Spatial production of Ankara as capital city of Republican Turkey

Abstract

This study concerns how the society produces its own spaces according to the historical period depending on Henri Lefebvre's conceptualisation of 'production of space' and his argument that every mode of production creates its own spaces and the new spaces call for new social relations. The building process of Republican Turkey as modernity and a nation state project entails a process of spatial construction. Ankara as the capital city represents the spatial configuration of the Republic regime and includes its political, economic and social objectives. Thereby the analysis of spatial production of Ankara is signifcant to examine the construction process of nation state. The main aim of this study is to analyse the production of urban space of Ankara with an emphasis on social and political relations of planning and architecture in early republican period (1923-1950). In the examining the production process, Ataturk Boulevard as a spine of the city, and its squares are taken as spatial forms. The spatial representations and practices will be investigated in the observational domains; the buildings and monuments in relation to the squares and Boulevard in Ankara