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

	1953-1961 A Return to His Roots: Moda Marine Club Facilities, İstanbul, 1956-57. ...It was the design of Onat that was most true to the Modernist school represented by Otto Salvisberg, his teacher at the Zurich ETH. But only a very small section was realised and even that was greatly changed at a later date.

1953-1961 A Return to His Roots: Devres Office Building, İstanbul-Gümüşsuyu, 1961. The building located on the east slope of the Taksim plato descending towards Dolmabahçe emphasises the gradient of the ground and looks out onto the Bosphorus. Whilst the six-storey square plan office mass raised on piloti presents as a typical model of the International Style, the perfection in the scale and proportions of the architectural elements distinguish the work from similar examples. The obliqueness of the entrance floor raised on piloti and the lower floors where the restaurant is located utilizes the lie of the land presenting the unexpected plastic effect of integration with the slope. The project is the final work of Emin Onat.