From Empire to Republic: Continuities of Ottoman Imperial Socio-spatial Practices in the Modern Capital of the Early Turkish Republic

The nationalizing narratives of the Turkish state framed the construction of the new nation as a revolution and as a deliberate break from the socio-political practices of the theocratic and multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire. However, the positioning of the schools in the urban landscape and their spatial organization continued the socio-spacial role of the Ottoman sultans' mosques. An analysis of school buildings designed by the German émigré architect, Bruno Taut, in the nation's new capital adds new insights to the existing scholarship on the continuities from empire to republic, further complicating the foundation myths of the nation.