Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s Beş Şehir: An aesthetic approach to urban transformation

The purpose of this article is to examine the themes of preserving the archi-tectural heritage, cultural contextualization, and the methods of reconstruction in Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar’s prose work, Beş Şehir (1946). This study approach-es the term, urban transformation thematically, using the theories of modernity and modernization in evaluating the themes of demolition and reconstruction, loss and novelty, transformation and preservation. By keeping Tanpınar’s essays as reference point, I argue that Tanpınar provides an insight into complexity of the modernization practices in Turkey, which should inform our discussion of current urban strategies.

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