CITY MUSEUM

Bursa City Museum / Neslihan Türkün Dostoğlu

The Bursa City Museum, located at the historic Justice Palace building dating back to 1926, opened its doors to visitors on February 2004. The museum, which narrates changes and transformations in the urban life of Bursa within 7 thousand years of its history, is based on a dynamic concept with its temporary and permanent exhibitions. The modular structure of the exhibition system makes it possible to change the contents, keeping in pace with the dynamic nature of the city.

CURRENT AGENDA: Legislative Arrangements

Notes on the Draft Laws about the Restructuring of Public Administration / Özcan Altaban and Feridun Duyguluer

The legislative arrangements that scheduled in the framework of the EU harmonization process are one of the main agenda items of Turkey for a long period of time. Moreover, a number of radical reforms are foreseen, which shall influence the making of proffesional practice. Authors present a summary of the proposed transformation, witnessed in the global / international relations of Turkey since mid 1980’s. Drawing attention to the fact that the concepts of “public service” and “public interest” have changed considerably during the past decade and replaced with the concept of “competition”, which based on the market-led economic policies the authors express their reserves about the Public Administration Draft Basic Law and Local Administration Draft Laws, which are currently under discussion at the Assembly.

FORUM

“Model” Primary Education School Projects Rise Questions / Forum

The Ministry of Education, which was to fulfill the urgent need for school buildings after the compulsary primary education period was raised to 8 years in 1997, had obtained “model” school projects in cooperation with the architecture departments of universities, through the funding systems between 1998-2000. MİMARLIK had published projects and description reports in issue 314, aiming documenting them. The forum, among a group including officials from the Ministry of Education, academicians from universities who contributed to the production of the projects and other related roles, provides a wider platform for the discussion of the process. The main questions which were discussed, “the concept of stereo-type projects”, “project production through university funds”, “the process of obtaining school buildings in Turkey”, “relation of the author of the project with the building process” and “affects of standards on architectural quality”.

EXHIBITION AND AWARDS

National Architecture Exhibition and Awards, 9th Cycle

* National Architecture Exhibition and Awards, 9th Cycle: The Performance of Institutional and Professional Participation / Aydan Balamir

* The “Sinan Award” Speech in the Ceremony… / Behruz Çinici

* Opinions and Suggestions Regarding the National Architecture Exhibition and Awards / Nejat Ersin

* Presentation of the Award-Given Projects

The National Architecture Exhibition and Awards program, organized biannually by the Chamber of Architects of Turkey since 1988, is actually a meeting point for architects putting their recent projects and buildings to the fore, and a cultural platform for the discussion and rewarding of the best projects selected by the jury. The 2004 award ceremony was realized on 12th April 2004 in the Contemporary Arts Gallery in Ankara and 10 prizes were awarded among 177 works submitted by 349 architects and firms. Saying that the National Architecture Exhibition and Awards has become a traditional and exemplary sharing platform for the architectural community, Aydan Balamir evaluates the organization and announcement of the program, the institutional and professional participation to the ceremony and the status of the exhibition and awards within the architectural culture of Turkey in a critical perspective. In the speech he made at the award ceremony, Behruz Çinici, owner of the Sinan Award this year, reproaches about the lack of interest by the state officials, public institutions, media and press to the ceremony, which he believes to be the reflection of an abyss between the architectural and social culture in Turkey. Nejat Ersin, who was the chairman of the 2004 jury, says that the exhibition and awards program is the sign of the universal dimension achieved by the architecture in Turkey.

ARCHITECTURE AND CITY

* The Historical City of Van / Şahabettin Öztürk

* Van: Architecture, Culture, Nature / Jale N. Erzen

While every city has transformative dynamics specific to itself, the city of Van exhibits a significant particularity. The two articles draw a picture of this particularity by means of describing the topography of the city, the sharp separation between the “old” and the “new” and the processes desertion and reconstruction of the city throughout its history. Şahabettin Öztürk writes about the historic development of the city, while Jale Erzen concentrates on today’s Van with its nature, geography, lake and the recent architectural works.

PRIZE

2004 Pritzker Laureate Zaha Hadid: Representation and Production of Space beyond Limitations / edited by Tuğçe Selin Tağmat

The Pritzker Prize was for the first time awarded a woman architect this year: Zaha Hadid. The jury mainly underlined that the carrier development of Zaha Hadid defied conventions and her architectural works, which are an outcome of high imagination beyond limitations such as constructability, brought an innovative spirit and original contribution to architecture. Rather than mentioning her marginality in terms of being an Iraqi origin woman architect, it seems more important to underline her innovative drawings and spatial organization in terms of the production of architecture as a form of art and her rich spectrum of works from architecture to interior, furniture and product designs.

English and Turkish translations by Tuğçe Selin Tağmat