Architecht Kemaleddin
1870
- 1927
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Kemaleddin is one of the most well known architects applying the First National Architecture movement that developed in the latter years of the Ottoman Empire and whose influence continued into the first decade of the Republic.
He completed his higher education from 1887-91 at the State Engineer School where he studied under the Austrian Forcheimer and the Germans Kos and August Jachmund. At the time Kemaleddin was a student, Jachmund, who had been sent to Istanbul by the German government to study Ottoman architecture, was given the task of designing Sirkeci Station (1889-90). On graduation, Kemaleddin was appointed as Jachmund's assistant, and was influenced by the shaping of Sirkeci Station that Jachmund was working on. Signs of this influence can be seen in buildings he designed in subsequent years such as the Imperial Ministry of Foundations and Edirne Station. In the private office he opened during the time of his assistantship from 1891-1905, he began to design his first buildings. The two pavilions he designed for Galip Bey on the hills of Rumelihisarı were followed by pavilions and mansions in various parts of Istanbul. Apart from these mainly wooden residences he designed the mansions of Halil Pasha and Ismail Pasha in Nisantası and the Sultan Resad Pavilion in Ortaköy.
In 1895, he was sent by the state to study architecture in Berlin. After studying architecture for a period of two years at the Charlottenburg Technical High School in Berlin, he worked with various architects for a period of two and a half years. On his return to Turkey in 1900, he took up his post once more at the State Engineer School and the following year was appointed to an additional post in architecture at the Harbiye School of Military Buildings. His thoughts on national architecture and his first buildings in this direction also began to take shape in these years. The Turkism developing in the early years of the 20th century is reflected in the buildings of the architect of this era in the style of using structural elements inspired from the Classical Period of Ottoman Architecture in surface arrangements as seen in the Ahmed Cevad Pasha and Gazi Osman Pasha Tombs. The final building designed by Kemaleddin in his most productive years before the Second Constitutional era was a large mansion built for Ahmed Râtip Pasha in Çamlıca. The design of the Ahmed Râtip Pasha Mansion, however, the last wooden structure of the architect, notable in particular for its grand scale and its magnificent stair hall, bears influences of the Art Nouveau movement fashionable in those years in the West and in Istanbul.
Kemaleddin’s greatest activity in the period prior to the Second Constitutional era was in the field of education. Kemaleddin took over the classes in architecture when Jachmund left the State Engineer School and he also started giving a class called “Architectural Theory” at the Academy of Fine Art. At these schools he found a medium to process his ideas on the subject of national architecture. As an architect, Kemaleddin Bey, in common with a number of Ottoman luminaries of the times, had feelings of nostalgia for the grandiose experience of the past of the Ottoman Empire and looked for the reason for this decline in cultural degeneration. For this reason, feeling a need to compare the Turkish architecture of the past with western architecture, he sought to create a new synthesis using this architecture, which was no longer compatible with the circumstances of the times, in a purely formal way, to create a national concept of architecture in keeping with the nationalist movement.
In terms of architecture, Kemaleddin’s most productive period was the ten-year period from 1909-19. And in 1909, following the dethroning of Abdülhamid II, in an era characterised by a move towards modernisation and initiatives to renew and reorganise all state institutions, a directorate of construction and repairs was founded linked to the Ministry of Foundations to deal with the renovation of foundation buildings and Kemaleddin was brought in to head it. The first task Kemaleddin took to hand of renovating the important old buildings of Istanbul allowed him to acquaint himself with the knowledge that assisted the development of his concept of national architecture. In the course of these works conducted during the Second Constitutional era (1908-18), the renovation of large complexes such as Sultan Ahmed, Fatih and Yeni Cami as well as a number of small mosques and prayer rooms was carried out. On another front, in line with Kemaleddin’s proposals, the staffing of the Technical Council of Construction and Renovation was augmented with technicians from various branches of expertise and organised in the style of a large architectural and construction office for the ministry that had an eye to raise income for the purpose of constructing new buildings. This office, that could be termed the "Kemaleddin School", made it possible to train a series of architects, engineers and building foremen to apply the national architectural concept in all regions of the country, and thus the Technical Council of Construction and Renovation of the Ministry of Foundations was transformed into the focal point of the First National Architecture movement.
