Politically in-correct buildings: transmission of different power attitudes through architecture

ABSTRACT Power can exist in many forms and permeate deeply in societies; thus, the effects of power can be traced in every domain of the society. Spatial attitudes are important indicators for revealing power games. After all, architecture can be a good tool for actors in potency. The impact of it cannot be underestimated since there is a reciprocal effect between architecture and the society; they transform each other consequently. Exercising power has a wide range of attitudes, which differentiates from domination on one end, and emancipatory approaches on the other end. Every society, every institution, and hierarchical organization have different, yet mostly innate preferences that have a projection on the spaces they use, and the architectural choices they make. In this study, these differences are investigated in terms of publicity and hierarchy, through analyzing the syntactic relations and configurations of political party headquarters which are deliberately built to serve the parties by the authority figures within the parties.


Introduction
Until the advent of the poststructuralist theories in the late 1900s, power relations were initially defined as dominating acts of authorities -as an exercise of an actor over another. Since then, from Machiavelli to Hobbes throughout Humanism, the power theories comprised a linear, zero-sum conceptualization. Needless to say, approaches and subjects of power have transformed repeatedly, but the core idea -the domination of over-powerful actors on the rest of the society -has preserved its existence among all the diversity of theories on power and its distribution among actors. That paradigm has changed dramatically after World War II when democracy failed to fulfill the expectations of creating heaven on earth; thus, severe depression was followed by the intelligentsia. As one of the most important theoreticians in the field of contemporary power theories, Michel Foucault challenged the idea of defining the exercise of power as a passive act; for him, power is rather a game between the actors who are free to make choices. Tyranny and violence are not excluded from the exercise of power; however, these are not the main piles that define the power relations anymore. Power is simply "a total structure of actions brought to bear upon possible actions . . . it is nevertheless a way of acting upon an acting subject (or subjects), by virtue of their acting or being capable of action. A set of actions upon their actions." (Foucault 1982). Thus, every technology at humans' service (Foucault coined the term dispositive) can be considered as a tool of exercising power (Foucault 1977).
Political parties are in the spotlight of this study because they are considered to be one of the most crucial elements of today's modern political systems. As framed in the constitution of the Republic of Turkey, "political parties are essential elements of democratic political life". Political parties have sui generis and indispensable position that operates between the public and the government, which enables us to analyze a wide variety of modes of power.
Today, political parties seem essential institutions for governments; however, they belong to a rather young state culture (Heywood 1997). Party-like constitutions have begun to flourish approximately at the beginning of the 19th century in the US; thereafter, they have become convenient tools for democratic systems, insomuch that in the 1950s most of the states around the world were governed with political parties and since then their undulating presence in the political scene has continued. Political parties' rhythm of the rise and fall in Turkey has more or less coincided with the thresholds and waves of democracy as Huntington (1991) formulated. With the effect of globalization and neoliberalism in the mid-1970s, the third wave of democratization has started, political parties became crucial elements for governments. However, at the beginning of the 1980s, democratic backsliding has occurred especially in developing countries like Turkey, Portugal, Greece, etc. and the number of political parties around the world had dramatically descended along with the rise of coups and military governments (Huntington 1991). Together with other dramatic changes in the democratic life in Turkey following the military coup in 1980, many paradigms have changed gradually including the laws that regulate the political parties' budgets and administrative manners along with parties' spatial existence, which will be addressed later on.
In today's world, a large number of arguments about politics are based on political parties' ideologies. They are ascendant actors in the power game; thus, they use numerous dispositives to keep their active role. Their political state is defined according to their ideologies, or to be more precise, according to assumptions about their ideologies. These assumptions are based on their constitutions, press briefs of the spokesperson, speeches of the party's leader, etc., which solely depend on the parties' statements about themselves.
These statements are undoubtedly informative about their power practices; nevertheless, they cannot be considered as the only sources of information that we can acquire. As previously discussed, exercising power is an innate and latent practice; direct discourses are controlled actions by the actors, thus they are self-censored in a sense. In fact, the discrepancy between the actions and discourses in Turkey's political arena is abounding. Active political parties in the arena have extreme differences in the sense of ideologies and discourses (which is considered to be a very healthy state for democracies in theory); yet in reality, their actions and performance in the power game (levels of transparency, interacting with the public, utilizing the media and even their leaders, etc.) is very much alike. How is it possible to have this much abundance in the discourses and ideologies, yet a very limited set of actions in the arena? Apparently, there is a loss of data in the process of transforming the information reaching the public, which does not always mean the related information is deliberately hidden. It reveals that some information cannot be expressed conveniently, -especially by using conventional tools of communication -it is the nature of power games. The main thesis of this research is that it is possible to collect additional information about latent, implicit power practices of actors in the game through analyzing the spaces that they use. Architectural preferences comprise some clues about the latent power practices embedded in the space because, by nature, spaces communicate more directly and in a less censored way if the syntactic information hidden in the hierarchy of the spatial organization can be revealed.
Architectural styles -and surely architecture in general -are neither authoritarian nor democratic per se, but they can easily be used to serve political purposes (Krier 1998). Architecture is a significant accompanist for power -it is a powerful dispositive. Indeed, there are numerous examples of the strong link between architecture and power. It is not a coincidence that most of the fascist and authoritarian regimes have an architectural agenda about recreating the built environment -along with the most obvious examples; remember the major drive behind the extensive gentrification project of Pope Sixtus V for Rome during his reign (Roth 2007).
Architecture can be a powerful tool in the creation of nations. Cities (especially the capitals) of young nations became demonstrations for architectural styles that are associated with permanence and perpetuity, Ankara, the capital of Turkey, is a good example of an ambitious agenda of self-actualization for a nation (Bozdoğan 2015).
