The author's literary interests run long and deep coming to fruition only recently through blogs (Coffee-Kahve Chronicles, 2013). The sources of his work are both real and fictitious inspired by masters of Western and Eastern Philosophy:

“When virtue is lost, benevolence appears; when benevolence is lost right conduct appears, when right conduct is lost, expedience appears.  Expediency is the mere shadow of right and truth; it is the beginning of disorder.”

1.     Hermit Crab (2016) a full length novel. This is a tale of how ethnic prejudice can ruin lives and how with persistence and some serendipity love can triumph in the end.

Edward Amado is in a bind. He needs a new improved Ed and to achieve this as inconspicuously as   possible.   This   makes   for   a   family   suspense   case unbeknownst to his wife Kay and son Jay: Ed is not satisfied with himself and takes on the unlikely task of re-engineering himself into a figment of his imagination. "When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."

Unfortunately this proves to be as hard as joining a witness protection program configured like a hermit-crab’s shell. A reader writes: "I found this to be a unique story that was enjoyable, entertaining, a bit of a page turner, relatable, with such a worthwhile, surprise twist to the character's endless surgical research into the perfect empty shell. The story is conceptually a contender for a prime time series (Breaking Bad comes to mind!) or a good movie experience!"

https://www.amazon.com/Hermit-Crab-Illustrated-Sail-Anon/dp/097629415X/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1516053648&sr=1-2&keywords=sail+a%27non+hermit+crab

2.     Musings of a Male Menopausal Mutt (2017), a collection of poetry.

Contents: The world is never the way it is supposed to be; My name is an outer thing; What do you mean “Is there anything else I can help you with?” They say Socrates does not believe in anything; I have a framed view of everything from where I sit; It must be human nature to go against its own nature; You ain’t noth’n but a hound dog! Thinking is risky business; and Death by attrition is not the same as attrition by death

Cast of Characters: Aristoteles; Bat; Cadmus; Julius Caesar; Cicero; D’artagnan; Dionysus; René Descartes; Alexandre Dumas; Dunkin' Donuts; Europa; Herodotus; Hounddog; Kahve; John Sidney McCain; William of Ockham; Plato; Elvis; Oedipus Rex; Socrates; Spinoza; Starbucks; Lao Tzu, and Zeus.

https://www.amazon.com/Musings-Male-Menopausal-Mutt-Collection/dp/0976294192/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1515948405&sr=1-1&keywords=books+by+sail+a%27non+musings+o

3.     Discovered in Retrospect (2018), a collection of recollections.

Contents: My Father’s Istanbul; I Woke Up With Hopeful Anticipation; The Allegra Effect; Most Scary Halloween Costume; The Talking Man, Two Tigers, One Rat, and A Strawberry Bush; It Is an Abundant Morning; Death by Attrition; The Oak Tree and the Flat Screen; The Night Nurse; Is It Real or A Reel? Reading to Art; Bowling with Sunflowers; He Looked Old; Owning the Street; and It’s a Wondrous Sight.

Cast of Characters: Cicero; D’artagnan; René Descartes; William of Ockham; Plato; Oedipus Rex; Socrates and Lao Tzu.

https://www.amazon.com/Discovered-Retrospect-Sail-Anon/dp/0976294176/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1515948544&sr=1-1-fkmr0&keywords=books+by+sail+a%27non+discovered+in+retrospect

Many of the sketches included in this website –subjects from China, Japan, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Turkey and USA -- led me to painting. 

I have been an architect for five decades and I have had an interest in environments around me. Freehand sketches have peaked my interest in more formal approaches to representing my imaginings. Fortunately, I have been traveling a lot and found the opportunity to sketch and paint the things that I saw.

I started with learning to watercolor in China (Shi Zong town near Dali) and (Gate at Zhou Chang town). The best part of that was to learn from master painters’ works and create watercolor on rice paper.

Imagine a hawk (The Hawk) piercing the air above evergreens, which apparently are hanging off of a nearby cliff not visible to the eye, and hanging over a blue lake blending with the blue of the sky where the horizon line has a hard time distinguishing the two.

Or imagine sailboats freely transitioning between the two patches of blue (Erhai Lake and the sky above) not even separated by the nearby mountain ridge (Cang Shan Mountains).

