Space as a Projection of Spatial Practices: An Urban Park in Western Anatolia in the Early-Republican Period

As has been widely asserted elsewhere, Turkey, during its early-Republican period, created politicized architecture, urban planning and landscape designs for its own peculiar historical reasons: to provide a visible manifestation of its progressive vision and great hunger for modernization. Although modernization attempts in Turkish society occurred during the Ottoman Empire's final two centuries, the secular Republic of Turkey, formally established in 1923, achieved great successes in radically changing and modernizing its institutions. During the early decades of the Republic, this tendency was variously called 'participating in contemporary civilization', 'modernization', and 'westernization'. Since it is the belief of the authors that the term 'modernization' best defines the discourse of the period, this term is preferred in this research. According to Tekeli modernization project required the education of society as a modern public that could be called 'social engineering' today. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.