Numerous metaphors can be used to represent power in the spatial context. For example, colossal, Parthenon-like structures are direct references to power; so that finance companies and banks have repeatedly been using this reference set to emphasize the potency in economics (Markus and Cameron 2002). A contemporary example of metaphorical approaches would be the glass dome that was built in 1999 over the historical Parliament building, Reichstag in Berlin by Norman Foster. Foster used the direct representation of "transparency in the democracy" and "transparency of the glass material". The list of architectural representations and perceptions of power is long and inevitably getting longer each passing day.
"Human societies are spatial phenomena" (Hillier and Hanson 1984), in other words, once famously uttered by Winston Churchill "we shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us". Thus, it is important to embrace the interaction between architecture and society as a reciprocal structure, which transmits undisclosed information about power modes. Political party buildings in Ankara are unique and informative examples of such an intermingled structure. After the coup in 1980, for three years, Turkey was ruled by a military government. During their regime, Turkey's constitution was changed including the political parties act. Before then, political parties were already been funded by the government to eliminate the possibility of "being manipulated and repressed by wealthy people and/or organizations and degenerated" (Constitutional Court Decision No. 14 on Law No. 648, 1969). However, after the 1982 Constitution, the amount of this support had increased dramatically, additionally, a direct correlation between the number of deputies that a party provides to the parliament and the amount of allowance that the parties would receive was allocated. As a result, in fear of parties losing their autonomy, they became severely dependent on the government. The ability of novel parties to compete in the political arena decreased; thus, the obsolescence in the content of the politics accelerated each day.
The first party to have enough resources to build its headquarter was Motherland Party which was the first elected party in 1983 right after the military government had abdicated. They built their headquarters in 1990, until then, parties were using rented buildings as their offices. Following the Motherland Party, first the Nationalist Movement Party in 2004, then the Republican People's Party in 2006, and finally the Justice and Development Party in 2007 gradually moved to their own headquarters. In order to build a headquarter from scratch according to their needs, they reflected their know-how; thus, their understanding of power was inevitably mirrored upon these buildings. The Motherland Party lost its power in the political scene and conceded to merge with the Democrat Party later on, their building was neglected and some parts of it were damaged but the remains of it are still in use. The latter three parties still have a major impact on Turkish politics. Examining the last general elections in 2018 will be sufficient to understand their effect. In the poll, the Nationalist Movement Party, the Republican People's Party, and the Justice and Development Party received approximately 76% of the total votes. These parties indeed should be taken seriously and analyzed from every aspect possible, including their spatial configurational approaches.
An obvious and important point must be remarked before proceeding. Political parties have a dual nature that operates between the public and the government regarding their supposedly main goal: by increasing the representation ability of some groups in the society and elected to form a cabinet for the government. Therefore, they operate between public and administrators and they are responsible for the dialog between civilians and authorities (McLennan 1986;Held 1994). This sui generis position makes the political parties primarily public properties. After all, their allowances from the government -which constitute the greater part of their budgets -are supplied from income taxes. However, in addition to their public presence, political parties have a private structure that is shaped by their responsibility to provide representatives for the parliament; thus, they are instruments of the government concurrently. Therefore, judicially their status is defined both by private law from some aspects and at the same time they are treated as corporate bodies that are liable to public law from others. This ambiguity in the nature of political parties makes it impossible to discuss their publicity on a normative ground. Briefly, it is the parties' responsibility to remain in a balanced state between the society and the government, by resisting the oligarchic tendencies that lie in the essence of every hierarchical organization according to Iron Law (Michels 1911). After all, parties are microcosmoses of democracies; they have to be organized democratically within themselves first. This dual nature of parties has primarily shaped the framework and method of this research.

Modes of power: tracing the spatial projections
"Space is not homogenous (there are) interruptions, breaks in it; some parts of space are qualitatively different from others." (Eliade 1959). In other words, space is a whole until we configure it, and the act of configuring is "turning the continuous space into a set of discrete units." (Bafna 2003). Daily life is structured inside these configured spaces; thus, inevitably the attitude of configuring it transmits a lot of information about the life inside it -including the power practices. However, this information is rather hidden and hard to reveal. Therefore, architectural discourse generally neglects the deeper social structure (genotype) that is underlying what is visible spatially (phenotype) (Hillier and Hanson 1984). As exemplified in the previous chapter, using Antique architectural styles or glass are symbols that serves power practices spatially. Actual power relations are beneath what is visible to us; it is embedded in the morphology that is transformed into a particular form of abstract rules underlying spatial forms, rather than spatial forms themselves. (Hillier and Hanson 1984). In brief, when space is configured, hierarchy between its parts emerge, which creates a complex syntactic relation within the system. The attitude of these systems follows some characteristics, which can coincide in different types of buildings. Overlooking the phenotype (what is directly visible spatially), this research aims to identify traces of genotypes (underlying spatial rules that are responsible for the social structures) and attempts to trace these genotypic characteristics that buildings express, which requires a translation.
Firstly, the modes of these syntactic relations and what they mean for power game needs to be clarified. Analyzing the syntactic relations is mostly about analyzing the amount of control applied to the user of the space, which requires user experience to be implemented to the overall framework. It is possible by first creating justified graphs which depict the space into a node-based web-like structure. Later the group of users (authority or visitor) that occupy the space has to be defined. If the user can easily orient in the space and have a wide range of route preferences, it means space allows the user to explore and move freely. The form of power in the space is less controlled in these cases. However, if space restricts the movement of the user, if there are limited options for the user to choose from, then space is configured with a more controlled attitude, and the mode of power converges more imperative characteristics.
Characteristics of the space, genotype, can be determined by analyzing the syntactic relations in the space.
