Ankara Modernism from Ulus İşhanı to Atakule

Leaving Ulus metro, the low blocks on the south-east side of the square and the prismatic tower rising behind them are Ulus İşhanı. The Pension Fund held a competition between 10 August 1952 and 9 February 1953 for both the office building and the layout of the square; first prize went to Orhan Bozkurt, Orhan Bolak and Gazanfer Beken. Construction began in 1955; the low blocks facing the courtyards opened in 1960 and the tall block was finished in 1963. The complex consists of seven blocks around two courtyards; its aluminium frames, wide glass surfaces and sharp prismatic masses count among the earliest examples of international modernism in Turkey. Kültür Envanteri writes that this building was Ankara's answer to the effect created by the Istanbul Hilton. Together with the Victory Monument of 1927, this competition scheme is what turned Ulus Square into a real square.

Today the tall block houses the Youth and Sports Directorate and the low blocks work as a bazaar; walk into the courtyards, see how the blocks open onto one another and look at the row of shops on the facade towards the square. On the other corner of the boulevard stood the 100. Yıl Bazaar, awarded to Semra and Orhan Dikel in a 1967 competition and completed in 1981; it closed in 2020 and was demolished in 2022-23. One of the three modern arcades around Ulus Square is gone, which is why Ulus İşhanı is not just a building but the surviving witness of the square's modern layer. The Sümerbank building on the north-east of the square, dated 1938, speaks the stone-clad language of the previous generation; compare the two at a glance.

Source: Kültür Envanteri; Wikipedia (Ulus İş Hanı, 100. Yıl Çarşısı, Sümerbank Genel Müdürlük Binası).

Go down to Sıhhiye by metro or on foot along the boulevard; the Turkish Historical Society is at 1 Kızılay Street in the Hacettepe quarter, right behind the boulevard. Turgut Cansever and Ertur Yener began the design in 1951; the printing house was finished in 1955, the main building's design was settled in 1961, construction ran from 1962 to 1966 and the institute moved in during 1967. In 1980 the building received an Aga Khan Award for Architecture in the award's first cycle; the jury called it a positive step towards an architectural expression that combines contemporary building technology with traditional concepts and principles. The heart of the building is a three-storey central courtyard lit from above; it recalls the inward-looking order of Ottoman madrasas, and all the main functions are arranged around it. Aluminium windows are paired with wooden screens. Outside, Ankara stone gives the building its massive look.

The ground floor holds the conference hall and book stores, the upper floors the library, reading rooms and offices. The library was founded with the institute in 1931 and is a specialist library on Turkish history; academics, postgraduate and independent researchers may use it, undergraduates need a letter from a supervisor, and nothing is lent out. If you are not a researcher, look at the building from Kızılay Street and from the public court between the printing house and the main building; watch the rhythm of the wooden screens and the weight of the stone. Next to the glass and aluminium blocks on this route, Cansever's building shows another road for modernism: one that brings new technique together with local material and the courtyard tradition.

Source: Aga Khan Award for Architecture; Kültür Envanteri; AYK (TTK Kütüphanesi); GZT; ttk.gov.tr.

When you reach Kızılay Square, the glass block rising on the east side of the boulevard at 117 Atatürk Boulevard is Emek İşhanı; since 2015 its official name has been Kahramanlar Business Centre. It was designed by Enver Tokay and İlhan Tayman with structural engineering by Yusuf Berdan, and built as an income property for the Pension Fund. Wikipedia gives the construction as 1959-65, the Architects Who Left Their Mark on Ankara project starts it in 1958. Twenty-four storeys and 76 metres; when finished it was the tallest building in the city, and it is regarded as Turkey's first skyscraper and the first use of a glass curtain wall. The model is plain: Lever House and the United Nations Secretariat in New York, a slim rectangular tower on a low podium. You see the podium and the narrow face of the tower towards the boulevard best from the Güvenpark side.

The building was sold in privatisation on 8 March 2006 and renamed in 2015; as private property it cannot be entered, and the facade is viewed from the pavement. Tokay's other Ankara works continue this language: the annex of the Faculty of Political Science in 1955 and, with Behruz Çinici and Teoman Doruk, the State Hydraulic Works headquarters in 1958. Jansen's plan of the 1930s had imagined a low, garden Yenişehir at Kızılay; Emek İşhanı brought the first vertical to that square and set the scale for every tall block that followed. Among the traffic and signs that fill the square, notice how slim and orderly the tower stands; the best frame is a wide angle with the trees of Güvenpark in the foreground.

