This photo was taken on the roof of Sümerbank Factory of Fabric Printing during its construction. In 1934, the new-born government in Turkey implemented the five-year industrial plan, whose framework was built with the help of technical workers and specialists brought from the Soviet Union,¹ and founded Sümerbank² to execute the industrial projects identified in the scope of this plan. These factories built with Sümerbank’s financing were not only models for communal living but also grounds for cultural modernization in certain rural areas. What makes Sümerbank special is how it brought the new concept of standardization to the Turkish Republic, which took over certain institutions of a not-yet-industrialized state—the Ottoman Empire—and how it succeeded applying this standardization systemically. This has inherently led to a change in the built environment: the Sümerbank factories added to the rural areas have initiated the process of expanding the small villages into large towns of the new republic.