A key concept for analyzing the syntax in the space is depth. Depth, self-explanatory, refers to the hierarchical position of a unit of the space in relation to the global network of the overall space. The deeper a unit of space is positioned, the more steps have to be covered to reach that space, and generally, it is easier to control the users' behavior inside a deeper space than a shallower one. Two main attitudes can be defined regarding the syntax of the space in the repertoire of spatial gestures: buildings can be shallow and integrated or deep and sequenced or tree-like which connects spaces together minimally or ringy/looped, which gives rise to route choice." (Hanson 1996). Translating the spatial features into web-like structures and associating tree-like, branching formations to control was first introduced to the field by Christopher Alexander et al. (1977) before the theory and methodology of space syntax was invented by Hillier and Hanson (1984). Such spaces follow a fanned/branching syntax (Figure 1(b)), all the spaces are connected to the main hall like branches that are all connected to the trunk of the tree; thus, the user of the space has to inevitably pass through the hall first. Therefore, the hall has the potential to become a controlled space. Likewise, linear syntax (Figure 1(a)) defines a strictly pre-defined route and does not allow the users to have a choice about the route they want to take.
On the contrary, shallower and looped/ringy configurations ( Figure 1(c)) are linked to more informal and exploratory formations. Space allows users to have more power to choose which route to follow. Even the deepest point of the space is shallower thus more accessible compared to other syntactic formations. Deleuze and Guattari's (1988) concepts of striated (tree-like hierarchical structure which has more controlled heterogeneous characteristics) and smooth spaces (homogenous rhizome structure, that is decentralized and nonhierarchical) coincide with the syntactic formation of controlled and less controlled spaces. It has to be emphasized that in real life a striated or smooth space cannot exist per se. In reality, spaces fold onto each other, real spaces are a combination of these two basic formations existing simultaneously in one space with different proportions. (Deleuze and Guattari 1988). Those syntactic relations embedded in the space, -when combined with the user experienceshed a light on the power attitudes that are practiced in the space. Three modes of power practices can be defined accordingly: traditional (feudal) power, disciplinary power, and pseudo-community.
Traditional power can be defined when the authorities are in need of visibility. It is related to publicity because visibility and accessibility are conceded as crucial properties for public spaces (Arendt 1958;Madanipour 1996;Dijkstra 2000). Public spaces have gradually become important politically, in fact, in recent history, most of the movements have flourished from city squares, in need of seeking a way of communication with the actors in power. Public spaces serve every member of society in theory and provide them a platform to express themselves, they are mediums for justifying beliefs and ideas. However, in traditional, totalitarian, and oligarchic regimes; publicity and power of self-expression are a privilege merely for the actors in power. Habermas (1962) coined the term "representative publicity" to define these modes of power and designates such an attitude to suzerains in feudality. Suzerain has a desperate need for staging his potency; thus, public places have become a domain for justifying the source of power, or on the contrary, the most private spaces of the suzerains are publicized. Habermas (1962) exemplifies the spatial outcome of the representative publicity with the spatial configuration of the Palace of Versailles. The border between the notions of public and private was blurred for the suzerain; daily receptions occurred in the bedroom of the prince which was located at the end of the enfilade route. Even "the bed of the prince is set up like stage and places on a platform . . . what is most intimate is raised to public importance." (Habermas 1962). As it is seen, the authority's need for visibility is reflected upon the configuration of the space. Syntactically, the royal bedroom is located at the end of a linear chain of spaces, at the most isolated and deepest point of the overall space (Dovey, 2008). It is, at the same time, the most controlled point, and to reach there, firstly many rooms have to be passed through consecutively (Figure 2(a)).
Disciplinary power demands a completely reversed spatial configuration of traditional power practices (Hillier and Hanson 1984). The term is derived from Foucault's (1977) disciplinary institutions (prison, hospital, asylum, school, and factory, etc.), which establishes a new kind of interface between controllers and visitors (Dovey 2008). Foucault was inspired by Jeremy Bentham's (1791) stimulating reinvention of prison: panopticon, which influenced Evans (1971) almost concurrently with Foucault, who was also working on the spatial projections of power. As Bentham explained (1791), the idea of the panopticon gives great privileges to the inspector spatially; that "people to be inspected should always feel themselves as if they are under inspection". It has been later illustrated by Willey Reveley in 1791 as a rotunda with an observation tower in the center (Figure 2(b)). Powerless visitors are located at the deepest and most controlled point of the overall space, and actors in power have the privilege to constantly put the visitors under surveillance. It is a more contemporary mode of power compared to traditional power, and spatially it is the exact opposite of traditional power practices, where the authority is placed at the deepest location.
Commercial power (pseudo-solidarity) can be considered as the most contemporary form of power. In this mode of power, people are framed and located according to their statuses in the space, which will cause asymmetry and segregation between different classes. Therefore, buildings and spaces turn into mediums for segregation, they become classifying devices (Markus 1987). The exercise of power is more insidious in the case of commercial power because it is more implicit, hardly visible, and therefore more acceptable and normalized by the society (Dovey 2008). Malls are typical examples of commercial power that operates via constructing ideal communities. Inside the mall, there is no poverty, no division, or eccentricities; a permanent festive atmosphere embraces the malls. All the major tensions and protests within the community are left outside. Only limited forms of politicking are permitted; thus, malls function as quasi-public spaces that legitimize harmless forms of communities. It creates pseudosolidarity inside by repressing genuine sources of conflicts in the community (Dovey 2008). Dovey (2008) addressed spatial outcomes of commercial power by analyzing Forest Hill Mall in Melbourne (Figure 2(c)) along with other typical malls which all share the same configurational schemata. When entering the mall from the car park, the visitors have to pass through several control points that are configured at the end of deep and linear syntax. But after entering the mall, every point of the overall space is highly accessible compared to previous modes of power; it is easy to navigate inside, the configuration has a shallow and looped syntactic configuration. Dovey (2008) coined the term "pseudo-solidarity" to explain this misleading effect of having a control-free environment that resembles almost "street-like" features of proper public spaces. But, the visitor has to be validated first, to blend into the fake community that has been created inside.

