Doğan Kuban Anthology of Writings, Volume 1

"As a society that excluded philosophy, painting, and sculpture, the Ottomans developed no theoretical thought regarding art, architecture, and aesthetics. Today, there are schools, artists, academics, and a public opinion that have overcome this void. However, Turkish society began this intellectual endeavor – that is, aesthetics, art history, and art criticism – after the Republic, which is 500 years after Europe. Even today, there is a political environment with an artistic thought 500 years behind the world."

This book contains a wide selection of writings by Doğan Kuban, ranging from his views on architectural projects highly debated today, such as the Topçu Barracks and the Çamlıca Mosque, to an essay on the concept of Anatolian-Turkish Art in the Middle Ages, from the Great Mosque of Divriği to an article explaining the aesthetics of living beings.

The work, which is the first volume of an anthology designed in two parts, brings together the studies published over the past half-century by Prof. Doğan Kuban, one of the first names that comes to mind in our country when architectural history is mentioned, who has been writing on architecture, history, urban planning, and conservation, as well as art, culture, and education, from the 1960s to the present day.