The impact of architectural design competitions in evaluation of architectural design trends for a secular identity, 1933-1950

II ABSTRACT This study - whose scope is to evaluate the concept of "modernization" that was introduced in Turkey as a political Westernization will and was constitutionalized in respect ot the nationalist ideology with; a- its transforming effects upon the architectural discourse and practice, and b- the "formal and conceptual transformation of the national identity definition within the framework of the contemporary Turkish architecture, by examining the impact of the project competitions; is composed of four main chapters. The first chapter deals with the aim, context and method of the study. The second chapter indulges in the effort to display a conceptual framework so as to evaluate the "Modernization Projects" of peripheral countries like Turkey who have integrated the West by peripheralization. Within this framework, the "Turkish Modernization Project" has been assessed by relating the nation-state's establisment process to its own historical conditions. In this manner, the atmosphere which borders the "architectural pracitce and discourse" which is an inseperable part of the cultural modernization program has been illustrated in general. Within the third chapter, the rise of the "secular national identity" definition as a fundamental problem of the cultural field and, in this context introduction and internalizing process of the modernism in architecture in Turkey as a peripheral country where modernization has developed in differernt conditions than the Center, is examined.Ill" The fourth chapter deals with the effort to explain why the "architectural project competitions" have been selected as the examining field of the study with a perspective emerging from the foreign architects problem and the constitutionalizing struggle of the Turkish architect. The fifth chapter evaluates the Republican era modern architectural discourse and practice - determining its aim in the secular Turkish identity definition process as the "formation of an architectural model that unites and integrates the synthesis of culture and civilization with modern and national qualities" - within a perspective that emphasises the "modernizing, nationalist and etatist" character of the Turkish modernization project. And, in this respect, so as to enlighten the transformation of the Turkish architectural trends from modern to national, the competition projects published in the Arkitekt (1933-1950) and Mimarlik (1943-1950) will be analyzed formally.