Translating the genotype into sequences: implementing space syntax to power studies
There were some attempts of translating spatial data into networks as mentioned in the previous chapter. However, Bill Hillier and Julienne Hanson altered the field with The Social Logic of Space (1984) and contributed to the theory and methodology significantly. Space syntax is still one of the most illustrative ways of describing a space via convex spaces (nodes) and connections as a network, and it is possible to calculate the spatial data accurately by using the plan drawings of a building.
The scope of the research has structured the method as following: As aforementioned political parties operate between public and administrators, therefore two main floors have been chosen to be analyzed in order to reveal this dual nature. Entrance floors, which constitute mainly public functions, are important for gathering data about the attitude of the authorities to people. Additionally, the floor that constitutes Central Executive Board Meeting Halls (CEBMH) is deemed to be important because Central Executive Board is the core of democratic activities for the party scale. The configuration of the halls reveals the party's position on the spectrum from tyranny to more emancipatory modes of power. Besides, at three of the headquarters, the office of the party leader is located on the same floor as CEBMH, which allows us to enhance insight into the different approaches about the cult of the leader.
Secondly by defining the function groups, the information of the user profile -whether the visitors or the frequent users of the buildings occupy the space more -is implemented. Therefore, the convex spaces are grouped by their functions according to their public or private entities. For entrance floors, functional groups are as following: public entrance, main hall, public functions, spaces that allow users to access public functions (public access), and finally semi-public or private spaces which lead users to private functions mainly serving to the protocol (private access) are analyzed separately. For the floors of CEBMH, function groups consist of the main hall, CEBMH, party leader's office, transition rooms between protocol offices, and waiting halls for visitors. By identifying the spatial differences between where visitors and protocol occupy mostly, it was aimed to reveal the underlying power attitudes.
The analysis of this research is structured in three steps ( Figure 3): I. Revealing the syntactic relations and genotype (whether the space demonstrates linear, deep, or looped characteristics) via using justified graphs that reveal the relationships between the convex spaces. In order to implement the user, the public and private functions were grouped as mentioned above and analyzed separately. Justified graphs are examined in the next chapter, Exercising power: Spatial properties of political party headquarters, along with general information about the buildings and their architects' intentions in the design process, based on the interviews that Aslı Çekmiş did in 2008. Function groups are defined on the justified graphs and all the analyses within the scope of this research are supported by observations on site.
II. Calculations via Visibility Graph Analysis (VGA) is isovist based qualitative calculations that were conducted by Syntax2D software developed by Michigan University. Isovist is a volumetric notion that is generated by a point in the space, which has the ability to see 360° around (Klarqvist, 2003). Usually, its projections on two-dimensional surfaces (plan drawings) are used. In order to define a space accurately, more than one isovist point is required because there may be numerous obstacles or barriers that may block the eyesight in the space (Benedikt 1979).
A resultant of the numerous isovists is calculated for both entrance and CEBMH floors' plan drawings by using the same functional groups that are defined previously. Ad hoc, the plan drawings of the headquarters were redrawn according to the components in the space which affect the form of the isovist (borders, walls, some furniture . . . etc.) by using computeraided design tools. Those drawings are transferred to the Syntax2D platform then, drawings are allocated by a grid in the Syntax2D interface, in which, one m 2 corresponds to approximately 4 squares. Therefore, even if the contour of the headquarters is highly variational among the headquarters, it is possible to make a comparison between them.
As aforementioned, depth is the key concept of measuring hierarchy in the space, therefore VGA analysis was focused on measuring average mean depth value for both total floor plans and the function groups of entrance floors, and CEBMH floor plans. The mean depth value is in direct proportion with the number of steps to be passed through in order to reach that point. It is semantically inversely correlated to the accessibility and integration of the space. In other words, the higher the mean depth values are, the deeper and less integrated the space becomes. To make the calculations and correlations easier, all the values are simplified relatively.
III. A Comparison between the total floor plan average mean depth values and function groups' mean depth values is made to reveal the nuances between the headquarters' spatial configurations. The difference in the mean depth values between the average of the total floor plan and for each function group for every headquarter is calculated. They are ordered from least to the most, and the mean number is determined. The numbers below that mean number are labeled as "negatively related" and above are "positively related". The aim is to reveal the magnitude and the level of significance between those measurements. The mean numbers and the most significant numbers for negative and positive scales are marked with [] in the text for both floor plans. That data collected from Syntax2D software will be presented in the Results: Cross reading of the syntactic data and the spatial features section.
The observations were only partially implemented to the interpretations especially for the CEBMH floor's spatial features. Because due to security reasons, it was not possible to access the CEBMH floors of RPP and JDP headquarters. For these floors, apart from syntactic data, the images and drawings were the main sources of information about the spatial features.

Exercising power: spatial properties of political party headquarters
In this chapter, the headquarters of the Motherland Party (MP), the Nationalist Movement Party (NMP), the Republican People's Party (RPP), and the Justice and Development Party (JDP) will be examined in the foregoing order by focusing on the syntax of the space and the statements of the architects.
The Motherland Party, founded in 1983 and was the first party elected after the 1980 coup; Thus, the party is considered as a milestone for Turkey in shifting to democracy once more. For nine years, MP was in power alone, from 1996 to 2000 it was a shareholder of a coalition government, and finally, in 2009 it merged with another party and fell from power, lost its importance as a strong actor in Turkish politics. Ideologically, it is a conservative, center-right wing party, and known for its neo-liberal interferences in the economy. Today, although the headquarter is in use by another party, it is not preserved well. The North wing (there used to be the cafeteria, foyer, and auditorium for mass meetings) of the building is demolished, thus the location of the entrance was moved to the South facade entrance (Figure 4(a)) -which used to be the protocol entrance-and the entrance hall is transformed into a conference hall for gathering events (Figure 4(b)). For consistency, this study will be grounding on the former contemplated configuration of the building.
