A Turkish Architect at Technical Unversity of Budapest: Semih Rüstem

Abstract

Semih Rüstem (1898-1946), is a Turkish Early Republican era architect who studied architecture at the Technical University of Budapest. His relationship with Hungarian Turanism and his architectural education in Hungary makes him an exception among Turkish architects. In the early 1930’s, he designed several buildings mostly under the influence of European Modernism but traces of these Hungary-related steps can also be followed in some of his designs. The  information gathered in the process of this research, which aims to examine Semih Rüstem’s life and career in the context of cultural relationships between Hungary and the Ottoman Empire, provides a basis for a discussion on the formal sources of the buildings he designed.