SPATIAL REFLECTIONS OF TIME

With the ongoing developments in science and technology not only the socio cultural values of societies but also the time and space perceptions changed and transformed. These developments in technology of communication, electronics, industry and nuclear, formed the bases for both opportunities and problems. Values, which shape and order life styles, altered immediately. Architectural culture is also in a process of transformation with all these transforming dynamics. In the rapid period of transformation, reflections to architecture can be mentioned as the demolition of the old and the construction of the new. This took place in such an enormous amount that, a collapse in cultural, historical and social structure was observed. Therefore, the altering time perception is seen influential in transforming and defining the structures of cities, the built environment and the building types by imposing changes on the everyday life. Public spaces that are created by societies in time reflect the public and private values. As Madanipour mentions, in pre-modern urban settings, public spaces such as urban squares and market places played the role of arenas for public communication and these were places where the social interaction of people took place. The squares which were fronted by town halls, religious buildings and together with commerce became natural meeting grounds for the masses (Madanipour, 1996).

Being an indicator of time, clock tower took the obligations of declaring and establishing time, from the bell towers of churches or minarets of mosques of that period. Clock tower was usually situated at the city center, at such a distance that its bell could be heard from the periphery and structuring the space with its visual and auditorial character (Cengizkan, 1999, 97). It had a mission of announcing the time to the public, not to a single individual like the mobile phone does today. Bazaar / market place took place in relation to the clock tower. Both were in the center of daily movements, where the individuals meet. Announcing the time to regularize it for the society, clock tower had a property of being delimited by place and structuring the space. The bazaar, which took place in this structure, had a light, temporary spatiality. With the new possibilities of technology and new materials, new kinds of buildings were introduced: airports, hotels, exhibition halls, shopping malls and etc. surrounded the cities. As middle class and working class have mostly moved to the suburbs, their way of living and use of public space changed. Shopping centers have replaced downtown as a setting for communal life and disseminated as the new center of city. These new kind of public spaces are constructed usually out of the city, with their own temporality and architecture. Constructed on the idea of the automobilized life, shopping malls are built in their hugeness and various colors, which can be realized from a far distance and be recognized at momentary experiences. Therefore, the style of contact started to be ordered by the speed of car. Swift communication and simultaneity that were introduced with such technological improvements can be assumed weakening the characteristics of societies and transforming the space. Mobile phone played a key role in this process of rapid communication. It is appropriate to illustrate it for annihilating the public space with its personal use. In our age, people also use mobile phones, to grasp time. Naturally, unlike the clock tower, mobile phone declares time to a single individual only. In contrast with the clock tower, mobile phone has a spatial aspect independent from place, and thus dispersing the sense of place.