Early 20th Century & the Modern Movement (1900–1945)

Ankara Jansen Plan

1932 · Turkey · Middle East & Turkey · National modernization and capital-city building · Planned by Hermann Jansen

Jansen's 1932 master plan for Ankara: zoned layout of the new Turkish capital around Atatürk Boulevard. · public-domain

Core idea

Civic axes, parks; zoning by topography

Why it matters

Symbolic modernization of Turkish Republic

Description

Hermann Jansen's 1932 plan guided the building of Ankara as the capital of the new Turkish Republic, laying out a modern administrative city of zoned districts, garden-suburb neighbourhoods, and ceremonial government quarters distinct from the old Anatolian town.

Significance

Ankara is a defining example of republican nation-building through planning, deliberately siting and designing a modern secular capital to embody Atatürk's new Turkey against the Ottoman past.

What shaped it

City Planning According to Artistic Principles (1889)
Zoning (1884 Germany / 1916 NYC)
Garden Cities of To-Morrow (1898 / 1902)
The public park (1843–1858)

Plans it influenced

Ankara 2023 Plan (2007)
Istanbul Henri Prost Plan (1936–1951)

Sources

Open it on the interactive timeline →

hub.toekom.st — History of Urbanism · an interactive timeline of 850 planned cities across 6,000 years.