Turkish Cypriot Public School Architecture from 1878 to 2000: the Socio-Political and Educational Reflections

This thesis examines the architectural transformation of Turkish Cypriot public school buildings in Cyprus from the beginning of British colonial rule of 1878 till 2000s in relation with the political, social and cultural influences, and educational policies of the time. During the conflicted history of Cyprus, schools played a critical role in the identity formation of the Turkish Cypriot community, a role beyond their educational mission. In the early decades of the British rule, schools constructed by the administration largely followed the vernacular traditions of the past, with only a minimal colonial architectural language. The Turkish Cypriot ethnic nationalism found a long waited voice in the birth and the rise of Atatürk’s modern Turkey; schools becoming places of dissemination of Kemalist ideas. The arrival of modern architecture in Turkish schools, however, was delayed by two decades after the first examples appeared in Turkey, due to the British suppressive policies of 1930s and 1940s and the advent of World War II. Following the 1931 revolt and the climbing Greek Cypriot struggle for enosis, the colonial regime tried to suppress and control both Greek and Turkish Cypriot ethnic nationalism; education being most adversely affected by the closure of many schools and centralisation of the system. The manifestation of this policy of the colonial regime in the built form of the period was the avoidance of all elements that would promote ethnic identity, paying all the attention to functionality. After the World War II, modernism became the core value of Turkish Cypriot nationalism, and all Turkish Cypriot schools were built in modern style, continuing also after the independence of Cyprus in 1960. The division of the island in 1974 brought significant changes in social and economic structure of northern Cyprus. Within the framework of socio-political and educational transitions took place in Cyprus, the research presented in this thesis is divided into four time periods. For each period, representative examples of school buildings are analysed after giving an account of the political history and changes of educational policies (Chapters 3-6). This is followed by a comparative study of physical and functional properties of schoolyards and school buildings, together with the spatial analyses of all selected schools (Chapter 7). The findings of the research undertaken show that the early school buildings built by the British administration have diverse identities of spatial configurations and built forms. On the other hand, there is a mutual spatial pattern of the school buildings of late 1950s until present. Based on the results of the analysis, starting with the late 1950s, a less hierarchical spatial relationship between student and administrative spaces is found in Turkish Cypriot schools, as compared to the rest of periods studied.