Portraits from the History of the Chamber of Architects: Nur Akın

To understand how Anatolian cities should be preserved, I researched many publications on successful small-town preservation examples in the West. I read important articles and books. Indeed, there was a lot of scientifically valuable material to read on the subject in foreign languages. I was also considering the issue of social structure, which is of great importance in historical environment preservation, and I'm reading about that as well. This is because historical environment preservation efforts developed by ignoring the social structure—as in the example of Safranbolu—need to integrate with their users. If the local people don't accept it, nothing will happen. For this reason, I also worked quite a bit on social structure preservation, which was a new topic for me. During these studies, I took a course with our dear professor, Prof. Dr. Mübeccel Kıray, who teaches at ITU. I had long conversations with her. She tirelessly answered my questions, and with her guidance, I learned a lot about the subject. She truly made a great contribution to my work in Kula. To understand user preferences, for the first time in my life, I conducted social surveys primarily using questions formulated by Mübeccel Hanım. In my subsequent educational journey, I extensively used what I learned in my classes and project work with students.