It is an undeniable fact the upcoming of the industrial revolution changed deeply the way cultural, social and political interactions in the Western world precisely were expressed. The definition of the revolution itself expresses this transition in beholding the worldwide communication. Then and there, new challenges were put into light and nations, defined at some point in the nineteenth
... [Show full abstract] century as empires, dynasties or colonies started to shape means to represent their achievement is the term of industrial and technological progress.
Besides the political repercussions of such transformations, translated by the defiant territorial expansions of Britain and France for example, came a sense of competitiveness that needed to be laid out in an open challenge. This challenge found its most clear expression in the universal exhibitions that have started since 1851 as a recording of the tremendous advancements that the Western World could achieve in less than a century in the industrial and the technological fields to start with. These exhibitions constituted a leitmotiv to continuously showcasing the realizations of the industrial revolution and offer to the world (the participant countries) a non-trade directed overview of the various potentialities and impact of newfound technical inventions, materials or information.
One of the most important manifestations of these exhibitions issue is undoubtedly the architectural representation that goes in pair with different concepts that frame the event. Though architectural prowess’s can be considered themselves an indirect in-show purpose, because mostly engineering and construction techniques’ advances and new materials showcase represented the key-word of the exhibitions, the expression of architecture through the pavilions became throughout the successive occasions an integral part of it and a sort of attraction to the public visitors (Lenger, 2015). The Crystal Palace and the Eiffel Tower are a very good example to underline this assumption. In spite of their undisputable impact in considering architecture and giving a starting point to what will be recalled later as the emergence of modernism, these two buildings were erected first and foremost to show off engineering breakpoint and new ways of expanding glass and iron used in constructions. Nevertheless, this initial intention had been soon overtaken and the said constructions elevated to the status of architectural monuments.Since then, it is safe to say the universal exhibitions served two major purposes: introducing new concepts and innovations that witness the civilizational human advance and allowing the participant nations, through architecture, to introduce their particularities and hegemony displays.
As one of the most influential authorities in the old world since the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Ottoman Empire did not give up the occasions to participate in the Universal Exhibitions in several times. The presence of the Ottoman Empire, then the Nation of Turkey, was per se closely related to the political fluctuation and the economical state it went through during the 19th to 20th centuries. It has also evolved in parallel with ascension and a decrease in the event itself.
In this article, we will try to focus on the principal aspect of the architectural representation of Turkey in the most prominent Universal Exhibitions that took place in the 20th century (1900 to 2000). The intention is to trace the presence of the Turkish pavilions and relate their architectural evolution to the 20th century’s main external influences and its principal architectural movements. Consequently, the attention of the article will start by highlighting the Turkish participation in five key exhibitions starting by the 1900 Exhibition held in Paris, moving through the Budapest exhibition in 1931, the New York exhibition in 1939/40 and the one of 1958 held in Brussel, the exposition of Seville in 1992 to jump at last to the final exhibition of the century held in Hannover, Germany in 2000.