The Past as a Source for New Identities

The modernist movement brought new perceptions, but in and for countries like Turkey the question of identity and therefore the "outfit" of the architectural environment is still a debate. The question of "which past belongs to whom" is often emotional and since the past was created in a different political time and environment its selective approbation of modern nation states is problematic. Like the neoclassical architecture the modernist movement of architecture in Turkey was seen by the Turkish traditionalist and the European modernist architects as an unsuitable way of building. The lecture wants to trigger a discussion around this issue.

Zeynep Kuban is Professor at the Technical University Istanbul in History of Architecture. Fields of interest: The city of Istanbul itself, the notion and use of history in architecture, the mediation of the built historical environment to laypeople.