Reading the transformations of Konya Culture Park as an urban space
Author
Pehlivan, Feyza
Advisor
Gürel, Meltem Ö.
Date
2018-07Publisher
Bilkent University
Language
English
Type
ThesisItem Usage Stats
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Abstract
Culture parks, built as recreational green urban spaces with entertainment facilities,
were one of the most important modernization projects of the early Republican
era. Capturing national ideals and the Republican worldview, culture parks
introduced new forms of leisure practices while serving as a medium to educate
and enlighten the public in contemporary ways of living. As such they symbolized
the notion of modernity in Turkey. The idea of culture parks as a re
ection
of modernity maintained its validity long after its rst initiation in the 1930s.
This study examines Konya Culture Park, as a later example of culture parks,
to trace its conception and association with politics in the Turkish context. The
study rst examines the historical and spatial development of the grounds Konya
Culture Park sits on, from a religious garden belonging to the Mevlevi sect to a
civic park in the early Republican era. Next, the study analyzes the social, mental
and physical properties of the culture park in the 1970s through Lefebvrian
spatial theories and their correlations compared against earlier examples. The
main contribution of this research is to read the transformation of Konya Culture
Park within its socio-cultural context, examined through the lenses of politically
directed representations of space, representational space and the practices of users
e ective in its transformation. This study contributes to history of architecture
and urban studies by focusing on the spatial production of Konya Culture Park,
as associated with the development of culture parks in Turkey.