Architectural instrumentalization of public buildings in the 21st century

Since antiquity to the present day, architecture has been instrumentalized to reflect the political power and ideology of power and the state. In the ancient Roman Empire, gigantic and monumental buildings were constructed and the authority and prestige of the state was manifested through architectural elements in public buildings or at city gates. Similarly, in the modern era, in the 1930s Germany, Russia, Iran, and Turkey, public buildings were instrumentalized in line with existing ideologies. The architectural method and the ideological meanings represented by the public buildings constructed in the 20th century and the relationship of architecture with ideology, politics, and power stand out. In the 21st century, instrumentalization has manifested itself with different ideologies and public buildings have been reshaped with the neoliberal order. The changes here are mostly nationalist-conservative transformations and have manifested themselves with historicist and nationalist elements in public buildings. Today, post-2000 public buildings constructed in Turkey are characterized by historicist styles referencing traditional Seljuk-Ottoman and Turkish house architecture. Through the use of architectural symbols and forms on the buildings, the ideology of power is reflected and the buildings contain representational meanings. For this reason, this research aims to examine the public buildings constructed in post-2000 Turkey within the framework of the relationship between ideology, politics, and power, to compare the architectural instrumentalization in 20th-century public buildings with the architectural instrumentalization in 21st-century public buildings, to reveal the similarities and differences between the formal, symbolic and representational meanings of these buildings and to contribute to the architectural literature. In addition, within the scope of the thesis, 20th century and 21st century architectural approaches and public buildings were examined with examples, and in the light of the findings obtained, public buildings in Turkey after 2000 were analyzed.