The building is designed by an İstanbul based architecture office, Tekeli-Sisa Architects, and as one of the co-founders of the office, Doğan Tekeli asserted that functionality is the first thing to be considered at the beginning of the design process. According to him, a headquarter of a political party, -as parties are candidates for governance -has to have an earnest and serious spirit, in the awareness of being responsible for representing the society (Çekmiş 2008). It's a four-story-high, rather a modest building compared to the latter examples. The first floor is dedicated to public functions (cafeteria, foyer and auditorium, library, commissions, and media offices); the top/ fourth floor is for protocol functions (executive board meeting room, the offices of the party leader, advisors, and the general secretary).
The entrance hall was once a central gathering point for every user in the building. It is an intersection area between the public and the seniors of the party. It served the purpose of both seeing and being seen at the same time. Architects wanted this place to be lively and dynamic, accessible to everyone, and its size had to fulfill the need for hosting the crowds. The hall's scale had to be adjusted carefully; its volume needed to be sufficient enough to have a characteristic of its own and not more than enough to overwhelm the rest of the building (Çekmiş 2008). Syntax of the space and justified graphs confirm this attitude (Figure 5(a)).
Analysis of the ground floor shows that the overall space is shallow and accessible; has a looped syntax, and public functions (foyer-auditorium and cafeteria) are well integrated into the main hall. The southern block, which contains a protocol entrance and offices,  has a deepening and less accessible configuration, but it is a deliberate choice by architects to create a silent and calm working environment for the officers (Çekmiş 2008).
The fourth floor is reserved for private functions, mostly protocol members occupy this floor. CEBMH, the party leader's office, the advisors' room, the general secretary, and the waiting room are on this floor. The party leader's room is at the deepest location of the overall space, though the configuration does not allow him to be isolated from the rest. Because CEBMH is configurated as a disconnected entity from the rest, the leader has to use general circulation and show up in the common spaces, in order to navigate inside (Figure 4(c)). The justified graph confirms that the overall space is shallow (Figure 5(b)), compared to the latter examples. The configuration of the space doesn't allow hidden interactions of the users, except between the party leader and chief advisor. It is possible via some transition spaces in-between, which allows the protocol to contact privately in a segregated space. One of the deepest points of the space is the meeting room, which means visitors of this floor are under control more than other users. It is an attitude that converges to disciplinary power, but when overall attempts of configuration are considered, disciplinary power is not well established in this space, it can only be a primitive attempt yet.
The Nationalist Movement Party represents radical right tendencies on the political spectrum with ultranationalist Pan-Turkist agenda. It was founded in 1969, and since then, has continued its political life. During its political journey, with some short time interruptions, it always received sufficient votes to be represented in the parliament. Throughout most of its history, it has remained consistently as a third party in the opposition wing. During the general elections in 2018, the party formed a coalition with JDP -which is the majority party since 2002-, and they are still in power today.
The party headquarters started service in 2004, the building is designed by an İstanbul based design office Alp Architects (Figure 6(a)). The founder of the design office is Ahmet Vefik Alp, who was once involved in politics actively and was nominated for the mayorship of İstanbul in 1999 from the NMP. Thus, in the case of the NMP, the architect cannot be portrayed as a politically distanced design supervisor, quite the contrary he is ideologically involved in the process. The architect claims, functionality is not the only objective while designing this building as in the previous case of MP. The building cannot be considered as an office solely serving their needs, on the contrary, NMP's former leader, wanted the headquarter to transmit a message, he wanted the headquarter to be a focal point for the Turkish world (Çekmiş 2008). Thus, the architect's main intention is to reflect the ideology of the party and interpret the elements of traditional Turkish architecture with contemporary technologies. As a result, many symbols and elements from traditional Turkish architecture were used in the site plan, facades, and interior. The scale of the building is majestic in height when compared to MP, heliport on the top of the building (Figure 6(a)) which represents "the rise of the nationalism" makes this massive effect of exaltation even more striking (Çekmiş 2008).
The headquarter consists of three main blocks, which are all connected -at least visibly -with a majestic nine-story-high atrium (Figure 6(b)). The public entrance opens to the main hall, which is integrated into the atrium. The architect names this hall as "atrium-square" and all the tree blocks are facing this hall. The architect's intention to design such a space is to allow everyone to "see each other" and give users an integrated life inside. This approach of allowing every user to be visible is a way of symbolizing the principle of transparency. There is also an intention to create an accessible democratic gathering point that allows freedom of speech; as we understand again from the architect's intention to embrace this volume as an "urban demonstration square" (Çekmiş 2008) with its cafeteria as a public space.
All these approaches are meaningful and significant when Arendt's (1958) definition of public space is considered. However, some spatial decisions are open to discussion. First, when considering the number of control points that a visitor has to pass through to reach the main hall, the publicity degree of the hall is diminished. Second, the entrance, and the office of the party leader and protocol are configured in a completely segregated fourth block. It is indeed visually integrated -protocol members can see and be seen from the main hall-; however, they are privileged because they have the power to not enter public circulation if they prefer not to. As the architect asserted, segregating the protocol from the rest is a deliberate design choice, nourished by the cult of the leadership that ensconced Turkey's political tradition. Protocol block is connected physically to the rest of the system by solely a very thin bridge (Figure 6(c)). Justified graphs confirm that the system of three main blocks is rather comfortably experienced for the visitors, the configuration gains a deepening and linear structure around the protocol block and the thin bridge (Figure 7(a)).
