Architectural Production in State Offices: An Inquiry into the Professionalization of Architecture in Early Republican Turkey

The study inquires into the modes of operation, relations of production and forms of institutionalization in the architectural scene of the first half of the 20th century in Turkey, the period that witnessed the professionalization of the discipline in the country in the modern sense of the word. The focus of research is the architectural production in the public offices, especially the design office in the Ministry of Public Works, which is responsible for a major portion of the modern construction program that the country underwent in the early Republican era. The dissertation brings in an approach that has not been widely followed in the present architectural history studies on the modern architecture in Turkey. Instead of focusing on architectural products, architect individuals/groups or discursive and theoretical formations of architectural thought, it inquiries into the institutional forms of architectural production and the occupational practices within the profession, and in this context highlights state employment and the production of state offices, which had not been exclusively discussed or even documented before in the relevant literature before, although a significant portion of the architectural production in the early Republican Turkey had been carried on in such offices. The concept of state employment is not only important in its relevance to the actual production, but also is a major issue in the process of professionalization of architecture in Turkey throughout the late Ottoman and early Republican periods. Therefore, the study does not only try to fill a serious gap in the history of the built environment in Turkey, but also attempts to formulize the issue within the context of professionalization of architecture in the country. The discussion follows on certain issues such as; the effect of the character of the professional practice in state offices on the architectural culture and on the quality of the built environment of the time, the role of the civil servant architects in the process of the professionalization of architecture in Turkey, and the discursive and ideological issues that were in question regarding the process. Thus, it is aimed to reassess the architectural culture that was developed in relation to the modernization process of the Republican era in the perspective of the construction of a professional ideology, which has usually been overlooked in the accentuated relation of the architectural discourse to the modernization ideology.Institute of History of Art, Architecture and UrbanismArchitectur