Investigating the "Ruins of Modernity" of the city: The case of Stone Ateliers, Denizli

Abstract

The city planning and architecture had been used as the instruments of the young regime in making itself visible, concrete, and symbolized. The buildings and urban plans transmitting the foundation ideals of Republic together with modernity have contributed to the creation of national sovereignty and a modern society. Divergence from the planning and architectural approach to that period and becoming the target of the political structure of particularly post 2000s caused the formation of a new expression in space. Yusuf Batur Vocational High School's Stone Ateliers have been one of the places enabling to read the process; it was symbolized with early Republican Period, left in time, and finally intended to be deleted from the social memory by collapsing. This paper focuses on the transformation process of Denizli Stone Ateliers to the ruins of modernity by investigating its symbolic meaning and spatial structure.