Or imagine two tiny yellow birds hanging off of foliage above black poppy flowers (Two Yellow Birds), a couple of unusually brilliant Crysanthemums hanging over a robust bamboo shoot (Crysanthemums), or a spectacular waterfall on the  tributary of the Mekong (The Waterfall).

And imagine doing this with simple strokes of the brush on fine rice paper. Until you do this, you have only scratch the surface of the watercolor technique (Cang Shan Mountains-2).

Many years later I worked on an homage to 9/11 (Tribute.9.11) this time using found objects and house paint on 16"x24", ¼” thick plywood.

This led me to other explorations: a woman’s IThe Angry Woman), four homeless figures (The Four Homeless), and a steelworker at the J&L Plant (Johns and Laughlin Elegy) that used to be in Pittsburgh, PA. These subjects are modeled after my imagination and with some help from objects I found at the Carnegie Museum of Art and Natural History.

During my various excursions I was able to capture the beauty of two of natures fantastic creations native to the Shoals Islands: a nautilus and two baby eel;s.

Finally, I painted a mural on a wall in my basement in the furnace room where I had built a screening room for watching films. Since childhood, I have been an avid fan of film. My mural depicts two characters from Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin: an embattled resident of Odessa and one of Czar’s lieutenants as rockets are flying overhead. In my humble opinion, if one has only 70 minutes left to live, one should watch this film.

Hope you will enjoy these selections.

This work is being created through three generative steps: (1) depictions of nature; (2) depictions of creatures; and (3) depictions of shelter through the assembled objects from tree-debris. This is an unconventional body of work. Its inspiration can be found in the branches that fall off of trees that we normally consider “debris.” Upon closer examination – which I cannot avoid but do, since I’m wheelchair bound – they turn out to be beautiful forms offered by nature waiting for us to reinterpret and re-depict them in the form of art objects.

McLuhan was almost right. The medium is a message, but it’s not alone in this mission. In my work that I call Depictions, the medium is paramount. As I wheeled my chair in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA, trying to avoid bumping over fallen branches, however small they may be, I was struck by an epiphany: the trees were talking to me almost beckoning me to engage their “offspring.” So, I began collecting pieces of these small branches with my long handle wise-grip.  At first, I had no idea what I should do with them. Gradually the small “dowels” began to reveal a collective sense of order, as if through a “shape language;” this in turn started to suggest how they might go together to create artful objects.

First I made some assumptions and stuck the wood pieces on painted plywood surfaces to imply ideas that go back to where these pieces came from. The themes Spring, then Summer, and eventually Fall and Winter became touchstones for what I was doing. This work that I dubbed “depiction” is a disruptive way of looking at planar art. It suggests that color and form want to jump out of the confines of flat work. Next, depictions of human figures and shelter -- from architecture, my former bailiwick -- came into being as spinoffs.

The medium forced my hand. Particularly after representing human figures and shelter, new options for perception are bound to become evident.

1.    Phase One:  Depicting Nature: Recently, I completed work on this phase titled the FOUR SEASONS, which is shown on this page.. The medium is wood and paint. Wood pieces are found dowels and small branches that fall off of trees (Item-1). These pieces, before being painted into seasonal colors and patterns, are trimmed and shaped to be affixed onto a painted plywood base (16” x 24”). The resulting composition is a 3D painting. Currently panels for all four seasons are complete. The illustration section contains images representing them (Items 2, 3, 4, and 5).

2.    Phase Two:  Depicting Creatures. The Second Phase is still in its infancy. I have two sculpted forms also illustrated with images (Items -6, -7, -8, and -9). They are displayed on the page titled “SCULTURE – Human Figures.”

3.    Phase Three: Depicting Shelter. This phase has not begun yet. It is mostly conceptual. In tandem with Phases One and Two it will be the depiction of shelter using a similar “shape-grammar” of tree debris. There are many examples of work that will inspire this phase, such as Laugier’s frontispiece to his book on Architecture.  This phase is not represented in this webpage.

The process that evolved from the intent of these three phases of the work turned out to be an intuitive one. It began with found objects. It turned out that these objects “suggested” what they want to become as a function of their current form – as in L I Kahn’s now famous words “I asked the brick what it wants to become” – subject to the artist’s intentions.

