Traces of Aydın Boysan’s Architectural Practice in an Industrial City: The Case of Kocaeli

Abstract

Industrial areas within a city are one of the important components of urban memory, shedding light on the economic and social life, architectural design and building technologies of their era. However, modern research by architects on the industrialization process of Kocaeli, one of the most important industrial cities in Turkey, which has left important traces in the city, is insufficient. Leading architects of the period played an important role in the city's path to becoming an "Industrial City". Architect Aydın Boysan is a valuable professional who realized the pioneering architectural designs of his period in Kocaeli and made significant contributions to the city. Boysan, who designed many industrial buildings in Turkey, is the architect of four large industrial sites built in Kocaeli. These four buildings were not only important centers of production in their respective sectors for the country, but also unique representatives of modern architecture that was influential all over the world. It is an important responsibility of architectural historiography to bring these works of modern architecture, which shed light on an era, to the agenda and into the literature before they are lost. This study examines the structural, formal and functional characteristics of the facilities and their status today through Boysan's architectural identity and design approaches to industrial buildings. These facilities started operations in the 1960s, an important historical threshold in Kocaeli's transformation into an industrial city. Research on these representations of Boysan's unique modernist architectural style expands our knowledge about the production of the built environment for an industrial city and reveals traces of an important architect of the period.

Keywords

• Architectural design
• Aydın Boysan
• Industrial buildings
• Industrial city
• Kocaeli