PROCEEDINGS of the
23rd International Congress on Acoustics
9 to 13 September 2019 in Aachen, Germany

Searching the Industrial Soundscape of the Early Republican Era ofan Anatolian City: EskisehirÖzlem GÖK TOKGÖZ1;Aslı ÖZÇEVİK BİLEN2; Özlem KANDEMİR3
1, 2, 3Eskisehir Technical University, Turkey

ABSTRACTSounds are inherent parts of cities. While any change occurs in an urban environment, it effects the sounds
thus its soundscapes. Changes in urban soundscape with the industrial revolution in Central Anatolia(Ottoman Period) dated back to the construction of Bagdad Railway in 1894 and continued with theindustrialization process after the declaration of the Republican regime. One of the leading cities got involvedin this process was Eskisehir which is a Central Anatolian city, on the intersection of trade routes. Because ofthat location advantage, several factories had been built and had provided the impetus to change and form a
new urban identity, spatial and social changes. In this study that aims to reveal the importance of industrial
buildings that was built in the industrialization process of the city related to the soundscape of the urban past,evaluation of the past acoustic data in the context of urban identity was intended. Therefore, interviews weredone with the factory workers of that period; people who lived in the vicinity of the factories and experts who
studied the changes, as well as retrospective audio-video records and photographs were collected andanalyzed. As a result, industrial soundscape of the urban past is concluded by defining soundscapecomponents and important role of the industrial heritage in urban soundscape is revealed
Keywords: Soundscape of the urban past, Industrial Heritage, Phonic identity

1. INTRODUCTION
The process of industrialization in Turkey dates back to the opening of Bagdad -Berlin Railway in1894. But before Republican Era, because of the circumstances that existed throughout the country any
significant investment in industry was not executed. After that, this process of industrialization spreadall over the country and Eskisehir has been one of the first affected cities due to its own location. Whilethe city was a predominantly agricultural settlement in imperial period, it started to gain the loo k of anindustrially developed multifunctional city with the republican period. (1) The railway provided thecity with new types of business beside agriculture and stockbreeding for the first time. (2) Because of
its location at the intersection of the trade routes, direct connection to Istanbul and Ankara andapproximation to raw material sources, several factories, especially tile, brick and flour industries had
been established. Especially 1923-1950 was a period of important branches of industry regarding
industrial process began to operate. Industrial investments financed by the state and the factories build
by private investments began to operate collectively for the first time exactly in this period. (3)The evolution of Eskisehir experienced in this industrialization process became the origin of aprogression that changed the socio-cultural structure, functional and sectoral orientation, physicalappearance of the city. The location of the station in the city center with the arrival of the railway
resulted with the gathering of products from surrounding villages in Eskisehir. (4) In this period,
urban population has increased rapidly, and the residential areas have expanded. The city has become
an attraction point for the people to work and wrapped itself up in an industrial identity. (5)Industrial buildings have an important role in determination of urban identity with their uniquecharacter beside being an important element of technological, social and architectural
history.(6)Urban identity is a whole composed of elements which belongs to the city, distinguishes the1

