Traces of Peter Muller-Munk Associates in the History of Industrial Design in Turkey

Bahar Emgin

Bahar Emgin Yaşar University, Izmir https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0237-0916

Keywords: Handicraft Development Program, Industrial Design, Peter Muller-Munk Associates, Turkey, U.S. Technical Aid

Abstract

This article is based on a wider research study on the handicraft development programme conceived by Peter Muller-Munk Associates in the second half of the 1950s in Turkey. The aim is to document the progress and outcomes of the programme and to reveal the archival research practices involved in the research. To this end, records of major governmental and professional U.S. institutions, located in the National Archives and Records Administration at College Park (Maryland) and Special Collections Research Center at Syracuse University Libraries, are analysed to elucidate the context within which the project took place, as well as its preliminary preparations, project proposals, work plans, problems and termination. The article concludes by discussing the relevance of the findings to the broader study of the advancement of industrial design in developing countries.

Author Biography

Bahar Emgin, Yaşar University, Izmir

An industrial designer by education, she completed her PhD in October 2014 in Visual and Cultural Studies at Bilkent University, Ankara. From April 2016 through January 2017 she was a visiting researcher at Parsons School of Design. Since 2010, she has been a faculty member in the Department of Visual Communication Design at Yaşar University, where she has been teaching basic design and graduation studio in addition to courses on design theory and history. Her academic research areas include design history, design studies and material culture studies, with a particular focus on the Turkish context. She is a member of 4T (Design and Design History Society) and ICOHTEC (International Committee for the History of Technology).