Sedad Hakkı Eldem

Information About the Architect:

Born in Turkey in 1908, Sedat Hakki Eldem studied in the West before he returned to Istanbul to study at the Academy of Fine Arts. In 1932 he became an assistant professor at the Academy. In this capacity he acted as a major catalyst in the development of Turkish architecture.

In the early 1930s, Eldem rejected the Beaux-Arts tradition and gave his support to early functionalism. He developed a style partially based on the nationalistic atmosphere of the new post-war Turkish Republic. During the 1940s, Eldem shifted his focus to the vernacular architecture of the late Ottoman period in both his teaching and professional life.

Borrowing from the plans of old Turkish houses, Eldem designed a series of houses in Istanbul using modern materials and a functionalist geometry. After 1950 Eldem integrated a functionalist vocabulary with elements of a traditional Turkish vernacular, but structural expression remained a priority.

For Eldem, creation of a modern national style remained a supreme goal which led him to emphasize form rather than function in his design. He has always remained a sensitive designer of facades and details.

Since his retirement in 1978, Eldem has published materials on traditional Turkish domestic architecture.

Turkish Monoply General Directorate and Turkish Prime Ministry Building:

Eldem's modernist design, which gracefully combined cubic blocks of varying height, won the international competition held for this purpose. The Holzmeisterian tendencies seen in the design of public buildings of the period were not observed in this case. Details such as the flat roofs, the frontal mass raised on pilotis and its horizontal side projections, the rectangular window openings varying in size and proportion and the simple artificial stone cladding on the façades define a rationalist-modernist architectural vocabulary contemporary to the date of design and construction. The building, still in use with the same function, has been extensively renovated and altered in time.

Photographs,Plans and Sections of the Building:

Ground Floor Plan

First Floor Plan

Sections

Location of the Building:

Comments:

The building is one of the examples of the early works of Sedad Hakkı Eldem.The building is located on the sector of the city in which all the ministry buildings are placed despite it was built for Turkish Monopoly Genearal Directorate.Being an example of 2nd National Architecture Movement, the building has Modernist qualities by having rational rectangular planning.It is obvious that Sedat Hakkı Eldem was influenced by Modernist Architecture during his student years in Europe and the European architects he attended their lessons and the ones he met esp. Le Corbusier.Despite the curtain walls that had traditional qualities which were applied by German and Austrian architects before 2nd National Architecture Movement, he designed the façade of the building with simple rectangular openings with unique windows designed by Ginter and used no ornaments.

References:

www.mimarlikmuzesi.org

http://arkiv.arkitera.com