Mimarlığın dilinde beden: Bir leksikon denemesi
The body in the language of architecture: A lexical study
Yazar: ÖZGE ÜSTÜNDAĞ GANİÇ
Danışman: DOÇ. DR. FUNDA UZ
İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi / Lisansüstü Eğitim Enstitüsü / Mimarlık Ana Bilim Dalı / Mimari Tasarım Bilim Dalı
Derece: Yüksek Lisans, 2023
Konu: Mimarlık = Architecture

Özet:
Tez çalışması, temelde, mimari terminolojinin canlı bedeninden ödünç aldığı birtakım sözcüklerin incelenmesi üzerinden dil ile mimarlık arasındaki alışverişin bu özelleşmiş alanına yönelik bir bakış açısı sunmayı amaçlar. "Kapı kolu," "masa ayağı," "dolap gözü," "sağır duvar" gibi yerleşik kalıplarda geçen kol, ayak, göz, sağır gibi sözcükler, mimarlık disiplininin dilinde sıkça yapılan bedensel atıflara birer örnektir. Bir araya getirilen sözcükler aslında birçok mimarın ya da mimarlıkla ilişkili disiplinlerden kişilerin de dağarcığında bulunan sözcüklerdir. Bu sözcüklerin bütünsel bir çerçevede ele alınması ise çalışmanın kuramsal ve tarihsel alt yapısının daha net bir biçimde ortaya konmasını sağlar. Tez, mimari dilin bedensel imgelerle dolu yapısını anlamayı, dilin mimarlık disipliniyle ilişkisini tartışmayı, ayrıca mimarlık terimlerinde yer edinmiş bedensel referansların nasıl ortaya çıktığına yönelik önermesini sunmayı ve bütün bunların yanında "Bedensel, Mimari ve Kişisel Bir Leksikon" adlı dilsel ve görsel bir rehber önermeyi amaçlar.
Metin boyunca atıf yapılan kavramların ya da sözcüklerin sözlüklerdeki tanımlarının aktarılması, çalışmanın önerisini tutarlı bir temele oturtmak için önemlidir. Tez çalışması; kavramları okuyucusuna tanıtmayı, okuyucusunun zihninde kavramsal bir şema oluşturmayı, söz konusu şema üzerindeki boşlukları ise yardımcı kavramlarla tamamlamayı amaçlar. Bir yapı yapma analojisi üzerine kurulan çalışmanın izleği, bilindik yapım aşamaları üzerinden kurgulanır; böylece tez çalışmasının içeriğinin ve yönteminin birbirlerini tamamlaması ve yansıtması sağlanır. Projelendirme süreciyle özdeşleştirilen Giriş bölümünün ardından, "Zemin Etüdü ve Temel Atma: Dil Kavramı Üzerine" adlı ikinci bölümde, kuramsal çerçevenin ilk aşaması sunulur: sözcüklerin birçok anlam barındıran alegorik, metaforik ve sembolik yüklenimlerini ve dilin sınırsız potansiyeli, bu bölümde okuyucuya aktarılır. Çalışma, mimarlık disiplininde yer edinmiş terimlerdeki bedensel referansların nasıl ortaya çıktığına yönelik akademik, kuramsal ve tarihsel bir kazı yapar. Çok boyutlu bu kazı, öte yandan, dilin oyuncu karakterini anlamayı ve tartışmayı da amaçlar. Yine bu bölümde, çeviri kuramı üzerinden, sözcüklerin "dillendirilmesinden" önceki zihinsel işlemin ağırlığı ve bunun tez çalışmasındaki karşılığı incelenir. Çalışmanın temel merakı, mimarlıktan ya da yapım pratiklerinden canlı bedenine yapılan atıfların hangi zihinsel süreçlerin sonunda ortaya çıktığıdır.
"İskelet: Mimarlık-Dil İlişkisi" adlı üçüncü bölüm, başlıkta da apaçık ortaya koyulduğu üzere, bir önceki bölümde ayrıntılı biçimde ele alınan dil fenomeninin mimarlıkla ilişkisini irdeler.  Dilin mimarlık disipliniyle alışverişine genel bir bakış açısı sunarak başlayan bölüm, dil ile mimarlığın ilkesel ve tarihsel kesişimini, çalışmanın kuramsal altlığının tamamlayıcısı olarak ele alır. Dilin mimarlık disiplinindeki zengin varlığı, dilbilimsel kuram ile mimarlığın arakesitinde tartışmaya açılır. Bölüm kapsamında ayrıca "jargon" ve "terminoloji" kavramlarının da incelenmesiyle beden analojilerinin mimarlık jargonuna ve terminolojisine nasıl yerleştiğine bakılır.
