A research on the use of classical proportions in The Late Ottoman architecture: the analysis of column orders in the governmentbuildings of Sultan Abdülhamid II periods(1876-1909)

Westerization in the Ottoman architecture, which began in the 18th century,reached its peak towards the end of the 19th century. Within this framework,classical architecture of the Ottoman era, gained importance, especially duringthe reign of Sultan Abdülhamid II (1876-1909), with the mission he undertookto represent the central government throughout the empire. Numerousgovernment buildings, schools, military buildings, prisons, hospitals, etc., in therural areas were constructed in the classical architecture preferred by thecentral government. The classical architecture was based on the systems ofcertain rules, orders and proportions and made it more interesting to study this?architectural interpretation?. Analyzing if the basic principles of classicalarchitecture were implemented in the Ottoman empire means the analyticexpression of how the Ottoman architecture incorporated the westernarchitecture. The objective of this thesis study is to prove how the Ottomanarchitecture, with its powerfull tradition, applied a classicist interpretation withits own rules and by observing the specific proportion rules, without veeringaway from the basic principles of the western classical architecture.Government buildings in the rural areas, which are best representations of theOttoman architecture, were chosen as the objects of our study. The methodapplied in this thesis was the research of the existence of the shapes of thecolumn orders of the examples in Anatolia which we have inherited from thisera today, then numerical analyses of the rules and proportions of the columnsdetermined by the theoreticians of the classical architecture with the measuringand calculations made on them. From the study conducted on the examples itwas concluded that the Ottoman architecture, towards the end of the 19thcentury, interpreted the western classical column ordes and proportions withoutveering away from its origin.