Turgut Cansever, 1950s. Turgut Cansever Archive.
A Universal Mystic at the Heart of Modernism
Turgut Cansever (1920 – 2009)
Turgut Cansever first spun the intellectual cocoon of his own conception of architecture and later built an architecture of thought within this cocoon. Cansever always gave weight to an intellectual construct that would reflect the essence of life. This intellectual design could very well be the modernism of Le Corbusier or wahdat al-wujud (unity of being) of Ibn Arabi. At the point of intersection of modernism and metaphysics, Cansever’s architecture carried the Republic’s quest for civilization to an advanced level.
Beyazıt Square Pedestrianisation and Planning Project, sketch. 1958-61. Turgut Cansever Archive.
Institute of Nautical Archaelogy. Turgut Cansever with Feyza Cansever. Bodrum, 1988.
Turgut Cansever at home, Istanbul. 1980s. Turgut Cansever Archive.
The exhibition Republic: New Individual New Life can be seen free of admissions until 17th May.