Tez çalışmasının yöntemine ilişkin yapı yapma analojisi yeniden anımsanacak olursa "kaba yapı," araştırma konusunun iyiden iyiye özelleştiği ve çalışmanın kendi önerisi olan sınıflandırmanın ayrıntılandırıldığı "Kabuk: Bir Haritalama Önerisi" adlı bölüm ile tamamlanır. Çalışmanın ana dili, dolayısıyla atıf yapılan sözcüklerin ya da terimlerin büyük bölümü Türkçe olduğundan, Türkçe mimarlık literatüründeki ilk süreli yayın olan Arkitekt'in arşivi taranarak çalışmaya tarihsel bir perspektif eklenir. Arkitekt arşivi, öte yandan, mimarlık jargonunun ve terminolojisinin tarihsel izleklerindeki değişimleri ve gelişimleri izleme olanağı da sunar. Burada, başlıca kaynak olan Arkitekt'in yanı sıra, ulusal ve uluslararası mimarlık ve tasarım yayınları, mimari tasarım ofislerinin internet siteleri, sosyal paylaşım siteleri incelenir; Türk edebiyatında, özellikle Türk romancılığında genel bir tarama yapılır. Başvurulan bütün bu kaynaklar, mimarlık jargonunun ve terminolojisinin güncel durumlarının değerlendirilmesine ve çalışmanın önerdiği leksikonun içeriğine katkı sunmuş olur. Kaynaklarda karşılaşılan örneklerin yanında, "Bedensel, Mimari ve Kişisel Bir Leksikon" diye adlandırılan denemeden birtakım sayfalar, metnin bütününe dağıtılarak ilişkili yerlere yerleştirilir ve "Bitişler: Sonuç ve Öneriler" adlı son bölümde yürütülen tartışmanın ardından "Ekler" bölümünde sıralı olarak sunulur.

Abstract:
Language is regarded as an often-overlooked representational tool of architectural practice. However, the "architectural language" has gone beyond being merely conceptual descriptions of the design or simply terming details and materials in architectural practice and implementation. Language is essential for the daily operation of architectural practice and for the reading and interpretation of architectural drawings and texts, as well as for scholarly exchange in architectural theory. On contrary to popular opinion, the use of language and the possibilities that it opens are not limited to applied terminology. Instead, another potential that is specific to language is at stake here; words that are already in use in everyday life are adopted to elaborate architectural drawing. Instead, another potential that is specific to language is noticeable / in sight / manifest; words that are already in use in everyday life are appropriated in order to support architectural drawing. By drawing its attention to this mostly disregarded mode of representation of architecture, the thesis investigates the crossings between architecture and language, architectural texts, verbal accounts of architectural practice, as well as analogies and metaphors that have been in common use in the everyday language of architecture.
It is a long-standing conviction in architectural theory that buildings mimic the human body in terms of their physical construct and functional assembly. This study traces analogies based on human and non-human bodies and examines how architecture adopts certain words and phrases from their bodies into its language. The study is based on how bodily images are transferred to the language of architecture and discusses the playful character of the language. The thesis also aims to present a perspective on a specialized area of exchange between language and architecture through the examination of some words borrowed from the living body. Words such as rib, skeleton, skin, wing, and blind that appear in well-accepted phrases such as "steel ribs/skeleton", "glass skin", "south-east wing", and "blind wall" are examples of bodily references frequently made in the language of the architecture. The words that are put together are since long in the vocabulary of many architects or people from related disciplines. Collecting these words within a comprehensive body of work enables to lay down the theoretical and historical backbones of this research much clearly. The study makes an academic, theoretical, and historical excavation of how bodily references have emerged in architectural terminology. The thesis aims to understand the formation of architectural language full of bodily images, to discuss the relationship between language and the discipline of architecture to suggest how bodily references that take place in architectural terms emerge, and to propose a linguistic and visual guide called "A Physical, Architectural and Personal Lexicon".
An important emphasis for the thesis is that the notion of the body is taken in its gender-free form. Even though the majority of discussions on the human body open up numerous channels in terms of gender studies, these topics are beyond the research's primary scope. By deliberately keeping this out of focus, the study highlights the interactions between the (ungendered) body and language and the potentials that these exchanges bring about. The thesis tackles the body beyond the gender debates and discusses how it contributes to the language of architecture.
To put the study's proposition on a consistent foundation, it is crucial to translate the definitions of the concepts or phrases cited throughout the body of the paper into the dictionaries. The purpose of the thesis is to expose the reader to the concepts, develop a conceptual framework in their minds, and fill in any holes in their conceptual framework with auxiliary notions. The thesis framework is developed by analogy with construction stages, with the intention of integrating the content and the method of the thesis, so that both reflect and feed each other. The building, which was built along the path of the study or perhaps dismantled according to the point of view, is enriched with some current and historical examples obtained from various media.
