Architecture and Media

Abstract

The modernization process of the Republic of Turkey in the early 1930s is one of the finest examples among various others, illustrating the role of communication media in the formation of modern societies. As is well known, new social orders require a systematic means of communicating ideas to achieve their goals. In this context, ar- chitecture and the built environment take on a new meaning as an enduring means of a new way of living to be realized, and correspondingly, turning into communica- tion tools. Similarly, during the same era in Turkey, the republican reforms and pol- icies attempted to communicate with the public through architecture. Subsequently, architecture, which also began the process of modernization, created its media. Thus, architectural and political thought did not seem to exist without being embodied in the media, because communicating ideas must be almost entirely mediated and me- diatized. In this sense, this chapter is concerned with the issue of the complex rela- tionships between architecture and media in the context of materializing ideas in early republican Turkey. To portray the issue, the instrumentality of mediums, such as architectural exhibitions, competitions, journals, books, photography, and film, in the materialization of ideas during the formative years of the country is addressed.