Title

Author(s)

Kivanc Kilinc

Affiliation

Izmir Institute of Technology

DOI

https://doi.org/10.65686/JYZE1838

Keywords

PP

495-502

How to Cite

Kilinc, Kivanc. “Rethinking Adaptive Reuse: Three Buildings and Their Curious Disappearance.” In Proceedings of the International Conference on Adaptive Reuse. Volume 1, edited by Andrea Crudeli, Francesca Molle, and Emanuele Carrai, 495–502. Firenze: STH Press, 2026.

Abstract

This paper explores the nuanced histories of three buildings in Türkiye, which have disappeared from sight and returned in three different ways. The first is the Bank of Provinces in Ankara (1937). When it was bulldozed in 2017, many believed that the conservative mayor had intentionally targeted the building because its architecture symbolized the values of the western-oriented regime. Its demolition has further amplified its status as a modernist architectural icon. In the second instance, a slaughterhouse in İstanbul’s Golden Horn (1923), a registered historical landmark, was repurposed. The municipal administration first demolished it and then rebuilt it larger than the original, to serve as a congress center (2009). The decision stirred a heated debate among scholars of architecture and preservation. The final example is the French Consulate building in Izmir (1906). It was one of the few survivors of the Great Fire (1922), which destroyed the majority of the city’s non-Muslim built and cultural heritage. Converted to an art center in 2011 through adaptive reuse, the building has since continued its existence, standing along mid-rise modern apartment buildings. In the paper, I investigate how the changes that occurred in the history of these buildings could inform our understanding of the original works: What happens when the demolition of buildings, or the erasure of their memory through reimagining and reconstruction, also become a material for history writing? What would be the emerging themes and new methodologies through which such buildings could be examined, contextualized, and historicized? Can we still talk about a loss, or an absence, if the materiality of the object is present in one form or another? I conclude that by critically revisiting the concepts of preservation, adaptive reuse, and memory, one could forge a critical dialogue between the past and the present in architectural history writing.
Keywords: Politics of memory, disappearance, decontextualization

Edited by
Andrea Crudeli
Francesca Molle
Emanuele Carrai

Publisher
STH Press, Firenze

ISBN Paperback – 9791281661141
ISBN Ebook – 9791281661158
DOI – https://doi.org/10.65686/SISY7263

Year
2026

Proceedings of
International Conference on Adaptive Reuse
hosted by The University of Pisa, Italy
15-19 September 2025, at the Gispoteca di Arte Antica dell’Università di Pisa.