Before and after the national architecture seminar: The students of Sedad Hakkı

Within this thesis the national factors has been examined which was affecting the national architecture thought in Turkish architectural history. The triggering of the nationalist thought by the westernization that started in the late Ottoman period, the spread of this thought among the Turkish intellectuals, and the researches of Turkish art, literature, painting and history are discussed together with their activities. The ideological and social factors which has affected the emergence of national architecture concept with the Turkish art conceptualization and national architectural approach are examined over the datas from Arkitekt and Mimarlık magazines. During the process of the development of the concept of Turkish art, the First National Architecture period as the first experiment formed under the influence of nationalist approaches in architecture and the structures designed in this process were handled specifically by Architect Kemalettin and Architect Vedat Tek. The ending of this process after the First National Architecture period with the change of the frame of mind and the approach, has been revealed with critical thoughts and new searching. The formation of Sedad Hakkı Eldem's architectural thought is discussed, who is one of the most influencing name of the Turkish architectural history, with the personal and collectively researching on the traditional Turkish house. It is seen that even that Eldem has been working on national architecture for a long years, he was not stuck on fixed point of view and presented different style designs. After all his researches, he maintained one architectural language which he decided after 60's. By comparing Eldem's works with the Turkish house plan types, a table was prepared on which elements stood out in their structures, and a separate table was studied that evaluated the works of his students according to the data obtained from this table. The guiding effect of the National Architectural Seminar on the history of Turkish architecture was evaluated through the projects and applications of the students who worked at the seminar, which they sent to the competitions in the ongoing process. Since a large part of the archive was destroyed in the fire in 1948, research was conducted only on the student names identified by Uğur Tanyeli in the personal archive of Sedad Hakkı Eldem. Within the scope of this research, three influential figures who are actively involved in architectural practice come to the fore. As a result of the work completed with the focus of Emin Necip Uzman, Harbi Hotan and Haluk Baysal, it was noted that they consistently maintained the modern style, as well as their design preferences that approached local values carefully. Keywords; National Architecture Seminar, Sedad Hakkı Eldem, nationalism, National Architectural thought, (first) National Architecture, (second) National Architecture