ARCHITECT KEMALEDDIN: A LIFE AT ONE OF HISTORY'S TURNING POINTS (1870-1927) |
1909 -1919
On 18th May1909, he was appointed head of architecture at the Imperial Ministry of Foundations (or, the General Directorate of Foundations, as it is now known). The years of this period of office, 1909-1919, were the most productive era for Kemaleddin Bey from the perspective of architectural design and applications.
As well as running maintenance and repair works on historical structures, the traditional role of the ministry, he also designed and built new construction projects.
The restoration works that made it possible to become acquainted with and examine Ottoman architecture directly and in a concrete manner were his field of reference for new building designs. He took the information source of trials that distinguish the language of architecture experimentation from these works and applied it. His restoration works are the least well known and peast documented of Kemaleddin Bey’s works. We can find out about the restoration of the Yeni Cami Hunkar imperial gathering place from written documents, and the restoration of Fatih Mosque and its rest house and Nuruosmaniye Mosque from the drawings in the archive of the General Directorate of Foundations.