Architectural Instructions

Published on

12/08/2021

Keywords

ARCHITECTURAL KNOWLEDGE, ARCHITECTURAL EDUCATION, CONSTRUCTION TECHNIQUES

ARCHITECTURAL
INSTRUCTIONS

Curatorial Team

After the Guild of Ottoman Architects was abolished in 1831, the question of how to educate architects arose in the Ottoman Empire, albeit for a short time. Soon after, in an attempt to keep up with the modern world, the state decided to follow a certain curriculum while training architects instead of basing the education on the relationship of the builder and apprentice. Afterward, in 1883, "scientific architecture" classes began in schools, particularly in Sanayi-i Nefise Mektebi, currently known as Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University. Then again, aside from several notes, the state was unable to find resources in Turkish for students to read. A couple of books, gathered in a short period of time to be read in classes, constituted the first architectural curriculum of the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Turkey.¹ This sample, written by Ahmet Şükrü, former Governor of the Military Academy, was the leading architectural resource, read in the military schools of the empire. As can be seen in the image, the instructions on the pages of these books remain in archives as historical records of producing architectural knowledge and the epistemological pasts of local notions, in addition to the construction techniques and tools before reinforced concrete, some of which are forgotten today.

1
Some examples are Levazım-ı İnşaiye [Apparatus of Construction] by Mahmud Celaleddin, which did not reach the present day, Fenn-i Mimari [Science of Architecture] by Kemaleddin Bey and Ali Talat Bey, and Fenn-i Mimari, which was written by Mösyö Löklerk, an army officer from Belgium, and translated by Mehmed Rıfat Bey. See also Göksun Akyürek, “Tanzimat Döneminde Mimarlığın Değişen Bilgisi: Fenn-i Mimari, Gazeteler ve Diğerleri” [The Changing Knowledge of Architecture in the Tanzimat Era: Fenn-i Mimari, Newspapers and Others] Dergipark: Türkiye Araştırmaları Literatür Dergisi 7, no. 13 (2009): 93-120; Ömer Faruk Günenç, “Osmanlı ‘Mimari Dili’nin Yeniden Üretimi: 1830’lardan 1930’lara Bir Kavram Tarihi Denemesi,” [The Reproduction of the Ottoman "Language of Architecture": An Investigation of History of Concepts from the 1830s to the 1930s], PhD Thesis, Mardin Artuklu University, Department of Architecture, 2019.

Some examples are Levazım-ı İnşaiye [Apparatus of Construction] by Mahmud Celaleddin, which did not reach the present day, Fenn-i Mimari [Science of Architecture] by Kemaleddin Bey and Ali Talat Bey, and Fenn-i Mimari, which was written by Mösyö Löklerk, an army officer from Belgium, and translated by Mehmed Rıfat Bey. See also Göksun Akyürek, “Tanzimat Döneminde Mimarlığın Değişen Bilgisi: Fenn-i Mimari, Gazeteler ve Diğerleri” [The Changing Knowledge of Architecture in the Tanzimat Era: Fenn-i Mimari, Newspapers and Others] Dergipark: Türkiye Araştırmaları Literatür Dergisi 7, no. 13 (2009): 93-120; Ömer Faruk Günenç, “Osmanlı ‘Mimari Dili’nin Yeniden Üretimi: 1830’lardan 1930’lara Bir Kavram Tarihi Denemesi,” [The Reproduction of the Ottoman "Language of Architecture": An Investigation of History of Concepts from the 1830s to the 1930s], PhD Thesis, Mardin Artuklu University, Department of Architecture, 2019.