Can Architecture Establish Political Power?

The politics of architecture is a complex and ever-changing problem throughout history. In the simplest terms, it can be said that different patterns of politics and politicization were constructed in the pre-modern and modern worlds. In the early period, it was not even necessary to make a special effort to politicize architecture and establish domination through architecture. Politics comes into being almost spontaneously, without any intention. It is not even discussed, and is not even noticed, because the specific consciousness of architectural politics has not been produced. In the modern world, however, it is necessary to invent discursive and ideological justifications for architecture to be used as a tool for political motivation and domination. Then, it begins to be thought that architecture can be made as “the picture of politics, ideology, power, and belief.” However, in the same process, as well as trying to make architecture a tool for such imposition, opportunities to create alternatives and resist it also arise. This opposition gradually eliminates the possibilities of establishing political domination through architecture. What happens is that those who want domination form an antidemocratic front, while those who resist it question and challenge the possibility of establishing a democratic world.

Resume:

Uğur Tanyeli studied architecture and architectural history at MSGSÜ and İTÜ. Starting from these two universities, he worked as a full-time faculty member at many institutions. He served as a dean at four institutions. His studies focus particularly on modernization processes and the sociality of architecture. His historiographical work focuses on the period from the Ottoman 16th century to the present. The problem of the integrity of architectural history and theory constitutes the main theme of his publications. His numerous books include : The Evolution Process of Physical Structure in the Anatolian Turkish City, 11th-15th Century (ITU Institute of Science, 1986; 2nd edition, Ideal City Publishing Houses), Istanbul 1900-2000: Reading Housing and Modernization from the Metropolis (Akın Nalça, 2004), Turgut Cansever: A Man of Thought and an Architect (with Atilla Yücel, Ottoman Bank Archive Research Center and GG, 2007), Actors of Architecture: Turkey 1900-2000 (GG, 2007), Dream, Construction, Objection: Texts of Architectural Criticism (Boyut, 2011), Texts of Transgression: In Pursuit of Ottoman Space (Akın Nalça, 2015), Demolishing and Building (Metis, 2017), Hesitant Moderns: Architectural Ideologists in Turkey and the World (Işık University Yay., 2018), Mimar Sinan: Historical and Imaginary (Metis, 2019), Istanbul, the Metropolis of Fear: From the 18th Century to Today (Metis, 2022) and Productive Failures for Thinking Architecturally (Fol, 2023).