Vedat Dalokay Explained

Vedat Dalokay
Office:Mayor of Ankara
Term Start:10 December 1973
Term End:12 December 1977
Predecessor:Ekrem Barlas
Successor:Ali Dinçer
Birth Name:Vedat Ali Dalokay
Birth Date:10 November 1927
Birth Place:Elazığ, Turkey
Nationality:Turkish
Death Place:Kırıkkale, Turkey
Party:Republican People's Party
Workers' Party
Unity Party
Socialist Workers' Party
Party of the Socialist Revolution
Populist Party
Party of Social Democracy
Social Democratic Populist Party
People's Labour Party
Alma Mater:Istanbul Technical University
Occupation:Architect

Vedat Dalokay (10 November 1927  - 21 March 1991) was a Turkish architect and a former mayor of Ankara.

Early life and education

Dalokay was born in Elazığ in 1927 to İbrahim Bey and Emine Hanım, in an Alevi Kurdish family who had relocated from Pertek.[1] [2] He completed his elementary and secondary education in Elazığ. He left for Istanbul for higher education, where he attended and graduated from the Istanbul Technical University Faculty of Architecture in 1949.[3] His lecturers were Clemens Holzmeister and Paul Bonatz. Following his graduation in 1949, he entered the Ministry of Works and the Post and Telecommunications Department. In 1950, he settled in Paris to begin postgraduate studies at the City Planning Department of Sorbonne University in Paris, France, but did not graduate.

Career

In the 1973 Turkish local elections, he was elected mayor of Ankara from the Republican People's Party (CHP). In 1975, Dalokay requested assistance from the Soviet Union to build a public transportation system and affordable housing in Ankara.[4] In 1977 Dalokay and other CHP mayors, including İstanbul mayor Ahmet İsvan and İzmit mayor Erol Köse issued a declaration on social municipalism.[5]

Dalokay served as mayor of Ankara until the 1977 Turkish local elections and was replaced by another CHP member, Ali Dinçer, in the post.

Awards and work

Along with numerous national award-winning projects in Turkey, Dalokay has been awarded internationally for the Islamic Development Bank (1981) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

His design for the Kocatepe Mosque in the Turkish capital, Ankara was selected in the architectural competition in 1957 but, as a result of criticism, was not built.[6] Later, a modified design was used as a basis for the Faisal Mosque in Islamabad, Pakistan. In Pakistan, he was also the architect of two not realized buildings, then of the constricted monument Summit Minar, Lahore and is considered a major Turkish influence in Pakistani architecture.[3]

Death

Vedat Dalokay passed away along with his wife Ayçe Dalokay (aged 64) in a traffic accident near Kırıkkale on 21 March 1991. His son Barış Dalokay (aged 17), who was injured in the accident, also died on 27 March 1991.

See also

Sources

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Vedat Dalokay . 2011-07-16. https://web.archive.org/web/20111218071855/http://www.akarhuseyin.com/?page_id=641. 2011-12-18 . dead. dmy-all.
  2. Web site: An Alevi Kurd built the famous mosque in Pakistan. .
  3. Web site: Naz. Neelum. 2005. Contribution of Turkish Architects to the National Architecture of Pakistan. 53–54. 23 October 2007. 23 November 2018. https://web.archive.org/web/20181123165637/http://jfa.arch.metu.edu.tr/archive/0258-5316/2005/cilt22/sayi_2/51-77.pdf. dead.
  4. Hirst . Samuel J. . Khajei . Aydın . Kaptan . Deniz . 2023 . A Turkish Mayor Goes to Moscow: Vedat Dalokay and Development Politics in the 1970s . Journal of Contemporary History . 58 . 4 . 739–758 . en . 10.1177/00220094231195768 . 0022-0094.
  5. Sakarya . İpek . Fall 2016 . Türkiye'de Toplumcu Belediyecilik Hareketi Ekseninde Çanakkale'de Yerel Siyaset (1968-1980) . Local Politics in Çanakkale Based on Social Municipalism in Turkey (1968-1980) . Çanakkale Araştırmaları Türk Yıllığı . tr . 14 . 21 . 139 . 10.17518/caty.17381.
  6. Web site: The Kocatepe Mosque Complex . https://web.archive.org/web/20080528163250/http://www.diyanetvakfi.org.tr/eserler/kocatepecamii/kocatepe_camii.pdf . 2008-05-28 . Diyanet. dmy-all.