CEBMH is located on the ninth floor. Its capacity is higher when compared to the MP's meeting room, thus a lobby and a private room accompany the hall. They are all formed in one solid block on the Northern side of the plot. Additional functions for the council member, such as a smaller meeting room and an archive are configured in the Southern block separately. In the intersection of these two blocks, the office of the general secretary is located as a transition space, along with the corridor (Figure 6(d)). All these functions are connected by an open-air courtyard in the center. Visitors of this floor wait either in the office of the general secretary or in the lobby of the conference hall. The justified graph shows that the configuration of this floor has a looped and accessible characteristic compared to its counterparts, though the absence of the party leader's office affects this attitude (Figure 7(b)). Because in other headquarters, the party leader's room and CEBMH are configured on the same floor; thus, the intersection of high-level administrators and protocol visitors becomes problematic that has to be solved. However, in the case of the NMP, high-level party members are deliberately segregated from the rest of the system. This enables the tension in the intersection between authority and visitors to be relieved; thus, space can be configured in a less formal, easily navigable, and more comfortable attitude for the visitors.
The Republican People's Party is the oldest in Turkish politics, established by the founder of the Republic of Turkey in 1919 as an attempt to transform the empire into a modern republic. The one-party state of the regime endured until the general elections in 1950; since then, the party has preserved its position of the main opposition to date. Ideologically, the party represents a social-democratic position and defending the foundational principles of modern Turkey including republicans, nationalist, statist, populist, laicist, and reformist values. Its headquarter opened in 2006 and is designed by an Ankara-based architecture office, Atabaş Architecture. It is a 16-story high building, and the first four floors are attained for public use. These floors are covered with regional stone; thus, their public function is emphasized from the facade. On the upper floors of administrative functions, weightless, glass is used and the steel structure of the building is exposed. Kadri Atabaş, the founder of the Atabaş Architecture explains this attitude as 21st-century technology over a solid base (Figure 8(a)). Glass represents the transparent administration values once more (Çekmiş 2008). The main intention is to create a timeless design -with a progressive attitude that the party advocates -which cannot be associated with any architectural style from the past. This approach stands on the exact opposite of NMP and JDP. The architects of NMP and JDP intended to emphasize the traditional elements of Turkish culture.
The main public entrance is on the first floor supported by the functions such as the main hall and information units, the sitting and barcovision area, press brief niche, museum, and the foyer. The architect intended this floor is to "embody the daily life" (Çekmiş 2008). Syntactically speaking, justified graphs show that the ground floor has a looped, shallow and informal characteristic, visitors of this space can navigate inside freely compared to its counterparts (Figure 9(a)). For instance, in order not to give an extra value to the administrative board, there is no additional entrance for the protocol on this floor -whereas other headquarters have an extra entrance for high-level members of the party (Çekmiş 2008). However, before identifying the power attitudes, some underlying principles of the configuration need to be revealed. Because even if the control points in the entrances are neglected, some other indicators constrain us to identify this configuration as an informal, easily navigable one.
Primarily, despite lacking an additional entrance for protocol, (if protocol members used the public entrance like any individual, it could be a direct expression of equality in attitude) protocol members rarely use the public entrance. There is a direct connection with an elevator from the car park to the 12th floor where the protocol functions are densely located; thus, the party leader can reach his office without using the main entrance. In reality, regardless of the architect's intentions and manifestations, the party leader and protocol members choose to use this direct route rather than blending with the public. It means the party leader has control over his public visibility; however, he renounces the privilege to see and control others by never using the main circulation.  Secondly, a prominent verticality that is associated with the hierarchy of the users is strikingly embedded in the configuration of the headquarter of the RPP. As aforementioned, the four-story-high solid base consists of public functions. Upper floors are grouped in the same manner, within three-story-high volumes for each. Moreover, these groups overlap with the bureaucratic hierarchical organization of the party vertically. It means the higher you elevate in the building, the more hierarchically eminent officers occupy the space. After all, public functions are mostly organized on the ground floor and the executive assistant's office and the office of the party leader are located on the 12th floor (Figure 8(a)).
Each group of three stories is integrated by some small-scale atriums in itself; however, groups are completely disconnected from each other (Figure 8(b)). This is a deliberate design choice as we understand from the architect's statements. He claims (Çekmiş 2008), the party's ideology respects human rights and gives importance to human beings; thus, atriums' scale has to be moderate, small enough to allow people to communicate and should not overwhelm and alienate them from each other by creating majestic voids within the building (remember the towering main atrium of NMP). Respect to the human scale is accomplished at the cost of segregating and hierarchically organizing each unit of the party. Another indicator that demonstrates the correlation between hierarchy and floor level is that the architect's intention to add some "walkable" terraces over the 12th floor to 'limit the power of the party leader (Çekmiş 2008). Additionally, the structure of the building reveals itself gradually on the facade (Figure 8(a)) when climbing upper, in order to transfer the message of administrative transparency without disguise (Figure 8(c)).
CEBMH is located on the 12th floor along with the party leader's office and reception room, the offices of executive assistant and the secretary, lobby, a kitchenette, and a small courtyard. The architect claims that the executive board represents the democratic arena within the party, thus that volume is deliberately emphasized on the facade (Figure 8(c)) and differentiated from the rest by its ellipsoid form (Çekmiş 2008). What is most striking about the configuration of the 12th floor is that there is an alternative route that connects CEBMH, reception room, and offices of the party leader and the executive assistant, this means the party leader can manage most of his work without interfering with the main circulation. Considering how the party leader can navigate through the car park to his office, he is highly segregated from the rest. Analyzing the justified graphs shows that indeed his office is at the deepest location of the overall space. CEBMH and lobby are integrated into the rest of the space with which visitors of this floor are highly engaged (Figure 9(b)).
The Justice and Development Party was founded in 2001 and since then has dominated Turkish politics. The party has been through six general elections and won five of them as a majority party. In the elections of 2018, the party established a coalition with the NMP. The foundation of the party is rather new, though the routes of its ideology are claimed to be dated back to a traditional movement called "National Vision", which has a conservative, Islamist, Neo-Ottoman political approach. Notwithstanding, the party positions itself as ideologically advocating "conservative democratic" values on the political spectrum.
