Analysis of historicist public buildings in Kutahya center (1990 – present)

Architecture is defined as a profession of science and art that has established a broad field of application throughout history. It is an expected phenomenon for architecture, considered an art, to contain elements of imitation. It is seen that imitation is used in a reductionist attitude in architecture in revivalist/historicist periods, and it is observed that it has come to the point of forming a facade by copying/stylizing historical traditional architectural elements. In this context, it is understood that imitation has evolved from an instrument for education and development into a method of copying and a tool for rapid production. "Historicism", which is privatized within the scope of historicism and derived as an expression of reductionist critical view, is seen as an increasing approach in our country, especially in public architecture. The ensure of the facades of public buildings throughout the country within copying historical architectural elements is a phenomenon that standardizes cities and damages their original architectural identities, and causes confusion by reducing the quality of the historical and original. This study aims to identify and analysis the historical periods referenced in the facade designs of historicist public buildings in Kütahya Center and to open a discussion on the historicist method followed. Within the scope of the study, an answer is sought to the argument that historicism has become a tradition in architecture, and a critical perspective is developed from the country in general to the city. In the study, visual/formal comparative analysis method was used. A catalog of the identified historicist public buildings was created using analysis sheets, and statistical data were obtained through their evaluation. As a result, it was seen that historicism became a tradition in Kütahya/Central public architecture and that it was increasingly progressing, and the Seljuk Period was the most imitated period, while the Ottoman Period, the First National Architecture Period, the Second National Architecture Period, local architecture and the Classical Antiquity Period were frequently imitated.