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 () is the main railway station in Ankara, Turkey, and is a major transportation hub within the city. The station is on the rail corridor which connects east and west Turkey, which is high speed between Istanbul and Sivas. ...

, which was built between 1935 and 1937. 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 (), abbreviated as TCDD, is a government-owned national railway company responsible for the ownership and maintenance of railways in Turkey, as well as the planning and construction of new lines. TCDD ...

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 List of cities in Turkey, 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. It is the site of an ...

in the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. Due to the outbreak of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

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

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

and studied engineering at the

Istanbul Technical University Istanbul Technical University, also known as Technical University of Istanbul (, commonly referred to as İTÜ), is an public university, public 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 ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President of Turkey, president from 1923 until Death an ...

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 (), is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design that first Art Deco in Paris, appeared in Paris in the 1910s just before World War I and flourished in the United States and Europe during the 1920 ...

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