Modernity, Hygiene And The Display of the Body

• Main Author: Ebru Yılmaz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: KARE Publishing 2016-12-01
• Series: Megaron
• Subjects: modernity; hygiene; body; health museum; health exhibition; i̇zmir
• Online Access: https://jag.journalagent.com/z4/download_fulltext.asp?pdir=megaron&un=MEGARON-24196

This article aims to focus on health museums as a building type which is introduced to the architectural medium at the beginning of 20th century by modern thinking, the ideal of creating a healthy society as the guarantee of progress and development. Health museums provided representation for the concepts of modernity and hygiene in built environment by being spaces displaying bodies, diseases, subjects on hygiene and medical developments. As a modest building with its scale and content, İzmir Health Exhibition building in İzmir Fair will be analyzed to show how it contributed to 1920s and 1930s modern architecture in Turkey, what were the messages representational meanings transmitted. The existence of this building, constructed in 1937 in İzmir, should be comprehended through health policies all around the world, social engineering efforts and the process of modernization. The building points out a use that is produced by modern architecture, but today it is a type waning popularity in contemporary world. Looking back into this building today helps us to understand rising and declining values of modernity on the discourse of hygiene and its effect on the field of architecture. Thus, the contribution of İzmir Health Exhibition building to early modern Turkish architecture will be discussed by considering similar exhibitions and museums around the world.