Eskişehir as an Ideological Theme Park

This article examines the urban design and monuments produced in Eskişehir within the context of tourism, cultural industry and the production of ideological imagery during the period of Mayor Yılmaz Büyükerşen (1999-2020), referring to world cities in general and to Ankara in particular. It analyses the socio-economic, political and cultural dynamics of the formation of urban space and tries to answer questions such as how the intended and unintended fragments of post-modern ideological theme parks shaped the urban landscape, how historicism in urban design, renovation and gentrification was instrumentalized as an ideological expression, and how the roles of mayors were socially constructed and approved. While the article decodes the urban signs of Eskişehir in the Barthesian sense, it also deconstructs the fragments of urban space and design using the concepts of historicism and postmodernism as a parody of the past (Charles Jencks), Simulation (Jean Baudrillard), childishness (Walter Benjamin), for the monument and against the monument (Henri Lefebvre), and architectural communication and history (Umberto Eco) as a theoretical framework.

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