Next, a format became apparent that is conducive to the intent of each phase of work. As the pieces were assembled on a “base” material, also wood, or in relation to each other, colors were selected from house paints and mixed to fit the context of each composition. House paints were intentionally used to echo the nature of these materials and their origin from trees.

Finally, a display format was determined; such as directional viewing, figural viewing, or physical interaction with the objects (as in the case of Phase Three: Shelter).

This work is being created through three generative steps: (1) depictions of nature; (2) depictions of creatures; and (3) depictions of shelter through the assembled objects from tree-debris. This is an unconventional body of work. Its inspiration can be found in the branches that fall off of trees that we normally consider “debris.” Upon closer examination – which I cannot avoid but do, since I’m wheelchair bound – they turn out to be beautiful forms offered by nature waiting for us to reinterpret and re-depict them in the form of art objects.

McLuhan was almost right. The medium is a message, but it’s not alone in this mission. In my work that I call Depictions, the medium is paramount. As I wheeled my chair in Squirrel Hill, Pittsburgh, PA, trying to avoid bumping over fallen branches, however small they may be, I was struck by an epiphany: the trees were talking to me almost beckoning me to engage their “offspring.” So, I began collecting pieces of these small branches with my long handle wise-grip.  At first, I had no idea what I should do with them. Gradually the small “dowels” began to reveal a collective sense of order, as if through a “shape language;” this in turn started to suggest how they might go together to create artful objects.

First I made some assumptions and stuck the wood pieces on painted plywood surfaces to imply ideas that go back to where these pieces came from. The themes Spring, then Summer, and eventually Fall and Winter became touchstones for what I was doing. This work that I dubbed “depiction” is a disruptive way of looking at planar art. It suggests that color and form want to jump out of the confines of flat work. Next, depictions of human figures and shelter -- from architecture, my former bailiwick -- came into being as spinoffs.

The medium forced my hand. Particularly after representing human figures and shelter, new options for perception are bound to become evident.

1.    Phase One:  Depicting Nature: Recently I completed work on this phase.. For details, see page titled  “SCULPTURE – Four Seasons.”

2.    Phase Two:  Depicting Creatures. The Second Phase is still in its infancy. I have two sculpted forms illustrated with images (Items -6, -7, -8, and -9). In tandem with Phase One these are depictions of humans through a “shape-grammar” of tree debris.

       The first sculpted composition represents four members of a nuclear family in eternal embrace, standing on a foundation of colors. The mom and dad are in an unbreakable bond cuddling the infant child, while the 5-year old is spreading her wings like a precious butterfly.

       The second piece shows a small clan of faces that belong to unspecified living things created from knotty parts of fallen branches. They represent any number or social units that various species create. There are many examples of work by others and sketches of the artist that continue to inspire this phase.

3.    Phase Three: Depicting Shelter. This phase has not begun yet. It is mostly conceptual. In tandem with Phases One and Two it will be the depiction of shelter using a similar “shape-grammar” of tree debris. There are also many examples of work that will inspire this phase, such as Laugier’s frontispiece to his book on Architecture.

The process that evolved from the intent of these three phases of the work turned out to be an intuitive one. It began with found objects. It turned out that these objects “suggested” what they want to become as a function of their current form – as in L I Kahn’s now famous words “I asked the brick what it wants to become” – subject to the artist’s intentions.

Next, a format became apparent that is conducive to the intent of each phase of work. As the pieces were assembled on a “base” material, also wood, or in relation to each other, colors were selected from house paints and mixed to fit the context of each composition. House paints were intentionally used to echo the nature of these materials and their origin from trees.

Finally, a display format was determined; such as directional viewing, figural viewing, or physical interaction with the objects (as in the case of Phase Three: Shelter).

