Konya Belediye Binası Proje Müsabakası

The archives of a few long-lasting Turkish architecture magazines give great insight on 20th-century Turkish architecture imaginary. 





Architectural magazines and online platforms don't reflect the built environment in total for sure. Renderings and photographs of urban projects that melt into the press-releases mostly made by PR agencies define the desired existence for that building rather than the conflicts and contradictions will evoke in the urban during the lifetime of that creation. Like many other places, also in Turkey this desired reality is a part of the reality of the cities we live in, but it is not THE reality for sure. It is easy to witness while walking on the streets. 

In architecture, the proposal is always a speculation based on today but targeting a moment in the future. This imaginary time travel is created by the essence of the architecture, by the construction that lasts long compared to the other fields of creative production. But it is always a joy to explore that memory of architectural imaginary of the past foresee and draw a built environment of possibilities in the future. This joy is also an excuse to think about that desired future imagined in the past and today's existing reality that breeds the desires for the future. 

Here is one drawing of a competition project from 1957. 
A project proposal for the municipal building in Konya...
Central Turkey.