A Re-Reading of Turkish Modern Architecture after Derrida

The present article presents a review of modern architectural history of Turkey through a deconstructionist perspective in the form of a re-read. The article providing a universal-local scale discussion of theoretical knowledge and history-writing claims that the history of architecture does not present an absolute whole and that a deconstructive track in the re-reading of modern architecture in Turkey entails a creative contribution to the theory of modern architecture. In a nutshell, the article develops a look on modern architecture in Turkey within the wider framework of center/periphery debate, and argues the need to question the absoluteness of meaning in history-writing in architecture in general and modern architecture in particular. Thereby, the article intends to eliminate contradictions of the past and history as observed through the most widely recognized depiction of the history of modern architecture. The re-reading based on the book on The International Style focuses on the examples of architecture from renowned Turkish architects, architects Kemaleddin Bey, and Seyfi Arkan and make amendments to modern architectural history by deconstructing the centralizing and homogenizing tendencies of history-writing in modern architecture.