In June 1939, the governor of Istanbul, Lütfi Kırdar inaugurated “an exhibition to fully demonstrate the decadal development of the nation in the industrial field.” It was the 11th Turkish domestic products’ exhibition, headlined by the exhibit “Istanbul on display” that showcased the contemporary renovations of Istanbul in architectural models. Kırdar’s full speech was published in Istanbul Municipality’s journal with many photographs. This moment demonstrated that architectural models were ‘mainstream’ in the popular culture of the young nation and part of the reformist iconography.

Reaching beyond the realm of architectural professionals, models engaged with the public through newspapers, popular publications and thematic exhibitions held for the masses. The exhibitions were, in a sense, stages to enable interactive participation of the audience -the public- and the architectural models acted as political icons to consolidate the building power of the state in public opinion. The photographs of politicians examining the models, which circulated in the newspapers, were powerful messages, and bore compelling testimonies to the state-initiated modernization project, physically (the country as the construction site) and ideologically in form, style, and more importantly in culture.

Engaging with the literature on the role of representation in the architectural culture of the early republic (1930s and 1940s), this paper analyzes examples from popular periodicals as mediums of mass circulation in which the models were centerpieces; and revisits the interactive function of the exhibitions as spaces of encounter between the modernization ideology of the state and the citizens, playing their parts within the construction of the nation. Ultimately, we aim to scrutinize the overlooked propagandistic role of architectural models and their reproduced images within the cultural transformations of the period.