Atatürk Forest Farm

Abstract :

"Gazi Forest Farm" established on 5 May 1925 was designed and developed as a modern site with concern for leisure activities along with agricultural, industrial, and commercial components. Following the first construction between 1925 and 1926, development in 1930s was conducted so as to show a planned environment with modern concerns in mind. The initial plan for the Farm dated 1934 was maintained by the Swiss architect Ernst Arnold Egli, who attempted to innovate an approach to connect the historical and the cultural past of the new nation with the geography of the site, and the very public space requirements of the new-born Republic of Turkey. Although the plan was not applied in its entirety, the design makes one to consider the Ataturk Forest Farm to constitute a small model of the national modernity project, with the social, cultural and historic implications it has. Only two years after the initial design, planning and architectural implementations in the Farm were conducted in a more comprehensive and programmed manner. Following the plan prepared by Hermann Jansen in 1936 and with the Jansen-Egli cooperation, projects for the Beer and Malt Factory, housing, hamam (Turkish Bath) and restaurant, the main structures of the site were rapidly prepared and realized by Egli in 1937. The Beer and Malt Factory was one of the main buildings which transformed/changed the Farm in a considerable manner with its central position; accommodation facilities provided the employees with houses close to workplace; managerial units and the Railway Station completed the scene for the suburban leisure space to be within easy reach with the new Capital city Ankara. The Factory's machine-like and rational form corresponding to its function with technologic facilities was complemented with the modern forms of official buildings and housing for employees, as well as with the hamam. While housing units provided a modern atmosphere for the users of the quarter, they were designed to cope with the living habits of the emerging working class. For the design of the Beer Factory Hamam, one of the most interesting buildings of the site, Egli was adhered to the characteristic scheme of the Ottoman Hamam, and complied with the modern approach of 1930s while using the material and technique: he utilized current technological implementations for its water and heating system, contrary to the traditional hamams, which might be called an innovation. With the hamam and the housing, the Beer and Malt Factory, as one of the main buildings of the site provided the Farm to have a more modern and holistic appearance as an industrial production area. Natural landscaping, parks and gardens of the Farm take the workplace away from the usual factory image. Carefully embellished gardens next to the factory where few species of plants were cultivated; the restaurants, parks, pools and other areas for entertainment, detach the industrial and agricultural production locations considered as collective spaces in integrity, in an order not disturbing each other. Factory and employee housing of the industrial period and their environments for living created in connection therewith, are still a rich source of information. However nowadays it is evident that this initial environment created for a modern way of living and production is under a great pressure of change, which ends up in ill-management, under maintenance and simply ignorance. As an architectural heritage from the Early Republican Era, it is required to appreciate the value of and to preserve the buildings of the Ataturk Forest Farm, as one primary sample of a modern, contemporary, secular environmental contruction. The paper aims to document the planning and construction development of the campus and its buildings in the light of the textual and visual documents acquired from the ETH Zurich Archive, the Presidency Ataturk Archive, Prime Ministry Archive for the Republic, the Architektsmuseum TU Berlin, the TTA General Directorate Archive, and the Ataturk forest Farm Archive. Keywords: Ataturk Forest Farm Campus; Beer Factory; hamam (Turkish bath); official and employee housing; Ernst Arnold Egli; Hermann Jansen; early Republican architecture in Turkey. Anahtar Sozcukler: Ataturk Orman Ciftligi yerleskesi; Bira Fabrikasi; Bira Fabrikasi Hamami; Memurlar ve Isciler icin konut; Ernst Arnold Egli; Hermann Jansen; erken Cumhuriyet donemi mimarligi.