Erdoğan urges low-rise architecture

ISTANBUL

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on April 9 criticized the domination of “ugly” architecture in Turkey and vowed to ensure low-rise architecture across the country.

“We want to start the new era by ending the ugly and soulless structures with no identity that have dominated our country for a long time. Now we see that the private sector and individuals are carrying out their projects with the same understanding. We believe we can change the face of Turkey with low-rise architecture in the medium and long-term,” Erdoğan said at the opening ceremony of a museum.

“In the geography we live in, we have a history of about 1,000 years: 200 years of the Seljuks, 600 years of the Ottomans and a century of the republic. Today, we come across traces of the culture left by our ancestors everywhere. Geography, on the other hand, has a much greater wealth as it is one of the most ancient settlements of humanity,” Erdoğan said.

But he said the country could not “properly claim” this heritage.

“This heritage stands before us as a painful truth that we cannot claim properly,” he stated.

In the single-party period, the mentality in architecture was “totally imitative, oppressive and at odds with Turkey’s values in the cultural field,” he stated.

But in recent years, “beautiful and important” cultural and artistic products have been produced, he said.

“If you do not claim your own architecture, you will find yourself in ugly architecture,” Erdoğan stated.