Examples in Hülya Bu Ya... and Ankara of the Architectural, Technological and Modernization Imaginations in the Capital during the Early Period of the Republic

Abstract

The first examples of utopian designs in Turkish literature were produced in the 19th century, which was a period of both modernization and innovation. In the 20th century, following the proclamation of the Republic, issues were raised relating to the establishment of a new state and social order, contemporization, modernization, and the development of the individual and society. Discussions lead to idealistic notions of what the basis of this new culture would be, particularly in terms of the urban environment and use of space. The new capital, Ankara, became the stage for idealized designs that reflect notions of technology and modernization. Such notions were fed by works of literature which contained utopistic or critical works that responded to the new political and social order, while also discussing the positive and negative aspects of such an order. The aim of this article is to determine how the physical and ideational transformation of Ankara, in the process of becoming the capital city, was reflected in the fields of architecture and literature. Two different texts, Hülya Bu Ya… and Ankara, both of which provide contrasting future imaginings of Ankara, are used in the study to examine, in terms of architecture, technology, and modernization, how the contemporary version of the capital relates to conceptions of its rennovation. This examination is performed through analysis of the social, technological, urban and spatial transformations that occurred in Ankara during the implementation of the modernizing and progressive ideals of the new regime.

Keywords

• utopia
• literature
• early republican architecture
• ankara novel
• hülya bu ya...
• technology
• modernization
• ankara