Ankara Araştırmaları Dergisi (Jan 2024)
From the Backstage to a Lead Role: Old Industrial District of Ankara and the New Concert Hall of Presidential Symphony Orchestra
Abstract
The new concert hall of the Presidential Symphony Orchestra and the chorus practice halls in Ankara were inaugurated in 2020 at a special event. This marked not only the end of almost three decades of project development and construction, but the transformation of the site, at least for now. The aim of this paper is to consider the recent history of Ankara to reveal the changes that shaped have this site since the end of the 19th century. Certain assumptions that Ankara was built from scratch, or that it was systematically planned and constructed as part of the plans for the modernization of Republican Turkey, or that the history of the last century could be considered as part of subsequent planning processes, will mostly be suspended when constructing this narrative. The development of this area will be considered as a process of continuities, rather than ruptures, namely rational decisions necessitated by current conditions, instead of the mere whim of planners and/or designers; and suspended meta-narratives will be referred to only when such clarifications alaremain insufficient. In conclusion, it will be discussed if the possibility of turning this area, which has always been absolutely central in the urban fabric and has always been assigned crucial functions for the city, yet never even recognized nor been an indispensable component of everyday life, can have formed the new cultural focus of today's Ankara.
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