The modern face of the state in postwar urban reconfiguration and post-earthquake planning: the case of the Sakarya Government House, Türkiye

This article examines the Sakarya Government House, a pioneering example of postwar modernism in Türkiye, through its construction, structural strengthening, and demolition. The building exemplifies the adoption of the International Style in Anatolia as a spatial instrument of modernization and state representation during Türkiye's integration into the postwar international order. The article analyses the trajectory of the Sakarya Government House through three critical moments of rupture in the city's planning history. The first rupture examines the transition from the official architecture of the early Republican period to the International Style following the decision to construct the building, highlighting the planning tensions between local and central government. The second rupture focuses on the continuation of the building's use following its structural strengthening after the 1967 Akyazı Earthquake and points to the city's growing vulnerability as it became increasingly subject to expanded development rights and planning amendments under neoliberal policies. The final rupture concerns the demolition of the building in 2005 as a result of an urban policy decision following the 1999 Marmara Earthquake and the production of spatial fragmentation by the seismic context within the process of urban reconfiguration.