Planning experience of Hermann Jansen in gaziantep city during 1930s

Abstract

The establishment of the Republican regime in 1923 in the history of Turkish architecture indicates an important starting/turning point in our history consciousness. In the mentioned period, a new nation-state were formed according to examples in the West, instead of the Ottoman Empire, which had a feudal government form for almost 500 years. The architecture of the period will be re-established as the beginning of a new way of thinking, based on the differences between the old and the new, the traditional and the contemporary, the reactionary and the progressive. So, the new architecture was imported as the new face of Turkey. In this chapter, architectural planning and urban development efforts as to extend modernity project throughout Anatolia by German architect and city planner Hermann Jansen will be studied, especially to highlight the early planning efforts of Hermann Jansen made for Gaziantep which is in the south east of Turkey along the Syrian border. The research will focus on both the public and town planning activities held by Jansen in Gaziantep. The urban designs for new state purposes, as well as their reception in the highly new developing context of Turkish Republic, require the study to emphasize the principles as well as the professional perspective and background of the architect of the contemporary architectural context. Meanwhile, the urban plans produced during this period, land use decisions, and transportation system design reflecting the transition to the industrial city model and a dual structure consisting of modern and traditional texture in urban space would be observed. © Peter Lang AG 2019.