SPATIAL FORMATION IN ARCADES: ANKARA-YENİŞEHİR ARCADES

Abstract

Spaces are conditioned by social conditions; on the other hand, social structure is affected by spaces. Arcades, the subject of this article, first appeared in Europe in the 18th century as a result of an increase in trading activities. The arcades in Ankara, which were started to be built in the 1950s together with increasing trading activities, contributed to the urban economy with intense activities of shopping, re-determined social and urban relations as essential places of everyday life and became distinctive urban buildings with their original building typologies and the function of maintaining public continuity in the area of private ownership. Aim: This study aims to study the process in which passages emerged and to analyze their spatial features and, in particular, to examine the spatial formation of the distinctive passages in Ankara on the basis of their causation. Method: In the article, spatial features of the passages in the West were mentioned, and the conditions of the period in which the passages in Ankara were built were briefly explained. Spatial analysis of the passages found in the research area were conducted, and the formation of these passages were analyzed together with their reasons. Results: Of the 31 arcades in Ankara, 27 were built between 1950 and 1980 on and around the Atatürk Boulevard in Yenişehir/Kizilay. As of the mid-1950s, new planning decisions which were made one after the other in the built-up area re-shaped the Boulevard and its surrounding as the existing buildings were demolished, allowing to construct new buildings with arcades or stores in their entrances. Their interior designs and connections to the streets are different from the arcades in the West. Conclusion: The present subdivision system and new planning decisions applied in property order shaped the passages which were peculiar to Ankara.