Also in this period, Kemaleddin endeavoured to establish an organisation similar to the present day Chamber of Architects and Engineers; it was taken into the organisation named the Ottoman Assembly of Architects and Engineers founded in 1908. At the time, the assembly had 21 members, and of the 11 registered architects only 3 were of Turkish origin, namely Kemaleddin and Vedad Tek ] and the director of the Âsar-ı Atika Museum, Halil Edhem Eldem. One year after its foundation, the organisation consisting of 48 members of which 15 were architects was disbanded at the end of the First World War, probably in 1919.
Among the buildings realised in his most productive period of 1910-11 are seven large business centres belonging to the Foundations, Bebek (1913), Bostancı Kuloğlu (1913) and Bakırköy Kartaltepe (1923-24) Mosques and Bostancı İbrahim Pasa, Ayazma and Eyüp Resadiye Elementary Schools. Five of the Pious Foundation building (Hans:office building ) were built in Istanbul and two in Ankara. In the same period, designs for schools, mosques and other buildings are also known to have been produced to be applied in various cities of Turkey.
From 1913-17, a large portion of the designs prepared by Kemaleddin, who was charged with the public works to be undertaken in the Arab provinces for the purpose of pleasing the Arabs who displayed a tendency to break off from the Ottomans, were not executed due to the First World War, and some of the buildings designed for Istanbul remained unfinished. Of these, the mosques in Yesilköy and Bakırköy and the Fourth Pious Foundation Building in Bahçekapı (1916-26) could only be completed until the early years of the Republic. The Fifth Pious Foundation Building in Sehzadebası was opened for use in the Republican era prior to completion. Along with a number of other designs, the designs for the Sixth and Seventh Pious Foundation Building could not be transformed into constructions. In Kemalettin’s new post at the Şehremaneti Heyet-i Fenniye (Municipal Science Foundation consultancy), to which he was appointed in 1914 in addition to his duties at the Ministry of Foundations, it is understood that he worked with Vedad, director of the Sehremaneti Heyet-i Fenniye, on projects for the city. When Kemaleddin’s work at the foundation came to an end during the occupation of Istanbul (1919), he continued to work only at the Sehremaneti and in his private studio. The Harikzedegân Apartments in Lâleli (Tayyare Apartments, the present day Merit-Antik hotel; 1919-22) that he designed for low-income families who lost their homes in the 1918 Fatih fire are important by dint of being the first multi-storey social housing application in Turkey and the first embellished concrete frame buildings to be built in the country.
In Jerusalem, when it came under British rule in 1919, Kemaleddin restored the Mescid-i Aksa and the Kubbet-üs-Sahra, and was granted membership of the Royal Association of British Architects because of the success of this venture. While Kemaleddin was in Jerusalem, Vedad was given the task of designing some new buildings whose construction was envisaged in Ankara. The General Headquarters of the People’s Party, later used as the Grand National Assembly building, was completed in 1924, but the Foundation Hotel (Ankara Palas), whose construction was commenced by Vedat, remained unfinished due to disagreements. Kemaleddin was recalled to Ankara to complete this hotel and the ongoing renovation of the Mescid-i Aksa was left to architects Nihad and Hüsnü and engineer Sükrü.
Following his appointment as director of the Foundations Directorate of Public Buildings and Works in 1925, Kemaleddin continued with the completion of Ankara Palas, and he also worked on a general library envisaged for the capital city, a farmhouse funded by Atatürk for the Gazi Farm and new residential buildings to be built by the Foundation. Although one section of these residences was realised as the lower floors of Ankara Palas, the library and the farm projects were cancelled. In these years, he was given the job of designing the Turk Ocağı Building, but for unspecified reasons the building was later put out to a limited competition. From among Vedad, Kemaleddin, Arif Hikmet Koyunoğlu and Mongeri, Arif Hikmet’s design was awarded a first. In 1926, in line with his duties at the Foundations Directorate of Public Buildings Kemaleddin accomplished various foundation houses, two foundation business centres, and a primary school in Yenisehir that was given his name after his death. In addition, at Atatürk’s behest, he designed a mosque to be built in Cankaya to suit modern requirements. Also, in the name of the ministry of Public Works, he began the design for the State Railways General Directorate Building to be constructed next to Ankara Station. In 1927, the Gazi Elementary and Secondary Education School designed on behalf of the Ministry of Education was heavily criticized for its use of the international style, which was at the same time becoming influential in shaping the city. With this building, completed after the architect’s death in 1930, the First National Architecture Period came to an end, and from that point on, an international formal concept dominated the architecture of the era under the influence of foreign instructors in architecture coming from abroad.
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