ozlmgk@gmail.com
asliozcevik@hotmail.com
3
kandemir.ozlem@gmail.com
2

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city from others and enriches to it.(7) The physical, historical, social, functional and spatial elementsof the cities were considered during the evaluation of the urban identity and the city’s characteristicfeatures.(8) Because of the change in fields like social, cultural, economic, environmental,
technological and architectural areas, caused by industrial buildings, related buildings have importantrole in the evolutions of urban identity.
Sounds which belong to the city are also an element of urban identity. Phonic identity is a wholethat distinguishes and enriches the city, formed of sounds peculiar to it. Phonic identity is seen as ahistorical phenomenon and has been progressing in time with different layers forming a coherent andmeaningful whole. Sound is a tangible-intangible cultural entity and limited with time because of its
physical features. Its temporariness verifies the obligation of reproduction and originality. (9)The
evaluation of city sounds and interpretation of phonic identity can only be done through the readings
about cities’ acoustic environments.
The concept of soundscape that helps to define urban mechanisms, lifestyles and identities ofregions was presented by Shafer for auditory equivalent of landscape and proposed for defining
auditory environment free from negative or positive judgments. (10) In ISO 12913-1 standard its
described as “acoustic environment as perceived or experienced and/or understood by a person or
people, in context” (11). According to Shafer, soundscapes has three elements. These are “Keynotes”,“Signals” and “Soundmarks”. Keynotes are fundamental voices formed with the geographical andclimatological features of selected area. They are identified as voices not be consciously listened but
couldn’t be ignored in perception of our acoustical ambiance. Signals are sudden or exciting
pre-voices that formed temporarily. Signals are obligatory heard voices because they are created byacoustical stimulant devices. Soundmarks and they are explained as voices capable of defining theidentity of the area. For this reason, there are lots of studies that define the importance of soundmark
and its effect on city/phonic identity in scientific literature and soundscape studies. (12,13)
Soundmark involves basic information about space, area, city, society and culture.(14) Soundmarks
are voices that are important in understanding the progression, evolution and phonic identity of oursociety and they need to be preserved because of their features like identity and belongingness.
To understand the change and progress of soundscape in historical process and to explain the change insoundscapes of environments, Shafer used hi-fi (high fidelity) and lo-fi (low fidelity) terms. Hi-fisoundscapes are defined as soundscapes that different voices are clearly heard because of low ambient noise.
Lo-fi soundscapes emerged from crowd of sound. They are environments where sounds are masked by othersounds and not clearly detected. Soundscapes of areas can show hi-fi or lo-fi feature by time, development or
reclamation of the region.
Acoustic environments of cities in historical process change due to completely different dynamics
like cultural elements of societies, technological developments, globalization, migration and politics.
Changes in living standards and conditions are reflected in the acoustic environment. Phonic identitychanges rapidly due to ever-shifting cultural contexts and experience. Therefore, it requires urgent
identification, recording and even protection with soundscape studies. (15) However, according to
Shafer, the main subject of the study which is to determine and reveal the past urban soundscape datain the historical process, is difficult. Relating to the ways of determining past urban soundscapes:“(...) We are also disadvantaged in the pursuit of a historical perspective. While we may havenumerous photographs taken at different times and before them drawings and maps to show us how ascene changed over the ages, we must make inferences as to the changes of the soundscape. (…) while
we must utilize the techniques of modern recording and analysis to study contemporary soundscapes,
for the foundation of historical perspectives, we will have turn to earwitness accounts from literatureand mythology, as well as to anthropological and historical records.” (16)Explained this, in the soundscape studies of the urban past, he emphasized ability of usage ofphotos, voice-video recordings, books and also ear witnesses in that period. On this emphasis, thestudies taking place in the literature have been implemented within the framework of the methods
specified by Shafer.
In this paper, it is aimed to evaluate the city/phonic identity of the area which is known as the industrial
region and defined as an industry heritage in Eskisehir through the presence of the past soundmark voices.
Therefore, to determine the data of past urban soundscape, interviews were done with the factory workers,
people who lived in the vicinity of the factories and experts who studied the changes of that period, as well as
retrospective audio-video records and photographs were collected and analyzed.

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2. METHODOLOGY
2.1 Study area-Objective data of the past urban soundscapeIn this study, the effect of the related factories to the soundscape of the city was evaluated by using
the photographs obtained from Chamber of Architects Eskisehir Branch and Tepebaşı Municipality.
The place marked on the map in Figure 1, which is known as Eskisehir Factory Region, and locatedon the northwest of the city represents the area of this study. The area is located close to the railway,
separate from the main settlements of Eskisehir. One of the main factors of the city’s development until
1950s is the railway transportation. (17) In this area, nearly twenty factories were establishedconnected to railway transportation including the traction workshop, except the railway station. These
factories consist of a variety of industries, major tile and brick factories, including flour, food, tire rim,
wine and timber industry. The region played a key role in the development of the city with its
improvement between 1923 and 1950 and it took its place among the cultural industrial heritage
elements of the city at the present time. Until the 1990s central business areas in the region wereconcentrated around industry new neighborhoods were established close to the area with theopportunity of finding jobs for the citizens, so the area was developed rapidly

Figure 1: Map of Eskisehir from 1986 (source: Ertin,G. Evolution of the settlement in Eskisehir, 1994)“Railway Station of Eskisehir” which is accepted as the center of Anatolian railways, is the mostimportant symbol of change. (Fig.2.) In this area, except the railway station there was a large factory
made of stone used as Traction Workshop, warehouse for locomotives coming from Ankara, Konya
and Haydarpaşa, wards for engine drivers and ticketing place. (18).
Figure 2: Representation of structures in the area on the map of 1896 (5) Eskisehir station (1-3-4) The Traction
Workshop (2)4188

