Ursula Le Guin’in Mülküzler’i Üzerinden Bir İnceleme: Kapitalist Sistem’ İn Üç İç Çelişkisi Ve Sisteme Karşı Çıkan Bir Mimarlığın Olabilirliği

Abstract

Mimarlığın, Antik Çağ’dan beri toplumdaki güçlü sınıfın gücünü somut ve sürekli kıldığı bilinmektedir. Endüstri Devrimi’yle birlikte oluşan Kapitalist Sistem, sabit ve hiyerarşik güç ilişkilerini esnek ve değişken kılmış, mimarlığın hizmet alanını genişletmiştir. Ancak yine de bu durum, mimarlığın yalnızca gücü yetene bu hizmeti sunduğu gerçeğini değiştirmemektedir. Bunun yanısıra Kapitalist Sistem’in barındırdığı iç çelişkiler, ekolojik tehdit gibi kapitalizme özgü toplumsal sorunların oluşmasına yol açmış, eşitsizlik, bireysel özgürlüklerin ihlali gibi mevcut sorunların ise yalnızca biçim değiştirmesine neden olmuştır. Mimarlık, toplumsal yaşam ile yakın ilişkisi sonucu tüm bu sorunların tam ortasında yer almaktadır. Mevcut toplumsal işleyiş tarafından beslenen ve aynı zamanda da bu işleyişi destekleyen mimarlığın, sistemle ilintili sorunları pekiştirdiği söylenebilir. Mimarlığın büyük toplumsal değişimlere yol açabileceğine dair inancın ortadan kalkmış olmasına rağmen, bu işleyişe karşı çıkan mimarlıkların olabilirliğini görmek umut vericidir. Araştırma kapsamında, mevcut sistemle ilintili bu sorunlar, Ursula Leguin’e ait ‘Mülksüzler’ romanı üzerinden incelenmekte ve bu sorunlara karşı çıkmayı amaç edinen mimari girişimler araştırılmaktadır. Mevcut kapitalist sisteme karşı yeni bir toplum düzenini sorgulayıcı biçimde ele alan Mülksüzler, iki zıt düzeni karşılaştırmaya dayanan diyalektik kurgusu sayesinde, tezin konusuyla olduğu kadar yaklaşımıyla da paralellik içindedir. Mülksüzler’in yazıldığı dönem olan 1968 kuşağı, geçtiğimiz yüzyılda sisteme karşı eleştirel yaklaşımların en çok gündemde olduğu, entelektüel çevrelerin konvansiyonel toplum mekanizmalarına karşı en fazla eleştirel fikir ürettiği dönemlerden biridir. Bu dönemde Marx’ın metinleri ve Diyalektik Materyalizm kuramı yeniden ele alınmış ve dönemin koşullarına göre yeniden yorumlanmıştır. Bu paralellikte Diyalektik Materyalizm üzerine düşünmek ve Diyaektik Materyalizm’i bugünün koşulları kapsamında değerlendirmek, mevcut ileyişe karşı çıkan bir mimarlığın olabilirliği ve bunun olası yöntemleri hakkında fikir vermektedir. David Harvey’in Ursula Leguin’ e de değinerek ortaya attığı Diyalektik Ütopya kavramı, şimdiye kadar üretilen ve sistemin dışında kendi başına var olan ütopik yaklaşımların başarısızlığına karşılık bizzat sistemin içinde ve sistemle birlikte var olmayı başarabilen yaklaşımlara dikkat çekmektedir. Sistemle kurduğu diyalektik ilişki çerçevesinde yer yer sistemle çatışan ve bu sayede sistemi sarsmayı amaç edinen anarşizan yaklaşımlar, bu bağlamda umut vericidir.

