A. Kemalettin Bey

Architect Kemalettin was a significant Turkish architect of the very late period of Ottoman architecture and the early years of the Turkish Republic.

Born in Istanbul in 1870, A. Kemalettin Bey, was the son of Navy Captain Ali Bey. When his father went to Crete on duty, Kemalettin went with him and there he learned French and Arabic. On return to Istanbul, he was privately educated. He studied engineering at university and graduated top of his class (1891). To further his skills he was chosen to go to Germany. Before he went he studied Ottoman Architecture, especially Ottoman Fine Arts and the Great Architect Sinan, so when he went to Germany he was filled with Eastern culture.

While in Germany he studied 19th Century German Architecture at Charlattenburg Technical School. When he returned to Turkey, four years later, he knew how to collaborate history with architecture and applied to become a professor of architecture and civil engineering. Here he taught his students the phases, falls and consequences Turkish Architecture had to suffer due to degeneration in the hands of outsiders.

Kemalettin Bey also ran his own Architectural office, where he accepted projects; such as Bostanci and Bebek Mosques. Kemalettin Bey was trying to merge the stability of German Architecture with the gracious Ottoman Architecture to create a new perspective, in other words trying out a Neoclassicist style. Kemalettin Bey would take the Turkish domes, vaults and pendantives and stylize them to reflect them from his buildings, he would take traditional Turkish tile decorations and use them so his buildings do not lose their sense of touch with history, while still being of modern quality.