When we examine the photographs of the station, we can see that sounds that affect the acoustic
environment of the region may be train-borne sounds, the density of people in this area has increased
and there are coaches and some motor vehicles which are important for the transportation of thepassengers coming from the station. (Fig. 2) By the examination of the photographs of The Traction
Workshop (Fig. 3) it can be supposed that the production in the workshop contained heavy industry andthere may be sounds of metal working like seam, cut, montage because of repairing, maintenance andproduction of wagons. It is also supposed that the sound of wagons hitting each other may haveaffected the acoustical environment. Furthermore, in the map from the years 1923-1950, we can seethat traction workshop areas are expanded and auxiliary buildings have been built. (Fig. 3)

Figure 3:The Traction Workshop outside photograph (6), The Traction Workshop inside photograph (7) Map of

The Traction Workshop in 1923-1950(8)Figure 4:Tile and Brick Factoties-Kılıçoğlu Brick and Tile factory (10-11), Doğan Tile factory (9), Kartal Tile

Factory(12), Places on Map(13)Until 1927, Marseille style tiles have been imported. In 1928 Kurt Tile Factory, after that ÇiftKurt
Tile (1933), Aslan Tile (Kılıçoğlu Tile And Brick) (1938) (Fig.4), Fil Tile (1942), Kartal Tile (1944),Güneş Tile (1948), Doğan Tile (1948) factories were opened and Eskisehir has become an importantregion for clay industry sector. (19) Photographs of factories except Doğan, Kılıçoğlu and Kartal Tile
couldn’t be found with photograph archive scanning. In this period, most of the raw materials used intile and brick industry in Turkey were produced in Eskisehir. After examination of the photographs ofthe brick and tile factories, it is supposed that the sounds occurred during the production
process(dumping the soil and clay row materials into the warehouse, carriage of the workers, thenloading of tiles and bricks to the removal lorries and train wagons)might have affect to the acousticalenvironment.

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Figure 5: Flour and Food industry buildings,Yasin Çakır Flour factory(14-16-19), Eti Büscuits Factory(15),Kanatlı Flour factory and city general view(17), Mühendistler Flour Factory(18)Flour and food industry has a major influence on Eskisehir. YasinÇakır Flour (1938), Gümülceli
Flour (1948),Gamgam Flour (1948), Mühendisler Flour (1953), Örnek Flour (1959), Pak Flour (1965),
Kanatlı Flour (1969) and Eti Biscuits (1969) factories have a historical importance in the city. (20)Afterthe examination of the old photographs of factories working in flour and food industry (Fig.5), it
can be said that the sounds during the loading oftheraw materials and products into the vehicles likelorries and trucks, and the sound of this transport vehicles might have affected the acousticalenvironment.
.
2.2 Subjective data of past urban soundscape- interviews
The groups interviewed in order to obtain the acoustic data of this area during the active period offactories were selected as the factory workers, people who lived in the vicinity of the factories andexperts who studied the progress of the area. By the questions directed to different users, it is aimed toobtain the acoustic environment data of the area in many ways. The information about the domains ofsound sources and their active time interval were attained from the people living close to the area offactories; and the information about the intensive sounds in the area, the mechanism of the factories
and heavy industrial voices was attained from the workers of the factories. Finally, the information
related to the general progress of the region and the effects of the acoustic environment changing withthis progress was drawn from the experts who could evaluate the progress of the area.
Questions were directed to all interview groups to obtain some knowledge regarding the soundscapecomponents and to detect the soundmark voices in the area.
The people who lived in the vicinity of the factories claimed that they generally heard train whistle,
factory shift voices and wagon loading and shipping sounds at nights. According to the workers of thefactory, the most extensive sounds of the region were the ones from the railway, the wagon repair andmaintenance workshops, which had the robust impact on the acoustic environment, and heavy
industrial sounds, are rooted from metal processing, seaming and assembly. Furthermore, expertssuggested that this area being surrounded by settlements in the area has been included into the centerof the city for a short period of time, which made its being settled in the memories of the people.

3. FINDINGS
3.1 Soundscapes of the urban past and soundscape components of the area
As a result of the interviews and the visual materials examined, the data obtained from soundscapes of
the area were tabulated by considering the soundscape components defined by Schafer. (21)Soundscape components of the region are classified as nature, human and mechanical/technologicalsounds.

