Understanding The Samsun Fair As a Public Space Through Social Dynamics
Kader Keskin, Reyhan Midilli SarıThe aim of the study is to reveal how social developments affect the spatial development and transformation of a public space and so it considers the Samsun Fair, one of the oldest public spaces of the city of Samsun, as the study area. Founded in 1963 and registered as the first national fair of Anatolia, the fair helped the city to develop economically, socially and culturally, and managed to reach a large number of users on a local and regional scale. However, it lost its influence over time and was opened for the last time in 1992, after which its location was transformed.
The study consists of a reading and interpretation based on the dialectic of space and society, which includes how the economic, political, and sociocultural changes of the period (1960 1990) in Türkiye and Samsun penetrated from the ideal of the production of a public space to its spatial and functional development, from losing its attractiveness to its closure and then the transformation it has experienced.As a result, the study has revealed that the social dynamics also changed public use, and a new layer of value, meaning, and memory could not be formed for this place due to the changing spatial practices over time and the separation of this space from the city.
Kamusal Mekân Olarak Samsun Fuarı’nı Toplumsal Dinamikler Üzerinden Anlamak
Kader Keskin, Reyhan Midilli SarıÇalışmanın amacı, toplumsal gelişmelerin bir kamusal mekânın mekânsal gelişimi ve dönüşümünü nasıl etkilediğini ortaya koymaktır. Samsun kentinin en eski kamusal mekânlarından olan ‘Samsun Fuarı’ ise çalışma alanı olarak ele alınmıştır. 1963 yılında kurulan ve Anadolu’nun ilk milli fuarı olarak tescillenen fuar, kentin ekonomik, sosyal ve kültürel anlamda gelişmesine yardımcı olmuş, yerel ve bölgesel ölçekte çok sayıda kullanıcıya ulaşmayı başarmıştır. Ancak zamanla gücünü kaybetmiş, 1992 yılında son kez açılarak bulunduğu yer dönüşüme uğramıştır.
Çalışma, Türkiye ve Samsun yerelinde, yaşanan döneme (1960-1990) ait ekonomik, politik, sosyo-kültürel değişimlerin bir kamusal mekânın üretilme idealinden mekânsal ve işlevsel olarak gelişimine, cazibesini kaybetmesinden nihayetinde kapatılmasına ve sonrasında yaşadığı dönüşüme nasıl nüfuz ettiğini içermekte; mekân ve toplum diyalektiğine dayanan okuma ve yorumlamadan oluşmaktadır.Çalışma sonucunda toplumsal dinamiklerin kamusal kullanımı değiştirdiği; bu mekânın kentten kopuşu nedeniyle, zaman içinde değişen mekânsal pratiklere bağlı olarak bu yer için yeni bir değer, anlam ve bellek katmanının oluşamadığı görülmüştür.
Space is the main subject of architecture, and although it has tried to be defined physically through its function, form, and boundaries, space is actually a place that includes society; it is where social relations take place and is the scene of social events. Spaces are also social phenomena because as the scene of social events, they give direction and shape and contain complex social activities. For this reason, spaces carry traces of social life, as they are built by people who are social beings; they are spaces where life takes place. A space woven with social events in this context should be evaluated alongside social and humanitarian activities.
The study aims to reveal how social developments affect spatial development through the change and transformation of a public space. The Samsun Fair is one of the oldest public spaces in the city of Samsun and has been taken as the study area. Foundedin 1963 as the Samsun 19 May Black Sea Fair and registered as the first national fair of Anatolia, this fair helped the city develop economically, socially, and culturally and managed to reach a large number of users on local and regional scales. In fact, with the attraction potential exceeding the regional borders out as far as the country’s borders, the original name of Samsun 19 May Black Sea Fair, which referenced the region, was changed to the Samsun Fair. However, despite being so important for the region, city, and society where it was located, the fair lost its effectiveness and power over time and was transformed through exposure to physical interventions. Since its transformation, the fair area has become a layered texture as a multifunctional public space that includes public as well as sociocultural structures.
In this context, the study consists of a reading and interpretation based on the dialectic of space and society, which entails how the economic, political, and sociocultural changes experienced in Türkiye and Samsun have penetrated this space starting from the ideal of producing a public space and looking at its spatial and functional development to when it started losing its attractiveness and its eventual closure and subsequent transformation. Places and individuals have a direct dialectical relationship with economic, political, and sociocultural developments and are envisaged to be able to provide important traces of the social development of both Türkiye in general and Samsun locally. In this way, the transformation of the fair and the fairgrounds can be better understood.
For this reason, the study works to reveal the economic, political, and sociocultural dynamics in order to understand the space through a reading of the space and of the collective memory. While reading the space aims to reveal and interpret the physical development, the change and transformation of the Samsun Fair, and the social dynamics behind all of these, the collective memory reading aims to reveal these dynamics and values through urban memory. The study used the methods of reading based on urban sociology and the interviewing technique to reveal the social variables that have affected the fair. The study then gathered, evaluated, and presented the data obtained from the readings using direct quotations in order to examine and interpreted them.
As a result, the study has found the interaction experienced without sharing a common public space to reveal a new spatial rupture. Social dynamics are also revealed to have changed the public uses, and the social values feeding the urban memory have also been damaged in accordance with this. Destruction and continuity are seen to exist in the collective memory due to the place being separated from the city. No new memory layer has been able to be built for this place due to the change in spatial practices over time.
