ARCHITECTURAL MODELLING IN TURKEY

Modeling is an indispensable part of architectural production. For centuries, architectural models have been produced for different purposes. We know that models were used instead of architectural projects as a guide to construction in the past. Sometimes models were produced as votives. Sometimes they are produced for competition projects and experimentation; sometimes, they are used in museums and exhibition halls as a cultural communication tool or as part of education in schools or in showrooms for sales. Sometimes, an architectural model is prepared to test an idea; other times to present or represent it. Well, who produces these models which are a part of architectural production and under what conditions, with which materials and techniques?

Architectural Models in Turkey as a tool for thinking and visualization | The book titled “A Cross-Section of the 20th Century” is the product of a research trying to understand the status of modelling in Turkey. In addition to the texts describing the modelling’s place in architectural practice-education-history and its archives, the book focuses on the biographies of eight famous Turkish model makers — Sami Pazarbaşı, Sidel Pazarbaşı, Yusuf Z. Ergüleç, Selahattin Yazıcı, Mehmet Şener, Varjan Yurtgülü, İhsan Kostak and Murat Küçük. It includes a selection of their professional work and productions. The book, which is a first of its kind, also includes the specific studies of the institutions collaborated in the research processes and discussions in this context.

The subtitle of the book points to the 20th century. However, it must be admitted that the weight of the second half of the 20th century is more pronounced in the book than the first half. It is not due to the detection of a weight in the second half or to such an interpretation; but it would be correct to define the reason as the rush to record the resources of this period while they are still available. Because, the resources that we can talk about and access the documents may suddenly become inaccessible. It is necessary to take these resources seriously, bearing in mind that they may not always be there. The "Pelin Derviş Publication Project", which was created to serve this purpose, was written to record and share Pelin Derviş's research on city, architecture and design with the reader. Architectural Models in Turkey | A Section from the 20th Century is presented to the fanciers as a thinking and visualization tool. The book can be ordered from https://pelindervis.com/tr/publications/maket.

Architectural Models in Turkey | A Section from the 20th Century as a thinking and visualization tool