(ongoing)

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The series consists visualizations of some iconic modernist buildings in Turkey from early 1900’s. Most of them either were demolished or exposed to radical restorations. Their digital replicas were created by using found images, sketches and texts.

 

The aim of the project is to examine the perception of time and space by investigating the examples of Early Republican Modernist Turkish architecture.  At the same time, so called history and city re-imagination to be realized by architectural restorations and especially replicas, which are one of the most common attitudes of today, is examined through the relationship between architectural models and representations.

 

Today, we encounter models in many exhibitions. These models sometimes carry the traces of the past by presenting small-scale representations of previously occurring events / structures, or they visualize the projects that have not yet been realized and provide a foresight of the future. In this context, it is not clear without having prior knowledge if any model refers to the past or the future. The models that can be considered as such an intermediate form have the potential to ironically function in the relationship we have established with the architectural structures that have been etched into the social memory but have lost their old status for the moment or completely destroyed.

 

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Today there is large-scale urban renovation in Turkey.  While most of the modernist buildings (for instance AKM-Ataturk Cultural Center in Taksim, Istanbul or Old Liqueur Factory designed by Robert Mallet-Stevens) are being destroyed, new nationalist monumental buildings are being built. The two and three dimensional visualization methods shared with the people during the construction of the new are in parallel with the representation methods used during referring the old.

 

The main problematic of the study, which is fed by the aforementioned perception deviation, is related to how much societies internalize this architectural heritage.

In particular, the work is trying to position Turkish modernism as an unfinished project. On the one hand, while trying to make visual and digital mummification of a history which cannot be truly possessed, it also provides an utopian look to the future as a visualization of design.