An example from Ottoman orientalism: Interior decoration of the Mansion of Mecid Efendi

Mecid Efendi Mansion is an outstanding example from the late Ottoman architecture period as a civil architecture monument which takes many attention from the public. The thesis is aimed to acknowledge the design process of the mansion by examining Owen Jones's pattern books which we know them as a great resource to design the mansion. The difference of the design program appears on the facade and interior decoration of Abdülmecid Efendi Mansion. Our statement is to associate the design process of the mansion with Ottoman Orientalism as a totalitarian suggestion. To maintain that, a general reading regarding to the historical background of 19th century and the references written about the mansion were made. A general information around the limited researches about the mansion, life of Mecid Efendi and Ottoman state innovations were obtained. Hereby, these informations were summarized in the first chapter. The second chapter introduces Orientalism to make a conceptual tie between the mansion and Orieantalism. Examples built referring to the Alhambra Palace was desired to be expressed as an Orientalist art perspective and the journey of Orientalist art from European countries to the Asian continent. As a result of this exploration Ottoman Orientalism was born as an art movement reflecting the complexity of the theory. In the third chapter, all the informations obtained from the prior sections were built together with the pattern books of Owen Jones, to attain a tangible resource of the mansion's design background.