Architectural Periodicals as a Reflective Medium of the Agenda: a Study on Turkish Architectural Media During the Republican Period

Abstract

This study claims that architectural periodicals, which reflect architectural production of their period, also serve as independent mediums of activity and production within the discipline of architecture. In this respect, the study proposes that architectural periodicals can be used as means to evaluate the architectural present and aims to examine the architectural process of Republican Turkey with respect to the transformations and interruptions that can be observed in the simultaneous architectural periodicals. Within the scope of the study, in order to verify the two-way relationship between the architectural periodicals and the architectural agenda; periodical publications have primarily been evaluated as a form of media, with a focus on the transmitting, interpretive, critical and trans formative approaches of the periodical publications in the field of design and architecture. This conceptual framework has been used to investigate the reflections of transformations in the political, cultural, economical and social dynamics on architecture and architectural publishing. As a result of this evaluation, the study presents an interpretation of the contemporary architectural milieu in Turkey with a critical approach based on architectural periodicals.This academic work should also be considered as an initiative effort for the documentation of the sixty years of Turkish architectural publishing.Keywords: media, periodical publications, architectural periodicals, architectural theory, architectural praXIS, architectural criticism, Republican Period, Turkish Architecture, 1980.