Architectural typologies appeared by modernism: case study of the Edirne zeppelin hangar

When modernism started to be seen in architectural spheres, it did not emerge just with an architectural language for design but also with new architectural typologies. Due to the main discourse of the Modern Movement with the famous quote of Louis Sullivan, “Form follows function”, new building types which were explicitly designed for their functions have appeared. However, over time, while some of these functional buildings kept their functions, some of them either lost their function entirely already, or the technology which created that function is in a downward trend. Zeppelin/airship hangars are amongst those buildings constructed for a specific function in the early 20th century which have lost that function in the present. Therefore, even though they might not reflect any tangible qualities, the function can operate as an intangible cultural reference. The object of this paper is one of those zeppelin hangars, which is located in Edirne, Turkey. The research attempts to categorise the architectural typologies that appeared by modernism, and apply a case study method to the Edirne Zeppelin Hangar to gain insight towards the problem, which is related to the consequences created by the language of the Modern Movement due to the emphasis of the function, and to discuss the possible adaptive reuse strategies regarding these artefacts which totally lost their functions. It is concluded that it is not possible to transform all the building stock that emerged in the built environment into museums, including the Edirne Zeppelin Hangar; however, inconsequential to the designated purposes, it is crucial to leave intangible references to the previous function in its design process.