CEMENT TILES IN PUBLIC BUILDINGS OF THE FIRST NATIONAL ARCHITECTURAL MOVEMENT PERIOD: SAMPLES OF İZMİR

Cement tile is a flooring material used to decorate floors, walls, and fa & ccedil;ades as part of the architectural whole. Besides offering a decorative appearance, cement tiles are easy to clean and hygienic. This tiling material prepared with mixtures of pigmented cement, marble powder, white cement, and other minerals consists of three layers. The decorative, patterned, and pigmented layer is at the bottom during production and creates the top surface at the end of production. This patterned layer is prepared by pouring colored cement into the chambers in the partitioned molds. The other two layers, composed of different contents, facilitate the installation of the tile on the floor. Following the discovery of cement, cement tiles were first produced in France in the mid-19th century and spread to settlements around the Mediterranean and then around the whole world through trade routes. The misunderstanding of the French pronunciation caused this material to be known as " karosiman " in Ottoman times. This material was initially imported to cities such as Istanbul, Izmir, and Mersin, where much of the Ottoman- time Levantine population lived, soon becoming widespread throughout Anatolia and was used in many different building types during the Ottoman period. When examined specifically in the case of Izmir, cement tiles were generally used in residential buildings dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were also preferred to tile the floors of many public buildings, such as hospitals, schools, inns, cinemas, libraries, banks, and business halls built under the influence of the First National Architectural Movement. The First National Architectural Movement was influential in Turkish architecture between 1908 and 1930, a period that started with the declaration of the Second Constitutional Monarchy and covered important events such as the national struggles and the proclamation of the Republic. The public buildings in Izmir built in the First National Architectural Movement period mostly ...