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When the photographs of the region were examined, there was no finding that could refer to sounds ofnature, although interviewer specified that they heard dog barking in the region intensively because eachfactory had guard dogs.
In the interviews, it was declared that the sources of the human voices were coming from the travelers inthe station and the peddlers at the exit of the station. At the same time, it was declaredthat human voices in theregiongets raisedat the ending time of the factories’ work.
In the area, it was detected that sounds from vehicles like truck were mainly heard because there were many
heavy vehicles due to the production and transportation of the products. Moreover, the sound of bicycle wasfound in this area dueto factory employees' riding a bicycles given by thefactories addition to reach this area.
The sound of the region is mainly mechanical and technological, which is compatible with region’s industry
zone character. As a result of the interviews, the sound of train whistle, finish and start shift whistle, sound of
steam train, and sound of diesel trains are found to be among the characteristic sounds of the region. (Chart 1)
FACTORIES REGIONTYPE OFSOUND RESOURCESCOMPONENTS OF SOUNDSCAPESWind soundKeynote sounds

Bird sounds

Keynote sounds

Dog barking

Signals

Human daily life sounds ( like

Keynote sounds

SOUNDS

NATURESOUNDS

speaking, laughing…etc.)
HUMAN SOUNDSChildren sounds

Signals

Peddler voices ( in front of the

Signals

station)Azan sounds

Soundmarks

Steam locomotives

Soundmarks

Diesel locomotives

Soundmarks

MECHANICAL

Factory Shift-Change HornSoundmarks

AND

Bicycle sounds

Signals

TECNOLOGICAL

Automobiles sounds

Signals

SOUNDS

Wagon loading and shipping

SignalssoundsTruck sounds

Signals

Heavy industry sounds

Keynote sounds

Chart1:Past urban soundscape component chart. Obtain as a result of interviews of sound sources
information and soundscape component in factories region.
3.2 The location of industry heritage building in the urban past soundscapeIn the light of the interviews and the sources examined, after the industrialization process, newsounds were added to the acoustical environment of the city. As a result of these added sounds, theacoustic environment in this part of the city was shifted from Hi-Fi character to Lo-Fi. While the effect4191

of nature sounds in the region decreased, mechanical and technological sounds increased. Thus thesoundscape of the region has changed.
As a result of this study, railway-based sounds like train whistle, sounds of steam train and diesel
train and factory-based sounds such as shift change whistle was detected as soundmark voices of thearea. The continuity of these voices is needed because they are a part of the urban identity and theyleave a mark on the memory of the society.
The important structures that have changed the soundscape of Eskisehir have been the railway andthe factories established afterwards. The employment increase in the area leaded to the foundation ofneighborhoods close to the area, and the voices from the residents of this area brought have become apart of daily life and have added to the soundscape of the area. Therefore, the number of thecomponents of the soundscape of the area has increased and the soundscape have improved in thisprocess.

4. CONCULUSION
The soundscape over the world have been changing irreversibly in parallel with the progression andthe change of the living conditions and places of people.
It is important to investigate and chain this changing in order to understand the progressions ofsocieties and to direct the related future changes.
The investigation of the changes of the soundscape in Turkey is one of the subjects that should be
discussed in order to understand the early republican era. The changes of soundscape that began withthis era is continuing nowadays by gaining various features. Raising awareness about anddocumenting the soundscape is important for observing the stages of phonic identity. The studies ofsoundscape could provide cultural continuity and sustainability about phonic identity. UNESCO havebeen conducting various studies about this subject since 2001.
UNESCO defined the Intangible Cultural Heritage that:“Cultural heritage does not end atmonuments and collections of objects. It also includes traditions or living expressions inherited from
our ancestors and passed on to our descendants, such as oral traditions, performing arts, social
practices, rituals, festive events, knowledge and practices concerning nature and the universe or
the knowledge and skills to produce traditional crafts.”(22)“Living expressions” in the definition indicates a wide description which involves the retrospective
soundscape. It is suitable to claim that past soundscape data contributed to gaining identity andperception of continuity by bridging from past to now and to the future.
In this study, the contribution of the progression of industrialization to the city soundscape ofEskişehir, was determined by gathering objective (Photos) and subjective ( Ear witness) data.
Soundmarks are the sounds that define the identity of the area; these intangible cultural heritages areneeded to be protected not only architecturally but also phonetically. This study indicates theimportance of evaluations of past soundscape in acoustic environment designs with the approach ofsoundscape.
It is important to raise awareness about soundscape in order to investigate the sounds that made an
impression on the memory of the city, that formed the phonic identity and that began in the progress ofindustrialization but were unable to reach to modern days.

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