ARCHITECT KEMALEDDIN: A LIFE AT ONE OF HISTORY'S TURNING POINTS (1870-1927) |
Restorer Wıth Principles
On 27 Rebi-ül ahir 1327/18th May 1909, he was appointed head of architecture at the Imperial Ministry of Foundations.
The possibility of designing and bringing to fruition new building projects is an irresistible passion for an architect, but running maintenance and restoration works on historical buildings, the basic and traditional function of the Ministry, was also a very special learning opportunity. Kemaleddin took the intelligent approach of evaluating the two fields together and allowing each to foster the other. Restoration was an opportunity for productivity in which he drew on and applied information that was the source for the experimentation that differentiates architectural language.
Whilst perceiving restoration as a method of interpreting traditional architecture and making the linguistic infrastructure for its renewal, he attempted to manage and give direction to a field whose principles were as yet not clearly defined.
He knew that restoration was not an ordinary repairs job. He taught it.
He pioneered in the field by restoring a great number of Ottoman monumental structures employing for the first time a scientific approach.
He restored the Yeni Cami Hunkar Gathering Place with passionate enthusiasm. But his principal performance was certainly the Mescid-i Aksa and Harem-i Serif project. The skill he demonstrated in the restoration of the Mescid-i Aksa won him international acclaim and an award from the Royal Institute of British Architects.