Spatial Organization of Public Buildings: An Evaluation on the Capital City of Turkey

Abstract

Ankara, a small town of Anatolia before becoming the capital of Turkey, experienced a fundamental spatial restructuring process following the proclamation of the Republic. The vision of modernity and protective economic structure of the Early Republican era determined the spatial configuration of the city and produced public buildings as the icons of the young regime. The last ninety years witnessed different political-economic climates redesigning the urban regime of Ankara and symbols. One of the most tangible transformations is observed in the public buildings, which convey the economic understandings and urban politics of each period through their spatial and architectural organizations, and symbolic meanings. This study explores the change in the urban symbols with an emphasis on public buildings. For this, the ministry buildings of the capital city were selected to investigate spatial organizations, archistar buildings, and the messages conveyed to the public. Focusing on the the intentionally developed clusters of ministries, this study adressed basically three periods concerning the change in political and economic systems; the foundation period, the liberal years and the neoliberal era. As a result of this study it is stated that that in the Turkish case public buildings reflect the main motives of the period they were produced, their spatial organization serves as a medium containing information about the political, economic and social structure of each period.