MANIFESTATIONS OF

IN BUILT
FORM

ISTANBUL, TURKEY
STRUCTURE OF PRESENTATION

• BRIEF HISTORY AND LOCATION

• METHODOLOGY FOR ANALYSING

POWER IN BUILT FORM

• 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- )

In the course of the

centuries, Empires were built,
abandoned, demolished, and
rebuilt.
ISTANBUL?
TURKEY
ISTANBUL- STRATEGIC LOCATION
 KIM DOVEY WAY OF ANALYSIS
• DIRECT- OVERT FORCE
• COERCION-
– DOMINATION/INTIMIDATION
– MANIPULATION
– SEDUCTION
• AUTHORITY

• SYMBOLISING NATIONALISM-IDENTITY
• POWER OVER BY TRANSFORMATION
• POWER OVER BY NEGLECT
• POWER DISPLAY BY DESTRUCTION
• 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 TURKEY
DOMINATION, 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 the
walls in their integrity, and also to emphasize their
monumental total effect.
 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.

HIPPODROME-
DURING
CONSTANTINE
EMPIRE-OTTOMAN
EMPIRE-REPUBLIC
TURKEY
 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