The building process of the headquarter is phased: at first, the party is settled with an İstanbul based architecture office that submitted three different design proposals, one of them was chosen to be the shell of the building. Then an Ankara-based design office NNC Architecture, re-designed the interior and furbished the building. Can Gökoğuz, the founder of the latter architecture office, NNC Architecture, is considered to be the owner of the project (Çekmiş 2008).
The building is a 14-story-high monumental rectangular prism monolith, and it is symmetrical both vertically and horizontally in planimetry and on the facade (Figure 10(a)). Seljukian and Ottoman architectural patterns are used extensively both on the facade and interior as in the NMP headquarter. Since extreme symmetry and simplicity are associated with totalitarian and fascist regimes' architectural approaches along with the usage of Neo-classical styles (Billiani and Pennacchietti 2019), the symmetric and neotraditional attitude is highly criticized. Both protocol and public entrances are located on the ground floor from opposite facades. Although they are highly segregated from each other, their spatial configuration is almost the same except for the amount of control on each (Figure 10(b)). Public functions are located on the ground floor. Visitors of this floor have to pass through a high degree of control points compared to other headquarters. After passing through the barriers, visitors reach the information desk, where they will receive a "smart card" that will only activate the relevant floors in the elevators; thus, the visitors' vertical circulation is highly controlled too (Figure 10(c)). The core that contains the elevators, functions as a barrier between the public entrance and the protocol entrance itself (Gürallar and Boyacıoğlu 2011). The building is divided into three units. On the ground floor, the central unit consists of the public and protocol entrance halls, the Northwest unit of the ground floor is occupied with a multipurpose hall and, on the Southeast unit, there are several public functions such as media room, communications center, public relations, cafeteria, offices, elderly and disabled services, city center directorship, and kitchenette which are all connected to one main hall. The justified graph confirms that the overall space is highly under control with a deepening, both linear and branching structure. Considering this floor to be in service for public functions, it is highly incapable of providing accessibility and visibility to the users. Protocol members of the building never have to appear in this unit (Figure 11(a)).
CEBMH is located on the 8th floor. Overall space has more hierarchical, linear, and deepening characteristics compared to the other headquarters of the protocol floors as the justified graph shows. On the Southeast block, along with the larger CEBMH, there are backstages and a smaller meeting hall all of which branch from the main hall. The central block consists of the party leader's office and a lobby for the visitors of this floor which is accompanied by an office that is directly facing the lobby. The Northwest block consists of the offices for the executive assistant and advisors along with the second lobby for the visitors that is again configurated similarly to the first one. The secretary's office directly faces the lobby. The Party leader's office (Figure 10(d)) is connected to the executive assistant's office and smaller CEBMH with transitional spaces which allow the party leader to navigate inside between those functions spaces without intervening in the main circulation. What is most striking about the 8th floor's configuration is that both of the spaces that the visitors occupy are under high-level surveillance. Additionally, the space gains severely deeper and linear characteristics on those spaces. They are segregated and isolated from the rest of the configuration. Indeed, the justified graphs confirm that visitors of these spaces are at the deepest locations of the overall space.

Results: cross reading of the syntactic data and the spatial features
The data gathered from Syntax 2D software for the mean depth value for defined function groups are evaluated in this section. Average values of the function groups for both entrance floor plans and CEBMH floor plans and, total floor plans are calculated (Table 1). Among all the headquarters' entrance floors, the mean value is defined at the main hall function [283] of MP headquarters (Table 2(a)). The values above that limit are considered to be on the positive, and the values below are on the negative side of the overall scale. It means, function  groups that are on the positive scale are located at more accessible and shallower, whereas function groups on the negative scale occupy less accessible and deeper areas of the overall plans. The highest difference between mean depth values of the average total entrance floor plan values and function groups on the positive scale are measured at JDP headquarters for private access function [884]. RPP and MP headquarters are following JDP for the same function group of private access; however, they have as much as half of JDP's private access function values. Subsequently, MP's public access function and NMP's main hall function values are following. Although there is no significant difference between the average values of public and private access functions for the NMP headquarters, the main hall and public functions of RPP headquarters are still positively related. On the negative scale, the highest difference between the average of total entrance floor plan values and function groups' mean depth values is measured at the public functions [−568] of JDP. MP's public function values are following it; however, it is almost one-fifth of the JDP's value. Subsequently, RPP's public entrance function and JDP's main hall function get close values.
To clarify the calculations of the entrance floors, MP headquarters' main hall function defines the mean among all entrance floors. Public and private access functions are located significantly accessible. Since MP has a symmetrical floor plan and public and private access functions are configurated spatially similar, it is expected that they both have close values. The scale of the entrance hall is humane compared to the latter examples, but still differentiated and well lit, with a dome-like structure on top, as an interlocking point between public and party members (Figure 4(b)).
JDP's private access function is measured to be significantly integrated into the rest of the configuration. When interior elements, such as control points and barriers, are neglected, -only geometrically speaking -it is true. However, calculations of public functions of JDP headquarters are more significant and located at deep and least accessible areas of the overall configuration among all headquarters. Visually speaking, the core -that carries the vertical circulation -is located strategically in between the public and protocol entrance. It was not designed as a light and transparent element, thus, it disables the visual integration drastically (Figure 10(c)).