After the Introduction, which is identified with the project design process, the section titled "Ground Study and Groundbreaking: On the Concept of Language" discusses concepts and theories that are important for the rest of the research, with the titles "Dictionary Studies," "Playful Character of Language," "Translation and Transformation in Language," and "Analogy and Metaphor." "Dictionary Studies" aims to provide preparation for the study, which in the end proposes its own lexicon, by investigating archives and various traditional and non-traditional dictionary definitions. The research generates its own compilation with the words selected from all these various sources and then classifies them according to the differences in their translation methods. The next subsection, "Player Character of Language," provides a guide to the linguistic games that the research focuses on, giving references to games in the language. "Translation and Transformation in Language" discusses translation theory, which looks into the associations between the transfer of certain words from the living body to the language of architecture. The fourth subsection, "Analogy and Metaphor," explains these concepts and examines them in terms of their contributions to language. These parts examine the concept of language only from aspects that are relevant to the scope of this study. In other words, the original theoretical framework of the study is created by bringing together the sub-sections that seem to be relatively unrelated to each other at the beginning. Thus, in a sense, the "ground study" of the research is done and the "foundation" is established.
The third chapter, "The Skeleton: Architecture-Language Relationship," deals with the relationship referred to in the title through what both concepts offer to each other. The first subsection titled "The Role of Language in Architecture" provides a holistic view of the existence and place of language in the discipline of architecture. Then, the second subsection, "Architectural Jargon and Terminology," first explains these concepts in general terms, and provides a comprehensive narrative for architectural jargon and terminology. In "A Brief History of Turkish Architectural Terminology", Turkish architectural terminology is examined through a chronological narrative dating back to the Alphabet Revolution, and the scarcity that this subject matter exposes compared to its counterparts in other languages is opened for discussion. Since the language of the work and the words in focus are almost entirely Turkish, the archive of Arkitekt, the first Turkish architectural periodical, is investigated to add a historical perspective to the work. Considering the shortage of written architectural resources in the first half of the twentieth century, Arkitekt has a unique place in terms of mirroring the period's culture, language, and architectural approach. The last subsection here, "A Brief Introduction to the Linguistic Dimension of the Body-Architecture Relationship", which refers to the body's role as a tool for language in architectural representation, is a brief introduction to the linguistic exchanges between the living body and architecture and aims to prepare the reader for the next chapter. Here, body and architecture are brought together not through concepts such as experience, space, or time, as is commonly done, but through the linguistic representation that the work focuses on. This section, which focuses on the relationship between architecture and language, forms the physical structure or "skeleton" of the thesis work.
The fourth chapter, "The Shell: A Mapping Proposal," covers the area of specialization of the research topic and also offers the study's own classification scheme for metaphors. The first subsection, "Body Analogies and Metaphors in Architecture," compiles and presents the terms and phrases transferred from the living body to architecture's theoretical and practical vocabulary. The forms and processes of these transfers are open to discussion in a sense. Some of these words have not just settled in the architectural vocabulary but have been carried beyond and these secondary meanings related to architecture have even found a place in the dictionaries of the Turkish Language Association. With the aim of tracing body analogies in architectural theory and practice, the thesis investigates architectural dictionaries, the Arkitekt archives for a historical review, Turkish literature, national and international architecture, and design platforms online, such as Arkitera and Dezeen, various online social platforms such as Twitter and Instagram, and project texts on the websites of architectural design offices. The research generates its own compilation with the words selected from all these various sources and then classifies them according to the differences in their translation methods. Words that differ from each other in terms of translation methods are then grouped from a subjective point of view over their conceptual backgrounds. The proposed classification is explained through the subsections of "Imitation," which are divided into two subheadings, "Abstraction," "Personalization (Humanization)," "Formal (Visual) Imitation," and "Functional Imitation." This section surrounds the building that has undergone a ground survey, foundation laying, and skeleton formation with a shell, bringing it one step closer to completion. 
The study concludes with the discussion carried out in the final section called "Finishings and Make-up: Conclusion and Suggestions". In conclusion, this thesis aims to shed light on the relationship between language and architecture through the lens of the human and animal bodies, by examining the analogies and metaphors used in architectural discourse. Through the proposed classification of body analogies and metaphors in architecture, the study hopes to contribute to the development of a lexicon that can enrich the language of architecture. By exploring the playful character of language, the study also emphasizes the importance of language in shaping our understanding and experience of architecture. Ultimately, this thesis serves as a starting point for further research on the intricate and dynamic relationship between language and architecture.