Sabri Şekip Akalın (1910–1976) was a Turkish architect and engineer. His most famous building is the Art-deco

Ankara railway station Ankara railway station ( tr, Ankara Garı) is the main railway station in Ankara, Turkey, and is a major transportation hub within the city. The station is the eastern terminus of the Istanbul-Ankara railway corridor, as well as the easternmost s ...

, which was built between 1935–37. Aside from architecture, he also worked at the

Ministry of Public Works This list indicates government departments in various countries dedicated to public works or infrastructure. See also * Public works * Ministry or Board of Public Works, the imperial Chinese ministry overseeing public projects from the Tang ...

Turkish State Railways The State Railways of the Republic of Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Devlet Demiryolları), abbreviated as TCDD, is a government-owned national railway company responsible with the ownership and maintenance of railway infrastructure in Turkey ...

and the PTT, even designing the later's headquarters in Ankara.

Life

Akalın was born in 1910 in the city of

Erzurum Erzurum (; ) is a city in eastern Anatolia, Turkey. It is the largest city and capital of Erzurum Province and is 1,900 meters (6,233 feet) above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 367,250 in 2010. The city uses the double-headed eagle as ...

in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

. Due to the outbreak of

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

in 1914, and the subsequent Russian invasion, his family moved to Ankara. After the war, Akalın moved to

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

and studied engineering at the

Istanbul Technical University Istanbul Technical University ( tr, İstanbul Teknik Üniversitesi, commonly referred to as ITU or The Technical University) is an international technical university located in Istanbul, Turkey. It is the world's third-oldest technical university ...

, graduating in 1934. After school, in the same year, he started working at the Ministry of Public Works in Ankara. When President

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, or Mustafa Kemal Pasha until 1921, and Ghazi Mustafa Kemal from 1921 Surname Law (Turkey), until 1934 ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish Mareşal (Turkey), field marshal, Turkish National Movement, re ...

requested that a Turkish architect be selected for the design of the new Ankara railway station building in 1935, Akalın was chosen as the project's architect at age 25. He then traveled to Europe to prepare a design for the station. He was inspired by the wave of

Art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

architecture sweeping the continent as he went on to design Ankara station's building in that style. The station was completed in 1937, when Akalın was 27 years old. He kept working at the Ministry of Public Works until 1940, when he started working at the State Railway's general headquarters until 1952. In 1960, Akalın worked at the Turkish Postal and Telegraph Organization for six years until retiring in 1966. Şekip Akalın died ten years later, in 1976, in Ankara.

Works

, Ankara, Turkey *PTT General Headquarters, Ankara, Turkey *Atatürk Forest Farm Police Station *Eskişehir PTT Building *Sivas PTT Building

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akalın 1910 births 1976 deaths Istanbul Technical University alumni Turkish architects People from Erzurum