PAST TALKS 2021
The ‘Cosmopolite’ at Home:
Material Histories of Domestic Living in Early Modern Istanbul (1850-1930)
DAMLA GÖRE
gta Institute, ETH Zurich

A district of Istanbul, Pera was a newly developing area in mid-nineteenth century with a recognition of being an international hub of commerce, art and entertainment. By marking a tremendous intercultural fluidity among urban elites the region popularised in terms of its cosmopolitanism, which also turned it into a symbol of European presence in the Ottoman capital. While this intricate semi-colonial course of domination was constructing a dissimilar landscape for its residents, it was also effective in the adoption of new ideas that were transformative for traditional Ottoman domestic living. This study explores different material aspects in the changing notions about domesticity that were mostly catalyzed by the rising prominence of this bourgeois class. It focuses on three tracks of research that gives different insights for the understanding of modern home. It scrutinizes the concerns of health, hygene and infrastructural attempts to give domestic access to fresh water; the norms, institutions and legislations to transform the timber houses to durable masonry buildings and the interlaced histories of household objects, house organization and modern manners in daily life. I argue that domesticity is a modern construction that can be alternatively read through the intertwining histories of different material agencies. By looking at specific qualities of home I will problematize the sole role of architecture in shaping domestic space. Also I will explore the reflections of modern living in the efforts to build residential Pera and thus strive to bond together the interstices between public and private courses of modernization which has so far lacked a sufficient dialogue. In the study I aim to develop a materialist perspective to the architectural transformation in early modern Istanbul, as well as provide a critical approach for Ottoman cosmopolitanism.
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