The important of contests in reassessment of public building: Example of Ankara (1923-1938)–Berlin

Established after long wars and a long struggle for independence, the Young Republic started an intense development movement in the Anatolian cities, which were demolished and damaged during war years. Ankara, no doubt, had a different meaning compared to other Anatolian cities. The plan for Ankara was beyond turning the city from a small town to a capital. It was aimed to build a model city to "reach the level of contemporary civilization" targeted through revolutions. In this respect, the aim of this physical and cultural construction effort was to make Ankara a city that would serve as a model for other Anatolian cities. Despite having a deep-rooted past, it was perhaps the first time in the history that Ankara assumed the responsibility of being a capital city. Ankara, which was a plain Anatolian town in the first years of the Republic of Turkey, started to grow with the Republic, becoming a modern city. Built in the first years of the Republic of Turkey (The Early Republican Period), Ankara buildings bear the traces of a specific period's architectural character, soul and ideas. Over time, these buildings have stuck in minds as a part of an architecture specific to Ankara. "Urban transformation movements" that have been recently carrying out as a government policy; reconstruction of public buildings; as well as demolition and renovation of this very period's public buildings, on the grounds that they became "old" or they "can no more meet the needs" etc., bring along doubts on the future of this period's buildings. Due to this process, a specific period's life style, understanding and ideas began to disappear in addition to architectural values bearing that specific period's traces. In this study, with the Ankara example, it was discussed that the Early Republican Period (1923-1938) buildings would spark new debates through contests. Berlin contest processes were examined considering that they will set an example which is necessary to be reviewed for the period buildings in Ankara. Berlin, which suffered a huge destruction and almost turned into a ruin during the Second World War, chose to construct and refunction its remaining buildings and building traces through contests.Nowadays, Berlin resembles a giant outdoor museum carrying all of its memories in itself. In this thesis study, it was discussed that refunctioning contests carried out for Berlin can be a model for the Early Republican Period buildings in Ankara. In this sense, both cities' past and architectural culture were analyzed. It was tried to evaluate the content and handling ways of these preservation-refunctioning contests, which are very rarely organized in Turkey, along with contests of the same kind in Germany. It is believed that an increase in these kinds of contests will open doors to several discussions on the Turkish architecture.