In language, politics, and art, meaning is as thick as a beautifully crafted roux, a fact not often appreciated regarding heritage documentation. In this insightful and carefully researched book, Dr. Akboy-İlk exposes the poetic depth of putatively simple 2 dimensional drawings of historic buildings through their employment in the creation of both the Ottoman and Turkish cultural identities. This is a “must read” for anyone interested in cultural complexities and their manifestation through cultural heritage production.

Robert Warden, AIA

Professor, Department of Architecture

Texas A&M University

Akboy-İlk’s valuable work significantly deepens our knowledge of the development of heritage conservation in Turkey. Focusing on the documents located in different archives, Akboy-İlk discovers the tendencies and approaches of heritage professionals between the period of 1923-1960. It is a clearly written and intelligently argued piece of original research, which will extremely be useful to scholars of architectural, cultural, and social history and all those concerned with the history of heritage conservation.

Prof. Dr. B. Selcen Coşkun

Faculty of Architecture

Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Turkey

Dr. Serra Akboy-İlk’s book provides an ambitious, critical, and sensitive window to the crucial role of architectural documentation in the nation-building of Turkey. This book is an inspiration for architects in historic preservation around the world and will contribute to the understanding of their own built heritage and the intertwined relationships between politics and culture. I was impressed by the passion and thorough account of this architectural author to weave these complex relationships in her beloved and complex country situated in global history and evolving theory of historic preservation and archival building documentation approaches.

Prof. Dr. Carolina Manrique Hoyos

College of Art and Architecture

University of Idaho