Browsing by Author "Tunc, Tanfer Emin"
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Article Citation Count: 0A Close Examination of Ankara's Reinforced Concrete Buildings Designed and Constructed between 1923 and 1938(Mdpi, 2023) Tunç, Gökhan; Tunc, Tanfer Emin; Civil EngineeringThe Republic of Turkey was established in 1923 out of the remains of the Ottoman Empire. Between 1923 and 1938, the Turkish republic underwent fifteen years of rapid expansion and growth, with Ankara as its new capital and Mustafa Kemal Ataturk (1881-1938) as its first president. During this period, reinforced concrete (RC) played a significant role in the construction of Ankara's public-use buildings. This study focuses on 57 of these structures, built either partially, or entirely, out of RC. The buildings are classified with respect to their duration, soil properties, foundation types, structural design details, construction types, materials and overall costs. In order to provide a better picture of the time period in which these buildings were designed and constructed, the technical, financial and political aspects of the projects, and the difficulties and challenges involved in their design and construction, are also discussed. Furthermore, this study outlines the impact of foreign engineers, construction workers, firms and the educational system on the development of civil engineering and use of RC in Turkey.Article Citation Count: 5Constructing Containment: Thompson-Starrett, the cesme Beach Houses, and the Geopolitics of American Engineering in Cold War Turkey(Routledge Journals, Taylor & Francis Ltd, 2020) Tunç, Gökhan; Tunc, Gokhan; Civil EngineeringFor the first half of the twentieth century, Thompson-Starrett and Co., a New York-based American engineering, construction, and contracting firm, dominated the building scene. In operation between 1899 and 1968, it was a leader in skyscraper construction and large-scale projects, and literally built the New York skyline. It designed and constructed the tallest skyscraper of the era, the Woolworth Building, as well as other iconic Manhattan structures such as the Equitable Building, the American Stock Exchange, the New York Municipal Building, and the Claridge, Algonquin, Roosevelt, St. Regis, and Waldorf-Astoria Hotels. A formidable pioneering force in structural engineering a hundred years ago, Thompson-Starrett is, by and large, forgotten today, especially its post-World War II ventures in Turkey, such as the Sariyar Dam and the cesme Beach Houses, a luxury beachfront cooperative located in Ilica, Izmir. However, what would prompt the engineering firm responsible for the Woolworth Building to take on the road and utility construction and project management of a Turkish summer resort? The answer lies in Cold War geopolitics and booming private enterprise, both of which, in the 1950s, converged in Turkey, relied on American engineering, and involved a complex process of Americanization.Article Citation Count: 1Engineering the public-use reinforced concrete buildings of Ankara during the Early Republic of Turkey, 1923-1938(Pergamon-elsevier Science Ltd, 2022) Tunç, Gökhan; Tunc, Tanfer Emin; Civil EngineeringToday, reinforced concrete (RC) is the most commonly used construction material in Turkey. It first emerged in Europe in the 1850s and was adopted in a number of Late Ottoman period structures, mostly in Istanbul, during the first two decades of the twentieth century. During the Early Turkish Republic (1923-1938), RC appeared in public-use buildings in Ankara, such as the Ethnographic Museum, which was the first in the new capital to feature RC elements, leading the way for many more structures to come. Despite the fact that Turkish and foreign civil engineers faced a series of economic, social, cultural, political, educational and technical challenges during the transition from masonry and timber construction to RC, its adoption was facilitated by the fact that as a European building technology, it became symbolically important to the new republic. Equated with modernity, RC would allow its capital, Ankara, to construct an identity that would contrast with Istanbul, the capital of the Ottoman Empire. This transition would also be catalyzed by the rise of a professional class of Turkish civil engineers who deployed RC to reinforce their authority as trained specialists and agents of modernization.Article Citation Count: 2A Light Bulb in Every House The Istanbul General Electric Factory and American Technology Transfer to Turkey(Johns Hopkins Univ Press, 2022) Tunç, Gökhan; Tunc, Gokhan; Civil EngineeringIn 1946, Turkish entrepreneur Vehbi Koc signed an agreement with the U.S. firm General Electric to build and operate its first light bulb factory in the Near/Middle East, in Istanbul. This private joint venture introduced new manufacturing techniques, business practices, and consumer habits to Turkey, opening channels of postwar technological exchange. Closer examination of the GE-Koc partnership reveals that during the early Cold War, the transfer and embedding of American technologies in Turkey was a politically complicated process of innovation that required constant adaptation. Fraught with unforeseeable obstacles, it also required cautious negotiation with multiple transnational actors. The story of the GE-Koc partnership thus adds a new dimension to historical understandings of the Turkish Cold War experience and the Americanization of the region. It illustrates how transferring a nonmilitary, soft-power, domestic technologythe light bulb-played a significant role in Turkish-American relations and therefore contributes to studies of U.S. Cold War diplomacy through transnational investment in innovation.Article Citation Count: 5Transferring Technical Knowledge to Turkey: American Engineers, Scientific Experts, and the Erzincan Earthquake of 1939(Royal Soc, 2022) Tunç, Gökhan; Tunc, Gokhan; Civil EngineeringOn 27 December 1939, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck Erzincan, Turkey, claiming close to 33 000 lives, and leaving 100 000 injured and 250 000 homeless. World War II was in its initial stages, and the USA was particularly concerned about the vulnerable situation in Turkey, since there was a possibility that it would join forces with Germany, as the Ottoman Empire had done in World War I. Consequently, the Turkish request for information on 'a type of quake resistant concrete construction understood to have been developed in California', resulted in a flurry of correspondence between numerous Turkish and American actors, including the US State Department, which supplied this material with notable attentiveness. As this article will argue, this request not only represents an early critical juncture in the transfer of earthquake engineering knowledge from the USA to Turkey, but also illustrates how diplomacy and engineering can intersect at pivotal points in time. Engineers and other scientific experts strengthened the Turkish-American relationship during this period, thereby laying the foundation of the technical cooperation that would flourish during the Cold War. This watershed moment also resulted in immediate developments in Turkey, such as the development of a comprehensive national disaster management programme, a seismic zone map, and earthquake building codes.Article Citation Count: 2Wonderland Eurasia: Theme Parks and Neo-Ottoman Identity Politics in Ankara, Turkey(Univ Newcastle, 2020) Tunç, Gökhan; Tunc, Gokhan; Civil EngineeringWith an area of 1.3 km(2) or 320 acres, Wonderland Eurasia, which is located in Ankara, Turkey, has been advertised as the largest theme park in Europe and Asia. Almost a decade in the making, it was completed in 2019 at a cost of approximately $250 to $350 million USD (1.5 to 2 billion Turkish Lira) and is seen by supporters as having the potential to boost the sagging tourism industry. This study, which is based on a July 2019 site visit to the theme park, will illustrate, however, that Wonderland Eurasia is much more complicated than appearances suggest. The authors argue that by deploying the imperial glory of the Ottoman Empire, the park constructs an artificial narrative of continuity that connects the past (through Seljuk and even prehistoric themes), to the present, and future (through robotic themes). This is not only meant to symbolically reinforce Turkey's position as a regional 'wonderland'-a social, economic, and cultural powerhouse with grand foreign policy aspirations-but in the process, is also designed to promote a neoliberal Neo-Ottomanism that involves an identity politics of historical elision and selective erasure. Tanfer Emin Tunc is a Professor in the Department of American Culture and Literature at Hacettepe University in Ankara. Gokhan Tunc is an Assistant Professor in the Dept. Of Civil Engineering at the Atilim University in Ankara.