Representation and Architecture

By Ömer Akin and Eleanor F. Weinel; Information Dynamics, 1982 - Architectural design - 285 pages

“In one of the most frequently cited schools of education, the École des Beaux Arts, the style of acceptable designs, is based on known and carefully documented examples of early Greek and Roman Architecture. Its pedagogic program is described, often, as a function of principles of design derived from these examples. In order to facilitate the production of designs of a similar kind or style, specific principles of composition, media of representation, accompanied with “pattern books” of designs are provided for both instructors and students. Precedents are specific designs or buildings, which are exemplary in some sense so that what architects and students glean from these examples, can support their own designs. Learning takes place through examination, analysis and abstraction of the information contained in the precedent representation. For professional education to succeed, the core of the educational experience must consist of the representation of applications and actions in the profession. Hence, the key ingredient of learning is through cases.

Cases have become elaborate descriptions containing three indispensable aspects: (1) a description of the context that surround each case, (2) descriptions of the various stages of progression the case has gone through prior to its resolution, and (3) a description of the processes or methods that are relevant to these states. The corpus of cases and their proper representation is the prerequisite for any successful implementation of the Case-Based method of representation in Architecture.” [From: Akın, Ö. “Case-Based Instruction Strategies in Architecture,” in Precedent-Based Learning Research Showcase: 10-23-2008.]

Order from AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Representation-Architecture-Omer-Akin/dp/B000BT1V2G/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1516047819&sr=8-1&keywords=representation+and+architecture+by+omer+akin

Psychology of Architectural Design

Our present knowledge of the design process is anecdotal and based either on introspection or on transfer of results obtained in other fields. New technologies and new attitudes in society demand that the process of architectural design become more comprehensive, precise and efficient. This book attempts to provide fundamental theories and scientific evidence from cognitive psychologists and computer scientists as well as architects in order to rationalize the process of architectural design. It supplies architects and designers a way to thinking about the objective ways of cognizing designs and supporting their work with usable computer software applications.

Also see A Cartesian Approach to Design Rationality by the same author.

Order from AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Psychology-Architectural-Design-Architecture-Science/dp/0850861209/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1516046411&sr=1-1&keywords=psychology+of+architectural+design

A Cartesian Approach to Design Rationality

 “Anyone who thinks architectural design is a subjective and irrational activity undertaken by creative and self-absorbed architects in moody offices in sublime isolation should take note... This book brings together support from fields as diverse as sciences, philosophy, cognitive psychology, design computation, and others to argue that architectural design is (and ought to be) an objective and rational process. As acknowledged by Akin, architectural history is replete with arguments for and against architecture as art or science, or both. So what is the contribution of this book? Perhaps it is as Akin says, there are more benefits to be had by being curious and open to the possibility of cumulative refinement. By taking some ideas head-on and leaving some others as contested questions, this book will make readers (re)explore ideas against both familiar and unfamiliar conceptual backdrops. To that end, the book serves the purpose of fostering a questioning attitude towards the nature of architectural design.”[From: Bharat Dave, Associate Professor, Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, University of Melbourne, Australia.]

Order from AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Cartesian-Approach-Design-Rationality/dp/9754292450

Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship

Three entries authored by Ömer and Cem Akın have been published in this encyclopedia:

(1) “On the Process of Creativity in Puzzles, Inventions, and Designs,”

(2) “State Space Paradox of Computational Research in Creativity.”

(3) “Creativity in Puzzles, Inventions, and Designs: The Sudden Mental Insight Phenomenon.”

The keywords one can find in these articles include: Artificial Intelligence, Sudden Mental Insight, Rule Based Expert Systems, Case-Based Reasoning, Generative Algorithms, Shape Grammars, Data Mining, Petri Nets, Genotype, Emergent Shapes, State Spaces, Novelty, Sudden Mental Insight, Puzzles, Scientific Inventions, Design, Writing, Musical Composition, Experts, Novices, Nine-Dot Puzzle, Mutilated Checkerboard Puzzle, Periodic Table of Elements, Façade Design, and Frames of Reference.

Order from Springer: http://www.springer.com/us/book/9781461438571

Generative CAD Systems

Since the dawn of computing, software has generally been human-directed. Essentially, this means that humans tell programs what to do, rather than programs having autonomy independent of human designers.

