Constraction activities of public buildings in Konya during the Abdulhamid II

This study examines the construction of public buildings in Konya's central district and its affiliated subdistricts between 1876 and 1909, during the reign of Sultan Abdulhamid II. Aiming to analyze the physical manifestations of centralization and modernization policies accelerated by the Tanzimat reforms, the research treats public buildings not only as functional responses to administrative needs but also as instruments of ideological representation. A qualitative methodology was adopted, using archival documents containing bureaucratic correspondence, construction inspection registers, architectural plans, period photographs, and provincial yearbooks (salnames) as primary sources. The study covers government offices, prisons, barracks, telegraph stations, as well as schools, hospitals, and quarantine facilities. The institutionalization and construction processes of these buildings are examined in terms of budgetary resources, bureaucratic procedures, architectural style, and spatial organization. The study's central hypothesis is that these buildings were designed not only to fulfill administrative functions but also to increase the visibility of central authority in the provinces, exert control over society, and reshape it through public services, thereby constructing a new social order. Furthermore, the technical, administrative, and financial dimensions of these construction activities reveal tensions in center–periphery relations. In this context, the construction of public buildings is interpreted as the spatial realization of modernization policies, the institutionalization of social services, and the architectural projection of centralization strategies.