TRANSFORMATION OF ANKARA BETWEEN 1935-1950 IN RELATION WITH EVERYDAY LIFE AND LIVED SPATIALITY A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF NATURAL AND APPLIED SCIENCES OF MIDDLE EAST TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY BY SERPİL ÖZALOĞLU IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN ARCHITECTURE JUNE 2006 Approval of the Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences -- Prof. Dr.Canan Özgen Director I certify that this thesis satisfies all the requirements as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Selahattin Önür Head of the Department This is to certify that we have read this thesis and that in our opinion it is fully adequate, in scope and quality, as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. ------------------------------------- Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cânâ Bilsel Supervisor Examining Committee Members Assoc. Prof. Dr. Sibel Kalaycıoğlu (METU-SOC.) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cânâ Bilsel (METU-ARCH.) Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nur Çağlar (GAZİ-MİMARLIK) Assist. Prof. Dr. T. Elvan Ergut (METU-ARCH.) Assist. Prof. Dr. Nur Altınyıldız( BAHÇEŞEHİR-GSMT) ii I hereby declare that all information in this document has been obtained and presented in accordance with academic rules and ethical conduct. I also declare that, as required by these rules and conduct, I have fully cited and referenced all material and results that are not original to this work. Name, Last name : SERPİL ÖZALOĞLU Signature : iii ABSTRACT TRANSFORMATION OF ANKARA BETWEEN 1935-1950 IN RELATION WITH EVERYDAY LIFE AND LIVED SPATIALITY Özaloğlu, Serpil Ph.D. Department of Architecture Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cânâ Bilsel June 2006, 393 pages Being the capital of the young Republic, transformation of Ankara’s urban environment into a modern one was one of the objectives of the Early Republican period. In the study, the transformation of urban culture is traced through everyday life of the inhabitants and lived spatiality in the new and old/traditional parts of the city. Urban culture clearly manifests itself in urban public spaces by means of everyday life and lived spatiality. It is not only the elite but the humble income social groups which are the main agents/actors of the transforming urban culture. In Ankara, gradual appropriation of a modern life style takes place in the urban public spaces but these spaces do not have to be part of the grand narrative of nation-building. Cultural places (Sergievi, theaters, movie theaters, people’s houses), recreation places (parks, coffee shops, restaurants), shopping areas, streets and boulevards, districts are spaces of everyday life and new spatial and bodily practices flourish in these spaces. The reality of the city shelters both the new/modern, the old, and the spontaneously developing urban environments which equally participated in the transformation process. The research is based on memory in the study. Written documents, newspapers, literary constructions, memoirs and interviews with the old inhabitants of the city are the main sources. According to the analyses made on the obtained iv data, Ankara was a fruitful medium for creation of a modern urban culture during the mentioned period and middle social groups were the main components of this transformation process. Key words: Modernization, transformation, memory, lived spatiality, everyday life, bodily practices, middle social groups. v ÖZ ANKARA’NIN GÜNLÜK YAŞAM VE MEKÂNSAL PRATİKLER AÇISINDAN DÖNÜŞÜMÜ: 1935-1950 Özaloğlu, Serpil Doktora, Mimarlık Bölümü Tez Yöneticisi: Doç. Dr. Cânâ Bilsel Haziran 2006, 393 sayfa Genç Cumhuriyet’in başkenti olan Ankara’da kentsel çevrenin modernleşmesi Erken Cumhuriyet Dönemi’nin hedeflerinden biriydi. Çalışmada kentsel kültürün dönüşümü, Ankaralıların günlük yaşamları ve mekansal pratikleri üzerinden araştırılmıştır. Bu araştırmada hem yeni hem de eski veya geleneksel mahalleler/mekanlar yer almıştır. Kent kültürü, günlük yaşam ve mekansal pratikler aracılığıyla, kendini kentin kamusal alanlarında açıkça gösterir. Kent kültürünü dönüştürenler yalnızca elit bir kesim değil, mütevazı bir yaşam süren diğer toplumsal gruplardır da. Modern yaşam biçiminin yavaş yavaş benimsenmesi yalnızca ulus devletin kuruluş tarihinde yer alan mekanlar aracılığıyla olmaz. Kültürel mekanlar (Sergievi, tiyatrolar, sinemalar, halk evleri), eğlence/dinlence yerleri (parklar, kahveler, restoranlar), çarşılar, “asfalt” ya da bulvarlar, mahalleler günlük yaşamın mekanlarıdır. Yeni mekansal ve bedensel pratikler buralarda yeşerir. Yeni/modern çevrelerin yanısıra, eski ve kendiliğinden gelişen bölgeler de dönüşüm sürecinde eşit derecede yer alır. Araştırmada bellek temel olarak alınmıştır. Yazılı belgelerin yanısıra, gazetelerden, edebi kaynaklardan, anılardan ve 1935-50 arasını Ankara’da yaşamış eski Ankaralılarla yapılan söyleşilerden yararlanılmıştır. Yapılan analize göre Ankara, seçilen dönemde modern kentsel bir kültürün vi yaratılabilmesine ya da var olanın modern bir kent kültürüne dönüştürülebilmesine olanak sağlayan bir ortam sunmaktadır. Bu kültürün yaratılmasında en büyük pay, orta sınıfa ait olduğunu söyleyebileceğimiz toplumsal gruplarındır. Anahtar kelimeler: Modernleşme, dönüşüm, bellek, mekansal pratikler, günlük yaşam, bedensel pratikler, orta sınıf toplumsal grupları. vii To my son Alp viii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I express sincere appreciation to my supervisor Assoc. Prof. Dr. Cânâ Bilsel for her guidance and insight throughout the research. I am also grateful for the constructive and to the point critiques of Assist. Prof. Dr. Nur Altınyıldız and Assist. Prof. Dr. T. Elvan Ergut. I owe a particular debt of gratitude to the 17 interviewees who agreed to give of their valuable time and eager to share their memories with me for the study. Thanks go to my colleagues and friends who, by some means or other, took part in the long process of making this study. Finally I would like to thank to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nuri Merzi, who helped me at the critical phases of the thesis by giving necessary tactics to overcome the difficulties. ix TABLE OF CONTENTS PLAGIARISM ..................................................................................................iii ABSTRACT.......................................................................................................iv ÖZ ......................................................................................................................vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..............................................................................ix TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................. x LIST OF TABLES .......................................................................................... xii LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................ xiv CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................1 1.1. Theoretical Framework and the Principal Concepts of the Thesis ..........................................................................................7 1.2. Everyday Life in Relation with Lived Spatiality, Public Urban Spaces and Bodily Practices: Urban Culture ..................7 1.2.1. Representational Spaces and Representations of Space .................................................................. 19 1.3. Bodily practices........................................................................21 1.4. Memory: Individual and Collective Memories and Their Relation to Space.......................................................................22 1.5. Memory History Relationship: Relevance of the Use Of Memory as a Method of Historiography of Urban Space...............33 1.6. Methodology of the Research and the Material Used..............36 1.6.1. Interviews.......................................................................39 1.6.2. Newspapers....................................................................44 1.6.3. Literary Sources and Published Memoirs.......................46 2. URBAN POPULATION AND THE OCCURENCE OF DAILY LIFE IN ANKARA ..........................................................................49 2.1. The Social Structure of Ankara in the Pre-Republican Period .....................................................................................49 2.2. Formation of Middle Social Groups .......................................53 x