It is important to note that humans are still in the driving seat when it comes to creativity. When using CAD to create a new design, for example, that design originates in the human mind. The role of the computer, therefore, is to make calculations more efficient and documentation more accurate. However, computers are now changing. With the dawn of the cloud, software has access to vastly greater amounts of computational power. They’re using this power to learn how to solve problems for themselves; to learn how to be creative. Such programs no longer need humans to give them commands. Instead, a designer simply needs to describe a problem; then the software works autonomously to find a solution. This newfound computer "creativity," or shall we say autonomy, has given birth to Generative Design strategies. For the first time, programs aren’t simply documenting human-created designs; they’re designing on their own. [From: https://www.scan2cad.com/cad/generative-design/]

Order from AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Generative-CAD-Systems-Proceedings-International/dp/0976294109/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1516046504&sr=1-1&keywords=Generative+CAD+Systems

Embedded Commissioning of Building Systems

It is remarkable that, buildings and their infrastructure, for how much they cost, lack comprehensive and reliable metrics to assure their expected performance. While considerable care is placed into designing "green" buildings and infrastructure, once they are put into use there is no systematic and reliable way of making sure that they perform as intended.

Building Commissioning and Post Occupancy Evaluation are two of the best known methods that have been used to remedy this problem, albeit with mixed success. In today’s digital, green, and consumer driven market place, increasingly, Architecture-, Engineering and -Construction (AEC) professionals are looking for sophisticated approaches, tools and systems that can help them conduct building performance verification assessments, reliably and effectively.

This book provides a vision for the future of building evaluation through an approach called Embedded Commissioning which is an information-based digital technology applied longitudinally to the building life cycle. It embeds every stage of the capital project delivery process, from requirement specification to operation, using interoperable and persistent data.

Order from AMAZON: https://www.amazon.com/Embedded-Commissioning-Building-Systems-Omer/dp/1608071472

Ethical Decision Making in Architecture

Ömer Akın, Ph.D., has been a registered, practicing architect in the state of Pennsylvania, USA and in Turkey, since 1968; and teaching at the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University, since 1977. He has been teaching a required course on Ethical Decision Making in Architecture for three decades. The text book with the same title will come out in the middle of June 2018.

Welcome to the Turkish room; an introduction to the nationality that bridges, literally and figuratively: east and west, orient and occident, Asia and Europe. Turkey lies right on the boundary between two continents; has risen into existence from the ashes of the ottoman empire that governed over Anatolia, the Arabic peninsula, North Africa, the Balkans, the Caucuses and Crimea for hundreds of years; and consequently is an amalgam of cultures, customs, and vernacular forms germane to these lands, as well as Central Asia where Turks originated millennia ago.

The Başodası (pronounced “bash-oh-dah-suh”), on which the design of the Turkish room is based, is found in all of the lands mentioned earlier, and the Yurt, domicile of nomadic Turks of Central Asia. The Başodası is the central social space of Turkish dwellings regardless of whether their occupants are royal, wealthy or of ordinary means.

In each case, the room is entered by means of a “privacy-“lock -- the Sofa -- and after crossing a threshold consisting of a single step called the Seki. The Seki announces the transition from public space into a private one and from the shoes-on-space to the cleaner, shoes-off-space.

The room is furnished with built-in furniture and cupboards that contain personal belongings. Seating is in-the-round. No one has to sit in front of anyone else, insuring an arrangement that implies equality and encourages face-to-face interaction.

Vertically the room is layered in three tiers. The low4est is the seating, both on the seats, the Divan, or the floor covered with clean carpets not subjected to shoes that can track the dirt and dust of the street. The middle tier is taken up by the cupboards containing bedding or family heirloom, and windows providing ventilation or daylight. The top tier is reserved for clerestory windows and decorative elements.

The entire room is embellished with intricate woodwork, ceramic and glass crafts as a function of the owner’s wealth and significance of the room’s use. The doors, cabinets, and the ceiling more often than not are adorned with Kündekari (qun-deh-kah-ree) and Çıtakari (cuh-tah-kah-ree) wood-crafts.

The Turkish Nationality Room displays all of these features, to the extent that they could be created by craftsmen in the Western Pennsylvania/Ohio area. The ceramic and led-glass work has been commissioned to craftsmen in Turkey.

In addition, the room has adopted features from the Başodası examples found in the ottoman sultans’ residence in Istanbul, during the 16th and 18th centuries: the Topkapı (thop-kah-puh) palace. One of these features is the entrance space or the Sofa. It is fashioned after the transition spaces of the palace.

