Ankara tarihi kent merkezinin 1839 ile 1944 arasındaki fiziksel dönüşümü: morfolojik bir çözümleme

The historic core of Ankara, has been subject to a rapid change and deterioration increasingly after 1950s, losing most of its original qualities. This thesis analyzes the spatial evolution of the historic city from 1839 to 1940s with the objective to restitute the preexisting urban fabric and the transformation that took place before 1950s. The Early Republican period was critical in the transformation of the historic core as well as in the development of Ankara that was to be shaped as the ‘model city’ for other Turkish cities. The Old City, which constituted the center of the new capital is studied with a morphological approach in order to restitute the original form and structure of the physical environment and to clarify the changes in the subsequent periods in relation with the socio-economic and institutional structure. Mainly depending on the cartographic materials belonging to the research periods, the study focuses on the physical evolution of the historic city through comparison on the basis of three principal items: urban fabric, urban circulation network and land use pattern. Situating the historic core within the whole Ankara, the research puts special emphasis on the impact of fires and the effects of the planning activity in the related period. The morphological analysis illustrated that the historic core of Ankara was subject to a substantial transformation during the Early Republican period as a result of the interventions brought by the reconstruction plans and piecemeal decisions.Ph.D. - Doctoral Progra