VIRTUAL Barcelona

Abstract

Concern for the nation’s health with a focus on combating contagious diseases was a vital component of Kemalist reforms in the early republican Turkey. With a pedagogical goal to inform the public about contagious diseases, short documentary films – prepared by the founder People’s Republic Party (CHP) – were distributed and shown throughout Anatolia. Even though these endeavors were aimed to promote the establishments of the “healthy” nation-state, they had a more pedagogical intention when compared to the subsequent political era. In 1950, the political power shifted from the founder Republican government (CHP) to the opposition: the Democrat Party (DP). DP was more capitalist than statist. This capitalist approach was due to its coinciding ascent to power with the postwar period’s globally thriving building sector. To demonstrate the construction power of the new government, many documentary films were prepared in mid-twentieth century to promote the institutions of DP, shot in construction sites, urban spaces, public buildings, with a specialized focus on healthcare architecture. This research thus looks at the presentation of healthcare architecture in the documentary films of the mid-twentieth century prepared by the political party in power. The documentary films from the archives of the Republic of Turkey – Ministry of Culture and Tourism (T.C. Kültür ve Turizm Bakanlığı) will be used as primary sources for this research. The spaces and architectures of health will be assessed with the accompanying narrative in the films and will be evaluated to outline how the discourse of health of the nation was spatially confronted and utilized in mid-twentieth century Turkey. Invaluable archives for architectural historiography, these documentary films blended the socio-political motivations of generating political propaganda via a narrative of health, construction, and the empowering nature of architectural endeavors.