They have plaster walls, vaulted ceilings, tile floors and tiny skylights made of glass-block. In the Nationality Room this is replicated in the entrance hall that doubles as a gallery space sporting four ceramic panels especially created for this installation -- from left to right, these are:

·       Uygur Uighur princesses – symbolizing the early Turkish nationalities from Central Asia;

·       Atatürk, the father of modern Turkey, instructing the nation, in 1929, on the newly legislated Latin alphabet to replace Arabic script that had been in  common use during Ottoman times;

·       A painting by Mehmet Siyahkalem (sih-yah-kah-lem) who painted in perspective, in the 13th century,  prior to Renaissance, when the Turks had established the great Seljuk empire in Persia and Anatolia;

·       A young Sultan Süleyman (suh-lei-mahn), the law-giver depicted as poised on his throne, in a 16th century miniature, who saw to it that Ottomans realized their greatest expansion in history.

The other feature borrowed from the Topkapı palace is the set of clear glass windows at the far wall of the room. Beyond these windows there is a blank wall on which a mural of the city of Istanbul is painted by an artist who is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University.

This is a common slight-of-hand to trick the eye to think that there is outdoors when the stacking of rooms side-by-side does not allow the location to afford exterıor windows on all sides of a major interior space.

The Turkish Nationality Room is the next best thing to being in Turkey and understanding her rich and multi-cultural offerings.

APPRENTICESHIP

Housing for 5000 inhabitants, Cankaya, Ankara, 1966

The project was selected by the faculty of the school to be included in an international exhibition held during the Annual Meeting of the Union of International Architects (UIA), in Prague.

In the late 60s, Ankara was a "modern" state capital busting at the seams with enormous influx of in-migration from the rural hinterland. Emboldened by the prospects of making it big in the city, the unskilled and impoverished labor poured into the capital creating enormous sprawls of squatter housing in an ever expanding ring around the core of the city.

Urban development for the low- and lower-middle income population became a perpetual problem. Most common solutions envisioned large scale construction of urban settlements around the city-proper containing housing, education, commerce and recreation functions.

This proposal hinges on the principle of efficient movement. It recognizes that new road patterns can be developed on the basis of a "tabula rasa." 

It proposes the triple-intersection as the lynch pin of the entire traffic system, from which a hexagonal settlement pattern is developed. A three-story condominium structure, based on a prefabricated construction system, is proposed to accommodate families of different sizes.

Pedestrian and vehicular traffic are separated for safety and integrated to achieve a cohesive flow of goods and people. Housing units are situated on the basis of the optimal, 10-minute walking distance to commercial and social amenities.

Artist's Atelier, Middle East Technical University Campus, Ankara, Turkey, 1967

This project was selected by the faculty of the school to be published in Architecture D'Jourdhui, an international architectural journal.

This was a studio project issued to the graduating class of the Faculty of Architecture, Middle East Technical University, in the Fall of 1967. While it was a short-duration design project, it challenged the designer through a series of realistic constraints having to do with cost, constructability, and efficiency of use.

The solution offered uses the principle of triangulated wall frames to achieve structural firmness, while exploiting the virtues of folded plate construction with minimal material use. The project also optimizes natural light and heat gain through passive solar design.

The Master Plan for the University of Adana -- completed while on the staff of the University of Ankara's Planning office, 1968-1970

In the late 60s the republic of Turkey was experiencing its first round of higher education expansion along with the dramatic social, political and regulatory upheavals ”overtaking” most of her educational institutions.

The government of the Turkish Republic commissioned the Planning Office of the University of Ankara to develop the initial conceptual design and physical layout of a brand new university on a 200-hectare land, at the outskirts of the city of Adana.

This task was assigned to me by the Director of the Planning Department of the University of Ankara due to the fact that I was already working on a Master's Thesis, at the Middle East Technical University, on the same subject matter.

The approach to the planning task was configured as the development of a modular, functional-spatial vocabulary ("cell," "room," "hall," etc.) with its accompanying physical infrastructure, for the entire campus.

