Seashore readings: the road from sea baths to summerhouses in mid-twentieth century Izmir

Abstract

This chapter focuses on how architectural representations were a medium through which a sense of the modern and the novel were established and solidified, as well as how the forms and aesthetics of a number of summerhouses mediated Euro-American influences on Turkish architectural culture. It proposes the shift in power and how this power worked in managing and manipulating a society. The chapter draws attention to summerhouses and summerhouse developments as another important player, characterizing the years not only in terms of transforming the ideas of home and the built environment, but also the provincial seashore in the context of the politics of modernization and the architectural culture. It argues that summerhouses developed into a significant testing ground for new ideas.