The exhibition Armenian Architects of Istanbul in the Era of Westernization, which was realized in December 2010 at Istanbul Museum of Modern Art with the cooperation of Hrant Dink Foundation and Haycar Association of Architects and Engineers, is now re-opened at the Virtual Museum of Architecture. Those who missed it, may now visit it at www.archmuseum.org.

As a parallel work, the book, Armenian Architects of Istanbul In the Era of Westernization, having the same name as the exhibition, has been published by HDV Publications in two bilingual editions, in Turkish- English and in Armenian-English. The book contains six articles written by Edhem Eldem, Afife Batur, Ahmet Ersoy, Alyson Wharton, Elmon Hançer and Lora Baytar and more than 100 photos of the exhibited works of the Armenian Architects. The book, edited by Hasan Kuruyazıcı and designed by Erkal Yavi, is available from Hrant Dink Foundation and the bookstores.

The exhibition, curated by Hasan Kuruyazıcı, aims at revealing the contributions of the Armenian architects who helped shape Istanbul and who remain forgotten. Kuruyazıcı, who traveled around Kurtuluş, Pangaltı, Taksim, Cihangir, Tarlabaşı, Tünel, Galata, Eminönü and Mahmutpaşa street by street in order to see the buildings, provides us with an opportunity to see the works of the Armenian architects, who played a role in Westernizing the architectural facade of Istanbul, in unison. 

Having conducted a similar project with Greeks in Istanbul, Hasan Kuruyazıcı describes the motive behind his study as following: Today there is a huge stock of buildings dating from the 19th century. Although many of them had been ravaged, these are the ones which managed to survive. The question of ‘Who built all these buildings?’ has brought me to conduct such a research.

The exhibition, designed by Erkal Yavi, aims to show Istanbul residents the history of the city they reside while seeking to be an important source for the architects, architectural students, archeologists, people dealing within the social fields, historians of architecture and art etc.