Cultural Identity as a Constructed Reality and Its Reflection in Architectural Praxis: Sedat Hakkı Eldem in Early Republican Turkey

Abstract

Architecture can be seen as a cultural system of signification that enables the transfer of meaning through architectural forms. As with any form of signification therefore, architecture guides our thinking and structures our thought (Hall 1993, 17). This capacity of architecture has been consciously used throughout history to convey certain messages, and was often used by political regimes as a means to communicate certain ideals. In Early Republican Turkey, we observe a similar attempt. In the pursuit of forming a new cultural identity, architecture was used as a means to reflect a modern yet national cultural identity. The integration of the modern-national duality within the definition of cultural identity was of seminal importance for the new nation-state to participate within the international system of nation-states while keeping its self-identity (Smith 1988, 20). However, this dichotomous definition eventually created its cultural tensions and a bi-polar oscillation was observed between the two poles of the modern-national duality (Ergut 1999, 32). Architecture was used in this context as a sign to resolve the cultural tensions of the social sphere by conjoining and reflecting this dual identity through solutions that involved compromise. Sedad Hakkı Eldem’s studies in the late 1930’s and early 1940’s provide a viable forum for discussing these issues in detail. In this framework, this paper will focus on the period between the late 1930’s and the early 1940’s of Early Republican Turkey and discuss respectively: the notion of “cultural identity” as a phenomenon of the modern nation-state; the cultural identity formulations of the Early Republican Turkey; the architectural praxis of the late 1930’s and the early 1940’s, and the architectural praxis of Sedat Hakki Eldem.