Emin Necip Uzman as a housing architect

Emin Necip Uzman is one of the considerable architects of the Republican Era with his modern housing designs and unusual career. In spite of his intriguing position in the architecture of Republican Era, there are few studies on him as an architect. This research aims to define his position within the architectural environment of the era and his working methods as an architect. Housing architecture of the era and the modern house notion are considered primarily in this survey. This examination intends to do that by finding a connection between his designs and the bourgeoisie demands while analysing his implemented and unimplemented designs. Emin Necip Uzman was born in the year of 1911 in İstanbul. He graduate from Fine Arts Academy of İstanbul in 1935 which he studied architecture. After his graduation, he went to Germany to work with Fritz August Brehaus de Groot who commonly designs houses for the German bourgeoisie. Brehaus's working themes and designs might have influenced him while forming his architectural design career. Thereafter, he returned to Turkey in 1939 because of the World War II, like most Turkish architects in Germany. Uzman actively started to design buildings through the years of 1938-1986 besides his academic career. Through these years he continued to lecture in design studios at university. Although his numerous and qualified designs and role at teaching, he has remained less known in the Architecture of Republican Era. Therefore, this research aims to document his architectural practice and perspective with focusing the modern housing architecture of the era. The architectural projects of Emin Necip Uzman are mostly residence buildings, a large part of which are in Istanbul. Most of the buildings that he has designed except of the residence, belong to the employers whom he has designed the residence buildings at first. Emin Necip Uzman, who was involved the architectural practice between the years of 1936-1986, has had the chance to design in all the housing types that changed during these years because of he focused on the housing designs in his architectural practice. He has designed residence buildings in different types such as apartments, detached houses and cooperatives, however he did not design projects for the public enterprise and worked through order with the certain employers. This working conditions allowed him to keep a certain standard in his housing designs and to create a common style in his architectural practice. He focuses on more micro-scale concepts in his designs such as street and building relations, using of natural light, relations between the building masses and forming the space; as he mostly works on small-scale projects. Therefore, Emin Necip Uzman's design preferences were examined through these concepts by focusing on housing architecture. Within the scope of the research, the Republican bourgeoisie and the modern housing architecture were examined in the context of Emin Necip Uzman's housing projects. Living practices of a social class was tried to be read through the spatial design and the design preferences in these houses. Emin Necip Uzman is not the only architect who designed modern houses for the bourgeoisie during the Republican era. However, since most of his architectural production is consist of these houses, it was a consistent choice to do this examination through Emin Necip Uzman. Visuals of his designs that have taken part in periodical publications of the era and other sources were used in the analysis of his buildings. However, the research was proceed not only with the focus on the narrative and analysis of the buildings, but also on the similarities and differences among the other houses. Arkitekt and Yedigün journals were used to obtain information about the houses designed by Emin Necip Uzman and the housing architecture of the Republican Era. After the part that focus on his housing projects; a part was created that includes modern housing notion, the living of the era, housing usage practices and the formation of the bourgeoisie. This chapter was aimed to establish a connection between the residence buildings designed by Emin Necip Uzman and the Republican bourgeoisie. It is also aimed to give an idea in terms of the architect identity in the Republican Era, departing from the relationship that the architect establishes with the employer and the way of getting the work.