Source: Ankara'da İz Bırakan Mimarlar; Wikipedia (Kahramanlar İş Merkezi); Wikipedia (Kahramanlar Business Center).

Walk south along the boulevard towards Bakanlıklar; the tall block facing the boulevard with a many-angled mass, directly opposite the parliament, is the Büyük Ankara Hotel. Designed in 1960 by the Swiss architect Marc Joseph Saugey with Yüksel Okan as a Pension Fund investment, it was built between 1960 and 1966; engineering was by the firm S.E.H.E.G. and construction by Emek İnşaat. Twenty-two floors and three basements, 67.66 metres high, 194 rooms; from its opening in 1966 until 1986 it remained Ankara's only five-star hotel. Wikipedia calls it one of the most important examples of 1960s Turkish architecture and one of the country's main works of organic modernism. Aluminium sun-breakers gave the original facade its character.

It was privatised in 2005 and went through a thorough renovation; professional bodies objected to the redesign of the interior and to the blue metal facade system that replaced the sun-breakers. The building reopened in 2009 and is run as a hotel today; as an accommodation business it is seen from outside. As you look from the pavement, keep the 1960s photographs in mind: the facade you see is the renovated one, but the broken geometry of the mass and the way it sits on the ground are the line of Saugey and Okan. The far pavement of the boulevard is the one place where you can get the travertine front of the parliament and the glass and metal of the hotel in the same frame; this corner, where a building whose competition was won in 1938 stands beside one drawn in 1960, shows how far architecture travelled in Ankara in twenty years.

Source: GZT Mimari; Wikipedia (Büyük Ankara Oteli, III. TBMM Binası).

From Kızılay take Ankaray to Anadolu (Anıtkabir) station; from there you reach Anıtkabir on foot, uphill. For this route Anıtkabir is a starting point: 49 entries from many countries reached the international competition opened in 1941-42, the design of Emin Onat and Orhan Arda was chosen, and after several revisions the foundations were laid on 9 October 1944; the complex was finished in October 1953 and opened on 10 November 1953. It is regarded as the monumental summary of the Second National Architecture: a symmetrical, grave language built in stone that refers to the Hittite, Seljuk and Ottoman layers of Anatolia. The 262 metre Lion Road is lined by 24 lions representing the Oğuz clans; ten towers surround the ceremonial ground; the Hall of Honour holds the symbolic sarcophagus, with Atatürk's remains in the octagonal burial chamber beneath. Of the 750,000 square metre site, 630,000 square metres are the Peace Park.

Read together with the other stops, you see how fast the language changed in the mid 1950s: when Anıtkabir was finished in 1953 the Ulus İşhanı competition had been decided, and two years later construction in aluminium and glass began. Only a few years separate monumental stone from the curtain wall. Walk the Lion Road slowly; look at the joints of the ashlar, the proportions of the towers and the paving of the ceremonial ground, because on this route the monument itself and its stonework come first. When you reach the ceremonial ground turn round and look at the city; the siting of Anıtkabir on its hill is part of the design. Visiting hours change with the season; check them at anitkabir.tsk.tr. Allow separate time for the museum.

Source: anitkabir.tsk.tr; Wikipedia (Anıtkabir).

Take an EGO bus from Kızılay towards Çankaya up to Çankaya Street; the tower stands where Cinnah and Çankaya streets meet, right beside the Botanical Park. Designed by Ragıp Buluç, Atakule was built in 1986-89 and opened on 13 October 1989, the 66th anniversary of Ankara becoming the capital; the name joins Ata and kule, tower. The 125 metre tower rose above Turkey's second and Ankara's first shopping centre; at its top were a rotating platform and an observation deck, and the lighting was designed by Nergiz Arifoğlu. It quickly became the city's skyline. The route ends here because Atakule is the last major piece of the line of modernisation running from 1950 to 1990: the years when concrete turned into height and watching the city from above became a public habit.

The shopping section was demolished and rebuilt after 2014 while the tower was kept; the new complex opened on 29 October 2018 and gained a terrace towards the Botanical Park and a plaza at the entrance. What should interest you on this route is the tower itself and its observation deck: two glass lifts take you up, and from the deck you look over the panorama of Ankara. Go up about half an hour before sunset; in one ascent you see both the daytime skyline and the moment the city's lights come on. Check the deck's opening hours and admission at atakule.com.tr. As you look at the tower, think about the question Arkitera asked when demolition began in 2014: how will the new building talk to the old tower? You can see the answer today from the pavement.

Source: Arkitera; A Tasarım; atakule.com.tr; Wikipedia (Atakule).