Architecture | EMIN ONAT: FOUNDER AND ARCHITECT | Gallery

A Life Born in The Constitutional Era and Continuing into The Republic 1908-1961 | Architecture | Founder

EMIN ONAT: FOUNDER AND ARCHITECT | Architecture

Emin Onat’s identity as an architect began to form in the ETH years in Zurich.

The years M.Emin Halid spent in ETH follow a bright curve of success. It was a great opportunity. His teacher, Otto R. Salvisberg, was not only a well-known and a good designer, but also well-versed in thought on architecture and experienced in its application. He was an architect who gave his own interpretation to the Bauhaus style, enriching it with a simple, functional but plastic emphasis.
M.Emin would learn to seek, experiment with and interpret Modernism from his teacher.

Onat’s functionalist style, that featured in his architecture for a period of five years and brought him more competition projects, began to change under the influence of the ‘rediscovering the traditional’ concept of the era commencing in the 40s.

These years were more of a time of searching for a reference for Onat. The Village Institute project competitions of 1941 must have been a major factor in this orientation. A perspective that attempted to bring together the local with a view opening from a large city to a village environment with rationalist principles was observed in Onat. Onat’s individual approach with the ‘monumental/academic’ style of the Anatolian era intensified in the interpretation of the rationale of Anatolian residential architecture in partnerships with S. Hakkı Eldem. In this era, Onat’s architecture is characterised by a return to Modernism. Onat designed his most notable buildings in this era.

There are four eras of Onat's Architecture with ETH years in Zurich:

ETH years in Zurich 1928-1934
Functional 1934-1938
Local and Nostalgic 1938-1953
A Return to His Roots 1953-1961

	1938-1953 Local and Nostalgic: The Istanbul University Faculties of Arts and Sciences, Laleli, 1944. The building he designed in partnership with Sedad Hakki Eldem was constructed in the years 1942-1952. It was designed as a complex of interconnected rectangular blocks built round large central courtyards to form a single structure.

	1938-1953 Local and Nostalgic: The Istanbul University Faculties of Arts and Sciences, Laleli, 1944. ...The mid courts surrounded by stone walled facades have an evident classicist style. The two or three storey high halls, the doors, arches and columned passages give the complex a monumental dimension.

1938-1953 Local and Nostalgic: Emin Onat House, İstanbul-Moda, 1944. The residential buildings designed by Onat are direct representations of his design perception that makes reference to examples of Anatolian civil architecture. This was a modest but painstakingly designed single storey building set above a high basement. The balcony with wooden rails and supported by wooden consoles, which is the dominant element of the front facade, is a typical motif of the concept. It’s gable roof, eaves and wooden shuttered windows complete this motif.

	1938-1953 Local and Nostalgic: Emin Onat House, İstanbul-Moda, 1944. ...The interior plan is entirely modernist. The sitting room with an open dining niche opens out on one side onto the balcony and the landscaped garden. Its demolition was only prevented with great effort. It is in a state of ruin.

	1938-1953 Local and Nostalgic: Bursa Vali House, Bursa-Çekirge, 1945. The layout is very interesting with a square frame formed by the core of a square inner court. The spaces for the governor’s functions (tea room, sitting room, resting room) are arranged around this core, with the inner court given further emphasis by a square pool.