Mimar Kemalettin – Life and Works

Mimar Kemalettin’s architectural career coincided with the most crucial juncture in the history of Turkey. He witnessed the last decades of the Ottoman Caliphate and first ones of the Turkish Republic. Living and working in these critical times in history, Kemalettin Bey enjoys pioneering status in the First National Architectural Period.

Mahmud Kemalettin was born in 1870 to a middle class Ottoman family in Istanbul. His early education was at a school near home and later he proceeded to Crete, where he learnt Arabic and French. He entered the Hendese-i Mulkiye in 1887 for professional education in Structural Engineering and Architecture, from where he graduated in 1891. He also spent around two years in Berlin, Germany for further education on a scholarship.

Kemalettin began practice as assistant to his teacher, Prof. Jasmund, who appointed him to work at the Sirkeci Railway Station project, designed by Jasmund in 1888. Before moving to Berlin in 1895, he spent a few years working on various design as well as restoration works, while conducting studies of the traditional Turkish architecture. In Germany, Kemalettin Bey came across Western architecture, which was to be an immense influence in his later works.

Upon his return to Turkey, he worked on various projects while also teaching Architecture and Restoration. However, it was in 1909 that his most productive works began, when he was appointed head of architecture at the Imperial Ministry of Foundations. During the years before the birth of the Republic, he undertook many officially commissioned works in Istanbul including mosques, apartments and schools.

Kemalettin’s work as a restorer is also remarkable and brought international fame to Turkey when he was commissioned the restoration work at Mescid Al-Aksa in Jerusalem.

The Republic of Turkey came into being in 1923 and Ankara was chosen as its capital. Kemalettin Bey was officially invited to share his knowledge and skills in building the new capital. Having been reappointed as director of construction and repairs and head of architecture at the Foundations ministry, he undertook various civic projects in Ankara, of which Foundation Hotel Ankara Palas was the first one.

After an eventful career during the years of the Caliphate and of the Republic, Kemalettin Bey died on 12^th June 1927 at the age of 57. He is remembered as the pioneering architect of the Republican Period.