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Conversations with Career Pioneers – Nevzat Sayın

Tarih:  Date

The first career pioneer of December was Mr. Nevzat Sayın, an architect and an author. He started his talk stating that he based his conversation on “Beginnings,” which he underlined as one of the most difficult subjects for architecture students. Sayın said that the magic of architecture lies in the beginnings, in being prepared.

He told that architects are often required to solve a matter that is previously unknown to them and they are expected to create an idea which hasn’t been thought of before. He underlined that they could find their own magic beginnings provided that they knew politics, arts and literature well.

Mr. Nevzat Sayın shared the details of how he began and completed his architectural stories giving examples from his own beginnings such as “İstanbul, The Seed Concert Hall” – “İzmir, Halkapınar, old Winery, Mahall Bomonti” – “Kocaeli, UMUR Printing House / Gebze Organized Industrial Zone” “İstanbul, Bilgi University, Faculty of Architecture and the Library” – “Eskişehir, Anadolu University, Faculty of Architecture and Design” – “Dikili, Yahşibey Village.”

He emphasized that in all his beginnings, he tried to convert problems into pieces of data, he configured a state of goodness, perceivable by everyone, without damaging the texture; and he adopted the silent architecture as a principle. He defended that the architect should surrender to the place; and the act of surrendering itself, indeed, happens to be another challenge.

Mr. Nevzat Sayın later continued his talk answering questions from students and spoke of the importance of preserving old structures; of his ideal, though not practical, contributions to the rural areas, and he mentioned that there were two types of architects; those starting with the problem, and those with the solution. He concluded his talk saying that he himself proceeded by imitating the method, not the object, and actually the place would whisper to the architect, and all we have to do is stop and listen.