Re-staging modernism: competitions, memory, and the making of heritage in Ankara’s Ulus Square

Ankara’s Ulus Square has long represented the spatial and ideological core of the Turkish Republic’s modernization project. Since 1923, the square and its architecture form a layered urban palimpsest of nation-building where competitions played a key role in shaping both the physical and symbolic dimensions. This paper examines two emblematic modernist buildings from mid-century competitions: the Ulus Business Center (1952–53) and the 100. Yıl Shop (1967), once central to the square’s civic and commercial life but now facing obsolescence. In 2022, a new competition for the 100. Yıl Shop site promoted by Ankara Metropolitan Municipality introduced public voting on demolition versus preservation, signaling a shift from technocratic planning to participatory heritage discourse. Through these competitions, the paper analyzes how competitions have acted as mechanisms of both construction and erasure of heritage, revealing the fragility of modernist architecture in politically layered sites.