It is obvious that since the Antiquity, architecture has been concretizing the power of the powerful class. Capitalist System, which has occured through the Industrial Revolution, has transformed the strict and hierarchical power relations into more flexible and changable network, while expanding the area reached by architecture. However this transformation and expansion hasn’t changed the fact that architecture serves only to the people who can afford this service. In addition, the contradictions of Capitalist System have resulted in social problems specific to Capitalism, like ecological threat, and have led to disguise of the existing problems like unequality and violation of individual liberty. As a consequence of close relation with the social life, architecture stands among all these problems. Supporting and being supported by the present system, architecture could be regarded as reinforcing the problems within the system. Despite the disappearance of the belief that architecture can lead to social changes, it is hopeful to see the existence of opposing approaches. Within the scope of this dissertation, the problems related to the present system and architectural attempts which target these problems, are investigated over the novel ‘the Dispossesed’ which belongs to Ursula LeGuin. Architecture, reflecting the existing social order and relationships, and consequently concretizing the dominant ideology, also embodies and intensifies the problems related to the present system in contemporary societies which are mostly shaped by capitalist relations. In other words, the ability and possibility of architecture to be an opposing force against the capitalist system which also can support and feed on is the main focusing subject of this dissertation. While being extremely contributive to the philosophical criticism of the social thinking in search for better and alternative solutions to the existing society mechanisms since the Enlightenment Era, utopias still failed to live up to the ideas which were the main reasons for their creations when they were brouht up to real life. At this point, roughly two major approaches can be observed. One is being against the system within the system itself and two is functioning completely outside the system. The classical utopian approach which proved to be unsuccesful defines a whole new one and true model of society disregarding all the existing terms of daily life and the effecting mechanisms. This approach can be identified as formal logic and is the main reason for the failure of the classical utopian ideas. In contrast with this, the idea of becaming an opposing force within the society itself reveals the situations of different and contradicting ideologies fighting each other. The proggresive ideology within the dialectic logic is ultimately built on this contradictions of different ideologies. The Dispossesed which is instrumentalized within the thesis in search for the new approaches that oppose the existing social system, helps the study with its dialectic structure and its holistic approach. The era when The Dispossesed was written has also witnessed the 1968 revolts that idealized the opposing against any existing social mechanisms. This era has also created a new Marxist approach that highlighted the importance of redeciphering the Marxist dialectic logic with the help of the existing conditions. This approach which has been instrumentalized within the content of the dissertation in search for new ways of intrepreting the capitalist system of contemporary conditions and arguing the possible ways of opposing it also addes the notion of spacetime continium to the gap between the idealized utopian dreams and the existing life conditions. As a result of this,the opposing ideas that lived on the contradictions between the forms and the processes were mainly debated. While the dialectic approach foresees the acceptance of change in the man-made environment, materialism focuses on the situations that occur in the daily life and the mechanisms of the system itself rather than the utropian ideas as a way out from the existing social mechanism. As a result of contemporary holistic approach, the defined border between the white and the black has been blurred and the ideologies have lost their strictly identified truths. The age old hierarchical power relations which became complicated even more, distort the focuses of the strategies that aim to solve the social problematics. This situations makes the act of opposing against the negativities of a social system and creating an ideology that aims a better life ever harder. In today’s world which dissolves the social unity and favores the individual interests what is ultimately needed is the debating of the unwanted situations holistically with all their inputs and formulating individual actions against it. Architectural practice is suitable for that kind of an approach for it both feeds on the intellectual heritage of the human thinking and the close relationship it has with the practical daily situations. The dominating idea about architecture’s role on the social mechanisms is that it is rather powerless against any major social order. But given the immense effect of the artificial environment over the society, the architecture still can be a triggering factor on any given social change. The major focus point is revealed to be the relationship between the architectural know how which foresees what needs to be done or what needs to be changed and the existing living conditions of an artificial social environment. The social change that is to be planned and idealized has to feature both these factors. Three major social problems have been identified and debated holistically along with their main reasons in order to confront the negativities created by the existing capitalist system and create strategies to oppose and prevent those negativities. The social discrimination, the restriction of the individual freedoms and the echological thread are considered to be the vital three problems of the society that needs immediate acts of solutions. The role of architecture discipline among these three major problems is discussed and the possible solutions to these problems are mentioned. One of the possible architectural acts against the social discrimination which is dramatically solidified through the man-made environments can be the spreading the architectural service wider amongs all the layers of the society. This approach aims the architectural service to be a social project that helps the people who otherwise would never get any since the practice itself is defined to be a privileged act of service for the upper class citizens of any given society. Within the context of the thesis, freedom is defined as the right of an individual to have the ability of choice over his/her own life. This freedom includes the very artificial environment the person lives in. The factors that rule the spatial organization prevents the individuals from having desicions over their environments hence eliminating their freedom. One of the most important responsibilites of the architectural practice about this issue could be the involvment of the space owners to the designing of the environments or at least creating more diverse spatial organizations which would help different kinds of individuals. The most wide spread caution against the major environmental thread is the usage of the recycled materials. This caution when interpreted in an architectural manor can be the re-using of the deserted urban spaces and the buildings with minor interference. This approach is derived as an opposing idea against the widely sponsored consuming habits. The demolition of the existing urban patterns and the deserted buildings unless it is crucially necessary, can be defined as the urban scaled versions of the disposable consumer materials of the daily life. The reusing of the mentioned spaces can be regarded as a possible architectural strategy against the environmental thread. When the possibilities of the architectural opposing is debated through the previously mentioned three major problems on a theorotical level, it is revealed that the unified ideological truths and the formal methods of the last century are proven to be inefficient. In contrast to that, the strategies which are created over the holistic definitions and the interpetations of the daily life circumstances are more effective. In todays world which witnesses the sayings of all the ideologies dissolving in the materialism of the capital market, the approaches which relate to the daily life are one step further than the ideological utopian dreams which do not relate to the existing life conditions. Architecture in that direction gives hope in its close relationship to the daily life of every individual.