1930'larda Bir Mimar: İzzet Baysal

İzzet Baysal wa s one of the few Turkish architects who had been trained in the Early Republican Period (1923-1950). He practiced architecture between 1931 and 1943; then he took the field in trade business. He designed and constructed a considerable number of buildings in his short professional life as an architect. Unfortunately, none of these buildings, most of which were houses, are standing today. However, the documents reached by tracing these buildings reveal that these buildings belonged to the International Style that was used during the Early Republican Period as significant examples outside the capital city, Ankara. Baysal's public buildings and houses had a simple and bare expression that was formed due to their functions, and free of ornament, as proper to the style. His house designs were cases where the transformations in traditional Turkish family life, which had begun with Tanzimat and gained a new meaning with the Republic, could explicitly be read, but those were still quite modest provincial examples. In this article, eight buildings, whose documents could be accessed, and which were designed and constructed by İzzet Baysal, are presented and evaluated. The written and visual documents about these buildings, which were among the works of the architect during the 1930's, were acquired from the only architectural magazine of the period, Arkitekt. These buildings are Eskişehir Aviation School (1936), Eskişehir Community House (1936), a house at Bolu (1933), two houses at Eskişehir (1935), two other houses named as Mrs. Feride's House and Mr. Selahattin's House at Eskişehir (1935), and a house on Karanfil Street, Ankara (1938). In this article, the International Style, which was also used by İzzet Baysal, and the attitude of Turkish architects towards this style within the Early Republican Period architectural milieu are initially discussed briefly. Afterwards, İzzet Baysal's professional life as an architect and his eight buildings under examination are described depending on the written and visual documents. In the concluding section, these buildings and the architecture of İzzet Baysal are evaluated within the context of the Early Republican Period architecture.