Autonomy : re-appreciation of architecture

Download
index.pdf
2004
Gürbüzbalaban, Melis
Show full item record
187
views
146
downloads
The contradiction between architecture̕s أautonomyؤ, its existence as an entity with its own أdisciplinary specificityؤ- and its social أengagementؤ, its involvement in culture, ideology and economy, has been the subject of numerous discussions in architectural discourse, initially in Europe and later in North America. It is argued in this thesis that although أautonomyؤ and أengagementؤ seem contradictory to each other, architecture̕s أcritical statusؤ is rooted in this contradiction. Autonomy is regarded as one of the essential sides of architecture̕s dual position. This suggests that the in-between, or in Stanford Anderson̕s terms, أquasi-autonomousؤ status of architecture can only be sustained through its existence as an entity that has a certain degree of autonomy. Autonomy is an agent for architectural discourse to isolate architecture from its involvement in the external reality and increase awareness within the discipline by concentrating on its specific knowledge. Autonomy aids architecture to pretend to be أdetachedؤ while in reality it is أengagedؤ. To focus on the autonomous dimension of architecture, to search for architecture̕s own intrinsic qualities, helps to produce knowledge within the discipline and provides a أcritical distanceؤ for architecture to resist any أexternal authorityؤ. Thus this thesis intends to explore the potentials of the conceptualization and problematization of أautonomyؤ in architecture and its employment as a critical tool by architectural discourse to re-assess architectural practice. The private house projects designed by Boran Ekinci in Turkey are exemplified and utilized for the re-conceptualization of the term and enable the transfer of the discourse related with autonomy to the local context where the issue hardly gained a popularity. By doing so, both the appreciation of autonomy in general and reappreciation of
Architecture.
http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12605555/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/14790
Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis

Suggestions

Architectural interpretations of modernity cultural identity : a comparative study on Sedad Hakkı Eldem and Bruna Taut in early Republican Turkey
Uysal, Zeynep Çiğdem; Altan, Tomris Elvan; Department of Architecture (2004)
The thesis aims to reveal the decisive influence of the tension that stems from the contemporary searches for cultural identity on the architectural production of the early Republican Turkey. It attempts to demonstrate the conceptual and practical strategies that were devised in contemporary architecture for the resolution of the cultural tension by examining the architectural attitudes and practices of Sedad Hakki Eldem and Bruno Taut in the late 1930s and the early 1940s. In the first part, ءcultural iden...
Potential for popular dissemination: an analysis of the "ideal home" discourse in the weekly Yedigün magazine
Tuncer, Melike Usalp; Cengizkan, Ali; Department of Architecture (2006)
The social transformations beginning by the end of the nineteenth century and the political and economic changes of the Early Republican Era (1923-1938) and the Transition Era (1938-1950) had important effects on Turkish architecture. The effects of the ‘new’ and ‘ideal’ life accelerated by the establishment of the new democratic nation state brought rapid changes and transformations to all aspects of life including housing. This study deals with the housing discourse in Yedigün magazine which was published...
Architecture as an apparatus of “immortalization and glorification”: a critical analysis of wittgensteinian [true] architecture
Turan, Oktay; Cengizkan, Ali; Department of Architecture (2007)
This study is an inquiry into architecture understood as an apparatus of immortalization and glorification by means of a dialectic formulation on the architecture of the synecdochic Interwar (angst) Period (1919-1939) based on the assumptions of Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951). It is claimed that a dialectical relation between Wittgenstein and his contemporaries may contribute to the understanding of the conceptions regarding ideal of [true] architecture itself. The thesis suggests that these assumptions ma...
Searching for a common framework for education and architecture through reconsideration of universal design principles for promoting inclusive education in primary schools
Durak, Selen; Erkılıç, Mualla; Department of Architecture (2010)
In recent years, as sensitivity for human rights and diversity in society increased, inclusion has become an important subject matter for discussions both in wider social context as a parameter reflecting more conscious and democratic understandings of human world, and in particular context of different disciplines. Inclusion has become a widely discussed theme of inclusive education practices both internationally and in Turkey, as well as a central theme for Universal Design approach. In education, inclusi...
Production of space in the post earthquake region: three cases from Düzce
Demirel, Sinem; Sargın, Güven Arif; Department of Architecture (2005)
This thesis is about the processes and attitudes behind building production as it is about architecture as such, and it aims at understanding architecture̕s critical capacity and its relation to wider society. In this context, the differing attitudes and orientations in the construction of the residential environments in Düzce after the two unsettling earthquakes that took place in 1999 are believed to provide a study field, where the relationship between architecture and different economic, political and c...
Citation Formats
M. Gürbüzbalaban, “Autonomy : re-appreciation of architecture ,” M.Arch. - Master of Architecture, Middle East Technical University, 2004.
METU IIS - Integrated Information Service open@metu.edu.tr