NODEM 2014 Proceedings

Developing Awareness in Contemporary Fashion and Design Culture with Digital Design Archive
Figure 1. Sümerbank patterns designed by Zekavet Bayer Taş (one of the first designers of Sümerbank), 1940s
Source: İzmir Life, April, 2003
Sümerbank as one of the leading institutions through the development period of 1930’s Turkey, became a symbol
for the history of Turkish economy and textile for seventy years. Sümerbank as a material culture and its
institutions had played significant economic, cultural and social roles in the modernization process of the Turkish
Republic. Sümerbank Industrial Settlements, conceived as small factory towns, comprised not only production
facilities (factories) and support facilities (warehouses, workshops, boiler house, water tower, garage and
fire station) but also residential (family houses, single houses and dormitories), social/cultural (cafeterias, social
clubs, cinemas, guest houses and day-care centers), recreational (parks, swimming pools and sports fields) and
educational (kindergartens and primary schools) facilities. In this way, these settlements could be considered
as ‘cultural education centers’ for the workers to teach, especially to the workers, how to behave, inhabit and
get dressed as a modern Turkish citizen.
Figure 2. Posters by the graphic designer İhap Hulusi for the
promotion of ‘Domestic Products Week’ (Yerli Malı Haftası)
Source: Ömer Durmaz Archive.
Figure 3. A Group of Turkish Citizen with Sümerbank
dresses in 1930s
Source: Çağla Ormanlar Ok photography archive.
Sümerbank’s aim was to develop industry, to educate working people mostly living in rural areas, to encourage
the use of local products and to maintain the integration of urban and rural areas starting from 1930’s. Along
with the privatization process started in 1987, some of the settlements like İzmir Halkapınar Basma Sanayii
Müessesesi had been demolished, some had been handed over to private sectors, municipalities and universi-
NODEM 2014 CONFERENCE & EXPO
259