residence had their origins in a “Waterfront House” that Arkan had designed during his time as a student at the Charlottenburg Technische Hochschule. There he studied under Hans Poelzig, who presented a modernist approach in his teaching, and Arkan later worked closely with Poelzig at the Prussian Academy of the Arts in Berlin (Akcan: 28). The concept for the waterfront house was further pursued in the residence for Makbule Atadan in Ankara, built in 1936, and the summer pavilion at Florya, which was completed in 1935.

Fig. 4. Seyfettin Nasih Arkan: The President’s summer pavilion at Florya outside Istanbul, 1934-35. Author’s photo, 2009.

Both the summer pavilion and the other public residences clearly demonstrate that modernism’s structural techniques and aesthetics were preferred for prestigious projects. Arkan was awarded the commission to build the summer pavilion following a closed competition, in which the German architect Martin Wagner also took part. The house was actually situated out in the water on the Marmara coast and connected to the shore by a pier. Atatürk wanted to spend his holidays in contact with the people, and an important specification was that the adjacent beach should remain open to the public. The summer pavilion was meant as a conspicuous reminder that the republican revolution was also the people’s revolution. The house demonstrated the president’s desire for contact with the masses, and was a clear statement that the former regime’s hierarchy with its clear distinction between governing and governed classes had been swept aside. Here the president could spend his holidays just a few metres away from the common masses (to the extent that “the masses” were able to choose Florya for their holidays), he could swim and relax with them, and wave to them from the terrace of his boat-like house (Akcan: 42).

Esra Akcan mentions another interesting connection that is rarely considered in contemporary discussions of the pavilion on the Marmara Sea, namely the traditional Ottoman “water baths” that were set up along the Bosporus each summer. In many parts of the world, it was the architects of modernism who introduced the ideals of bodily hygiene and outdoor activities, whereas in Turkey people could just continue the bathing culture they had been practising for centuries. Modernism had come to occupy a leading and hegemonic position, especially in Ankara. It inspired the architecture of a vast number of monumental public buildings, industrial facilities, and residential developments, all of them central building projects that gave the new regime its face.