The exhibition 'Building a City: Ankara 1923-1933' opened at the Gazhane Museum.

The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) Culture and Heritage exhibition " Founding a City: Ankara 1923-1933, " curated by Ali Cengizkan and Müge Cengizkan , with the support of Koç University VEKAM and focusing on the first ten years of Ankara's founding as the capital and previously opened in Ankara in 2019 to mark the 50th anniversary of the Vehbi Koç Foundation, opened in Istanbul last night with the participation of many figures from the worlds of architecture, art, history, academia, and politics.

The exhibition "Founding a City: Ankara 1923-1933" explores how a "new" city was established in a war-torn country, drawing on the will and facts manifested in the first decade of the Republic. Focusing on all manner of housing-related narratives from the period, the exhibition can be visited free of charge at the Museum Gazhane (Gazhane Museum) every day, except Mondays, between 10:00 am and 6:00 pm, until March 22, 2026.

40 NAMES, ONE CITY

The exhibition, “Founding a City: Ankara 1923-1933,” examines the transformation Ankara, which became the capital just 16 days before the proclamation of the Republic, underwent through successful planning in its first decade, despite experiencing a population surge. The exhibition portrays the founding of Yenişehir, a district in the heart of Ankara shaped by modernization policies, through approximately 350 original photographs from the period, newly produced visuals, models of housing types, and film footage. The exhibition also brings together the housing experiences and writings of nearly 40 politicians, writers, intellectuals, architects, planners, and contractors, including Mustafa Necati, Halide Edip Adıvar, Arif Hikmet Koyunoğlu, Carl Christoph Lörcher, Erzurumlu Nafiz Kotan, and Grace Ellison , during the capital's first decade. The film room, which documents the period, features the film “ Ankara, the Heart of Turkey ,” a vivid portrayal of Ankara in the 1920s and 1930s.

Describing the process of Ankara's transformation into not only a physical capital but also a place of modern life, "Establishing a City: Ankara 1923-1933" deliberately avoids the alienation created by nostalgia and makes visible, within a historical framework, the will and culture of housing that were put forth until the 10th anniversary of the Republic.

AWARD FROM THE CHAMBER OF ARCHITECTS

The exhibition “Establishing a City: Ankara 1923-1933,” which has attracted considerable attention both in the public and academic circles with the new avenues of research and communication it has opened, was deemed worthy of the Chamber of Architects’ 2022 National Architecture Award for its architectural history research methodology. The book of the same name, which deepens the exhibition with articles and new documents, was first published in 2019 by Koç University VEKAM Publications, and its fourth edition was published in 2023. The English edition of the book, The Construction of a New City: Ankara 1923-1933, was published by Koç University Press in 2022. Both editions of the book will be available to readers at the İstanbul Bookstore in the Museum Gazhane for the duration of the exhibition.

The exhibition “Establishing a City: Ankara 1923-1933” awaits its visitors at the Museum Gazhane, free of charge, every day except Mondays, between 10:00 and 18:00, between 12 September 2025 and 22 March 2026 .