Midwestern Prairie and Anatolian Bozkır

Both Midwestern Prairie and Anatolian 'Bozkır' present us with flat grasslands, not much tree cover,  temperature highs and lows, and all 4 seasons vividly lived through. Some architects of the late 19th century and early 20th century have centered their styles around these features of the Midwest of the United States, less so of the Bozkırs of the Turkic World. I have been struck by the missed opportunities of what would have been if Mimar Kemaleddin and Frank Lloyd Wright, both of whom lived about the same era, met. I had the opportunity to closely analyze their magna opera and needless to say the philosophies of these two architects had instantaneously clashed in my mind. I will not go into much detail about these architects' lives but you will see some personal and zeitgeist induced traces on the philosophies of these architects.

Prairie School Meets Anatolian-Turkic Architecture: A Quick Comparison

The flat connection to the outside world, to the soil and the grass matters a great deal. Wright seamlessly blends indoors with outdoors, eliminates cluttery spaces that block you from accessing "the outside" like a closed off garage or a patio. You walk out of the living room and there you stand on grass. No pools or other unnecessary outdoor furniture. The nuance is that the outside is not necessarily a space that is accessible by the public, it is the household's private outdoors. Much similarity can be observed in a traditional Anatolian-Turkic House. The sense of privacy had been present with closed of courtyards/atriums. Nevertheless the yearning for the connection and proximity to the outside persisted alongside this need for privacy. 

(More will be added here about materials used and vernacular architecture in general)

(More will be added about flatness, cantilever roof etc.)

Vacancy is essential, furniture is exception. Two different lineages and almost no shared history, still the living room designs converged to this same pillar. Turks traditionally sat on firm cushions and had their meals, conversed and rested around an elevated table in a room where the height of the ceiling is proportionate to an average human. Utilizing lower furniture, Wright also spares vertical space to allow for more air and more light, and more space for the occupant to feel the space and feel free.  

Wright imagined the living room to be active and center of life. Which is why we see the dining room, fireplace, bookshelves, sometimes even a piano are all located in the same continuous space with almost no interruption. Anatolian-Turkic architecture and traditional yurts also present a similar philosophy. The life is active around "Hayat" which literally translates into "life". 

Critics thought Wright the reason Wright designed claustrophobic entrances and then spacious rooms that follow because Wright first compresses you to your true size and then releases you to feel smaller in a bigger room. I disagree. My counterargument is that this compression is a way of transforming your environment from the outside world to your inside world. You are separated, or almost pulled away from the outside world, but then put into your own inside world which incorporates an outdoor space that is your own as a family.  

Why Do These Old Designs Make You Feel Better? 

Now that we have drawn parallels and established the hyper-similarity of these two approaches to organizing the physical self, we may move to exploring why such design choices make most people feel better about their living environments.

 Nature and Organic Architecture

Both styles emphasize a horizontal blending with the nature. Moving in unison with the nature, not contradicting it, is at the core of this philosophy. Such sense of belonging reduces the urban stress most experience today. Wright in his work "The Living City" emphasizes the natural evolution and movement of humans to be horizontal/flat. This is a notion that challenged me to rethink skyscrapers. I don't think Wright would innately oppose skyscrapers, but such buildings that are designed for the sake of height only do not commonly capture or pay tribute to the horizontal essence of the human nature.

(To Be Updated)

Why are These Styles not so Widespread?

Rapid Urbanization in the 1920s and 1930s

Spread of International Stye and Minimalism in 1970s

Economic and Practical Reasons

A Fusion: What Features to Pick?

• Horizontality

• Open Space

• Natural/Organic Materials

• Courtyards or the "Hayat"

• Ornation in Stone and Wood

• Simplicity and Warmth in Furniture 

Adapting to 21st Century Urbanism and Urban Planning

• Public Spaces and Art Deco?

• Vertical-Horizontal Living and High Rises

  • Why not stack mansions on top of each other?

• Affordability

  • A good urban life is what everyone needs.

• Technology

  • How do we make humans more comfortable with less?

New Generation Turkic Architectural Design Proposals