Tanzimat'tan Cumhuriyet'e İzmir'de Eğitim Yapıları

Abstract

In this research, the buildings which were constructed as schools in İzmir from the period of Tanzimat to Republic and have reached today are discussed. In 19th century, as a continuation of the reforms that Sultan Mahmud II had started, Rescript of Tanzimat was declared in 1839, the changes in the following period both created needs for new institutions and new city centres, and required renovations in the systems of education, planning and zoning. In this framework, new architectural types with new architectural styles were added to the architectural repertoire. The government offices, post offices, the buildings of city halls, stations, hospitals, police stations and schools became the areas to which the motifs and forms of Baroque and Rococo as well as the styles such as Neo-Classic, Neo-Gothic, Art Nouveau and Orientalist elements were applied on their own or with an eclectic approach. In the period of modernization, in parallel with the acceleration of relations with the West, education increasingly came into prominence. Beside the new centralized form of government and seeking for a new social order which were aimed to be made country-wide through the reforms, the function of education, shaped by ideas in favor of modernization, as a kind of transformation mechanism became a current issue. In parallel with the system of education that gradually renewed and changed, the buildings of schools were constructed first in Istanbul and then in rural areas. Following the declaration of Tanzimat, benefitting from the civil rights and the possibilities provided by the legal regulations made one after another, foreigners, Levantines and non-muslims also constituted their own educational institutions. These educational institutions tried to apply the examples of the West both in the content of education they provided and the language of architecture they adopted. In the second half of the 19th century, it is possible to say that a significant physical transformation took place in İzmir which was one of the important port cities of the era with its large trade volume and where a Western community lived having a numerical density as well as an economical potential. Within the scope of this transformation, the reflections of reforms and practices in both education and architecture can also be observed in Izmir. In the districts where the Muslims lived and in the places which could be counted as the centre of the city, the buildings that hosted new educational institutions were built by the state. At the same time, it is observed that Levantines, foreigners, and non-muslims who were bourgeoisified thanks to the given equal ownership rights to each nation in the cities and especially by the handover of the capital, also constructed many educational buildings while creating their own urban environment in the areas which they preferred. In The Second Constitutional Period while the reforms in the field of education continued, the preferences of transforming power that changed the direction in relation to the ideology created the architectural style called such names as “National Architecture Renaissance” or “Ottoman Revival” and educational buildings also took place among the buildings which were constructed in this style. In the scope of this study, the written source related to this topic has been examined, the architectural drawings, realized by on-site studies and scientific criteria, have been supported with visual materials.