Prepared by: Tufan Sagnak, Neslihan Glosset
Museum of Architecture turns the pages of the booklet "Members of the Turkish Master Architects Union and Legal Matters related with the Profession of Architecture", published in 1940.
The Turkish Architects Association was founded in Ankara in February 1927 with the aim of supporting the professional rights of architects seeking to establish themselves on a professional basis during the early years of the Turkish Republic. In the same year, architects in Istanbul came together to form an Architectural Branch under the name of the Fine Arts Association. In 1934, these two separate associations in Ankara and Istanbul united under one roof and were officially established in 1939 as the ‘Turkish Master Architects Union’. Its aim was to witness the ideas and professional solidarity of Turkish Architects, to make Turkish architects and architecture known within and out of Turkey, to develop the art of Turkish architecture according to international principles of construction and technology and to protect the professional legal and financial rights of architects in Turkey; it also stated that its headquarters was in Ankara. Until the establishment of the Chamber of Architects under the auspices of TMMOB in 1954, the only independent professional architectural association in Turkey was the Turkish Master Architects Union which worked to achieve recognition of its professional rights.
One of the greatest problems for architects during the period of the Early Republic was recognition, and it was for this reason that this booklet containing "Statutes of the Turkish Master Architects Union", "Law on Engineering and Architecture" -published in the Official Gazette on June 28th 1938-, and "Architect’s Fees and Regulations" as well as photographs of architects, their dates of graduation and addresses, was published.
As Sevki Balmumcu stated in his preface, with this ‘little booklet placed in your hands’ we too wish "to introduce you the Turkish Architects, and explain the rules and regulations governing their profession and the conditions under which it was carried out" at that period.