During the early years of the Turkish Republic, medicine and architecture emerged as modern disciplines and were utilized as agents of reformist ideology in the nation-building process. The ruling elites, a significant part of which were medical doctors, associated physical wellbeing and sturdiness with morality and patriotism, which led to a strong insistence on the struggle against the diseases with highest fatality rates, Tuberculosis (TB) in particular. Along with public hygiene propaganda, construction of medical facilities such as sanatoria and dispensaries had become high-priority projects. Moreover, the early public sanatoria functioned as institutions for constructing the ideal citizens and resonated with the Republican elites’ desire to govern the nation in a scientific manner. With their programs including lectures and seminars about TB, and various cultural activities, the sanatoria introduced notions of rationalism, medical body, modern living and body hygiene, and challenged the absolute authority of Islamic beliefs and practices.

This paper initially analyzes the collaboration between architecture, medical knowledge and national ideology in Turkey during the single-party era (1923-1950), by a comparative examination of three public sanatoria in Istanbul; Heybeliada, Erenköy and Validebağ Sanatoria, focusing on the debates and representations of these facilities in popular literature such as magazines and newspapers. Such debates reveal that sanatoria functioned as sites for spatializing the nation-building ideals and the modernist agenda of the regime. I argue that modern medical institutions in the early republican Turkey were utilized as agents to create the desired citizen: Secular, rational, patriotic and sturdy.