Reading Ankara Apartment Balcony Balustrades (1950-75) as Material Culture and Their Digital Documentation
Categories:
article
Tags:
exhibit design,
ankara balcony balustrades
Wrought iron, in forms of intricate front doors, fences, and balustrades, has been a significant feature of domestic building culture and decorative arts since the 19th century. Balustrades of apartment balconies, considered as craftwork, can be considered an extension of this building culture, reflecting contemporary designs of different eras. This paper focuses on apartment balcony balustrades built between 1950 and 1975 in Ankara as a noteworthy material evidence of modern Turkish architecture and sets out to demonstrate their relatively unexplored role in the preservation of Turkey’s architectural heritage, and their contribution to a more extensive reading of the built environment. Wrought iron balustrades can be considered a micro representation of modern architectural heritage, therefore their preservation is arguably pertinent with respect to values linked to their roles as a part of material culture. In this sense, this study addresses three main questions: Why are they regarded as substantial elements of material culture? Why should they be preserved? How does digital documentation serve as a useful tool in the preservation processes? The examples were collected through a research project entitled “Interactive Digital Exhibits to Experience Architectural Heritage: The Case of Balcony Balustrades of Ankara (1950-1975),” which documented and digitalized the balcony balustrades of 1,850 apartment buildings built between 1950 and 1975 in Ankara’s Çankaya District.
Go to the journal page | Download the pdf
- Authors
- Zeynep Tuna Ultav, Daniele Savasta, Meltem Ö. Gürel
- Publication date
- 2023/4/12
- Journal
- METU Journal of the Faculty of Architecture
- Volume
- 40
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 205-226
- Publisher
- Middle East Technical University