The entrance floor of the NMP and RPP are converging to mean value, compared to other headquarters. In NMP, the main hall has atrium-like characteristics that have monumental features compared to the other headquarters. The domination of bright colors in the interior enhances this feeling. Along with the monumentality, the vertical continuity makes it visually integrated to the upper floors and the totality of the floor plan (the functions of the public entrance ground floor plan are not defined very strictly with the walls or visual separators, etc.) makes it fell like a rather shallow and integrated space (Figure 6(b)). For RPP, the main hall is closer to the human scale and has a very looped and accessible characteristic naturally because public Table 2. The mean depth values of the function groups and the difference between the average mean depth value of the total floor plans and mean depth values of the function groups for (a) entrance floors and (b) CEBMH floors. functions such as auditorium or museum are accessible from this floor. The functions are not defined strictly with boundaries or if a boundary is needed it is defined as transparently as possible as in the museum's wall. However, it should not be neglected that on both headquarters, party administrative's circulation is either totally segregated or severely controlled. Therefore, the interface between the public and administrators is very weak and does not require a refined spatial solution (Table 2(a)).
For CEBMH floor plans, it should be highlighted that overall, compared to entrance floor plans, CEBMH floors are deeper, therefore less accessible. It is an expected outcome because entrance floors are serving more public and CEBMH floors are for more administrative purposes (Table 2(b)). Among all headquarters, RPP's visitor's halls [207] define the mean value. The highest difference between the average of the total floor plan and a function group on the positive scale is measured in JDP headquarters, for the transition functions [1.310], and on the negative scale again in the headquarters of JDP for the visitor's halls function [−1.262]. The magnitude of these differences is very significant. The visitor's hall of MP is segregated and less accessible to the rest of the configuration, however, compared to the JDP headquarters, the amount of segregation is significantly lower. Mean depth values of the party leader's offices are generally (except NMP, since that function does not exist on this floor) on the negative side of the overall scale.
Considering the transition functions and party leader's office function values in JDP headquarters, administrators of the JDP occupy the most integrated points, compared to the other headquarters. For CEBHM measures, except for NMP's and RPP's headquarters, the rest are measured relatively integrated to the rest of the configuration, yet the amount of this integration is not very significant. NMP's CEBMH is significantly segregated from the rest of the configuration. Main halls for every headquarter occupy accessible locations of the overall plan; for only RPP, this relation is not very significant. Transition function is significantly integrated at MP and JDP headquarters as in RPP headquarters; however, it is not measured that significantly. On the contrary, in NMP headquarters, the relation is on the negative scale however not very significant (Table 2(b)).
At JDP headquarters, visitors occupy the deepest and least integrated point of the overall configuration; on the contrary, where administrators are located is relatively integrated. CEBMH is generally integrated, except for the NMP headquarters. Since the party leader's office does not exist on this floor, the only function that high-level administrators use on this floor is CEBMH. For RPP headquarters, except for the party leader's office, mean depth values of the functions converge to the overall plan's mean depth values, yet the visitor's hall of RPP defines the mean values. However, the party leader's office is significantly segregated from the rest of the configuration in RPP headquarters.

Conclusion: emergence of the power
Political parties are active game players in the field of politics and have a dual nature that operates between the government and the public, which requires a balanced state, and it is sometimes hard to preserve. Before 1990, political parties could not have enough resources to build their headquarters; they generally rented office buildings. But along with the trend the Motherland Party started, parties began to work with designers and architects and built headquarters according to their particular needs and demands. Thus, the architecture of these buildings are transmitters of different power attitudes that parties have, and this information is embedded deeply into the spatial configuration.
All the analysis of the hierarchy, depth, and integration of these headquarters suggest that the Motherland Party has a proto-state power attitude, which does not belong to the latter examples' world. It has a humane scale and modest characteristics. As it is understood from its architect's statements and the brief they received, their intentions are focused on creating a functional, semi-public office building that allows public gatherings when needed.
The Nationalist Movement Party was the first to move to its headquarters after the Motherland Party, but it has positioned closer to the latter two examples than to the Motherland Party because the nature of politics had changed in the meantime, and the integration between authority and the public had severely transformed. In the configuration of the Motherland Party, the authorities are located completely segregated block from the public -at the end of a linear and deepening configuration-; however, the contact is not completely lost as in the case of the Republican People's Party. The authority can still have a restricted visible and physical (via a thin bridge) integration with the public. This attitude resembles the traditional power attitudes, in which the authority occupies the deepest end of the overall space. The notions of privacy and publicity are entangled, but still, allows authorities and the public to have controlled encounters.
On the other hand, the encounter has somehow vanished between the public and authorities in the case of the Republican People's Party's headquarters. The ground floor has a very informal and free configuration almost like a street; however, it is only possible because the intersection between the protocol and the public is completely neglected. It seems like the party leader can reach his office and Central Executive Board Meeting Hall on the 12th floor by almost never appearing in the public realm. This attitude of pseudosolidarity converges to commercial power attitudes.
Finally, the power attitude of Justice and Development Party spatially resembles Foucaldian disciplinary exercises of power because, on both floors, the configuration is highly controlled for public use. More interestingly, the visitors of the protocol floor are located at the deepest points of the overall space under surveillance. The dynamics between the visitors and the authorities are completely reversed spatially when compared to the Nationalist Movement Party.
The 1982 Constitution, leads to more centralized power attitudes for the good of actors in power, rather than distributing the power in favor of the public. It is possible to consider the political party headquarters as direct indicators of this power attitude. Despite the nuances between the political parties, their attitude towards the public is found to be problematic for every case. The intersection between public and administrators is designed to either demonstrate power, control the public, or the interface is completely neglected. In other words, in Turkey, political parties are inclined to governmental power rather than to fulfill the public's demands.
This research is focused on revealing the nuances of different power attitudes by analyzing spatial features. Further investigations may implement the ideologies and statements of the political parties because clearly there is a resemblance in between. It is important to deconstruct the power mechanisms behind what is visible at first sight because politics may obscure the exercise of power underneath. Power permeates every cell of the society, thus it can be found in every domain. For countries like Turkey, we think further investigations about the power mechanisms and the architectural implications of such mechanisms are required, to examine how power shapes architecture and vice versa.