Meltem Ö. Gürel

Defining and living out the interior: the ‘modern’ apartment and the ‘urban’ housewife in Turkey during the 1950s and 1960s

This study investigates the interaction of womens gendered identities and performances in the modern middle strata with the new apartment, while complicating the boundary between the legitimizing discourses of modern architecture and ideas around femininity, during the 1950s and 1960s in Turkey. It conceptualizes domestic premises as the inhabitants space, where gender roles are formed and performed. Drawing on research concerning the postwar construction of womens identities and diverse ideas of feminine space in a global context, I examine how the apartment was a place for women, who were conceptualized as Western and happy housewives amid Cold War geopolitics. The study ponders ways in which women negotiated/subverted conflicting expectations of the modern housewife. The apartment mediated powerful discourses on structures of patriarchy and identities, while simultaneously allowing women to define and live out the modern domicile as active agents. It embodied the intermediate space between the concepts of modern and traditional, Western and non-Western, urban and rural, and masculine and feminine.

Bathroom as a modern space

Mundane objects and their everyday practices contain clues to the prevalent ideas and ideals of a society at a certain time; thus holding the power to decipher collective ideologies, contemporary beliefs, social norms and shared values. Bathroom fixtures are such ordinary products of the built environment that seem to be simultaneously insignificant and indispensable parts of daily life. This study is an historical analysis of the bathroom as a social space and of its fixtures as material culture. It reflects ideas and identities around the convoluted notions of modernisation and Westernisation in the Turkish context. It suggests that the values of being modern contributed to the transformation of traditional bathroom practices through spatial mechanisms and equipment. To unpack these values, the study engages the examination of oral histories, literary works, journals and flat plans as well as extant bathrooms. The research shows that the bathroom is a product of global modernity. Mediated through flats, which proliferated as a sign of contemporary living, the Western-style bathroom became the norm while its traditional counterpart became its other. This shift in perception indicates a concern for belonging to the world civilisation in the form of an aspiration toward being Western. A universal idea of modernisation pervades the ordinary domestic space of the bathroom and its everyday practices.

The canon and the void: Gender, race, and architectural history texts

Abstract Architectural history books play a significant role in conveying the culture, norms, and values of the architectural discipline to newcomers. In recent years, numerous publications have spotlighted the importance of women and African Americans as critics, creators, and consumers of the built environment. Yet, to what extent is this recent discourse on gender and racial issues included in architectural history texts? And how gender or racially inclusive are they? Are twenty-first-century architectural educators presenting newly uncovered architectural histories from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries? Building upon prior research, this article seeks to address these issues by examining history texts currently assigned at fourteen leading architectural schools accredited by the National Architectural Accrediting Board. In textbooks with multiple editions, we compared relevant information in both earlier and later versions. Our analysis of these history texts revealed that contributions of women remain only marginally represented in the grand narrative of architecture. And for the most part, African Americans are omitted altogether. We challenge authors to reassess the next generation of architectural history texts and suggest ways to do so.

Public toilets: an exploratory study on the demands, needs, and expectations in Turkey

Provision of public toilets is not only a matter of land use, but also an essential design and planning concern. This study examines the following questions through an explanatory study. (i) What problems do public toilets pose? (ii) What toilet facilities do people require most and/or most emphasize would affect the way they use land and participate in social life? (iii) How do demands, needs, and expectations around public toilets change depending on gender, age, and ability? We conduct a survey of 300 people in fourteen public restrooms in the city centre of Ankara, Turkey. According to factor analysis results, public toilets should be seen as potential urban spaces and initial opportunities for sustainable urban developments and liveable cities.

Domestic Arrangements: The Maid's Room in the Atakoy Apartment Blocks, Istanbul, Turkey

The first phase of Istanbuls Ataköy Housing Development, an icon of architectural modernism in Turkey, inflects modernist architectural forms with local domestic traditions. This study examines the maids room, a sphere of the Turkish modern interior where post-war ideas and ideals both reconciled and contradicted the customary and the modern. The case study extends recent attempts to re-think postwar architectural culture and its global effects.