The latter was based on a complex, three-dimensional tartan grid realized from layers of variable firmament -- a reinforced concrete frame system, an interwoven mechanical-electrical distribution system, a hierarchical circulation system, and a system of elevation changes to fit the terrain.

The entire design was conceived as an "organism" that could grow, shrink and change, thus accommodating the volatile architectural program of a modern university within the parameters of the physical and functional vocabulary established at the outset.

This approach was inspired by the "New Universities" movement started around the same time in Great Britain, as well as the systems approach embraced by the Avant Garde designers of the time.

The project was carried out, during the course of the 1970's, with several modifications. In 1970. I moved to the US with a Fulbright Grant to pursue graduate studies, and was unable to supervise this phase of the work since.

COMPETITIONS

Pittsburgh Center for the Arts, Competition Entry with McLoughland, Cornelius and Filoni, 1981

In the late 70's, Pittsburgh's Arts and Crafts Center (ACC), in Pittsburgh, was poised to bust out of its modest facility holdings. While, up until the turn of the decade, it had been the leading local arts and crafts institution, supporting and being supported by local artisans of Pittsburgh, ACC was already taking steps to become a significant commercial, educational and exhibition hub in Western Pennsylvania.

It's facilities, the Marshall and the Scaiffe Units, located on the lush grounds of the Mellon Mansion Park, were woefully inadequate for this leap forward. For decades, these two structures served as magnificent private residences for the Marshall and Scaiffe families. During the turn of the 19th Century and the rapid rise of Pittsburgh as the heavy industry capital of the world, these facilities were not suitable to accommodate the museum functions into which the ACC was looking to grow. Thus, the name was changed to the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts and an open competition was announced to transform the opulent, domestic architecture of yesteryear into the pragmatic art gallery of tomorrow.

The approach we took was one of celebrating the urban corner with a flamboyant, figural building while adapting the irregular forms of the two buildings into a meandering footprint that sat comfortably in the pastoral setting of Mellon Park.

Various elements of the program were used to anchor important points on the site with solid massing elements between which glazed skin enclosures were stretched in order to connect the Marshal Unit to Scaiffe.

A clock tower, grand outdoor stairs and other architectonic elements borrowed from the turn of the century were stylized into the final composition. The high-tech glazed elements of the proposed building were intended to provide contemporary counterpoints, in good measure.

Student Services Building Design Competition, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, 1983

Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University issued an open competition in 1983 to select a design for its new program of "student service" buildings to be conveniently located around its expansive campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. This was before the days of distributed, micro-computing technology and many state institutions were eagerly appropriating government funds to set up "terminal rooms" full of computers. Institutions of higher learning were becoming institutions of ubiquitous computation in order to better serve their students.

This design regards the student services building as the messenger and the provider of the newly popularized information technology as well as other, more traditional amenities. The proposal was conceived as a technical "machine" on the inside and an advanced performative skin on the outside.

Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, National War Memorial Design Competition Entry, 1990

 In 1990, the State Government of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania decided to erect a monument near the state capitol in Harrisburg. This was intended as a war memorial honoring those who fought and died in its recent history. This proposal was based on a three-dimensional interpretation of the Fibonacci Series. The system of proportioning, thus developed, created a Helix-ical pattern of movement marked by obelisks of various scales. The solid stone obelisks, with the names of the veterans carved into them, symbolized the ascension and descent-ion of the human spirit, prior, during and after wars -- the most violent as well as heroic acts of humans.

Williamsburg City Center Competition entry, with John Decker, 1996

The historic city of Williamsburg has been serving the nations tourist industry for decades. While the city has been growing to accommodate the transient tourist population, the needs of its own internal population have been, by and large, ignored.

Modern Williamsburg has been in existence without a contemporary city center. The open design competition was issued to invite both a courthouse design and a city plan to be proposed in tandem.

My 4th year studio was run as an academic competition to develop one or more proposals for the courthouse program. In order to provide a context for the students' design work, I and another 4th year faculty, John Decker, decided to submit an entry to the "city plan" segment of the competition, independent of the student work which focused on the courthouse design.

Our proposal was developed entirely on the computer responding to the complex functional needs of the rapidly growing modern Williamsburg as well as a sensibly scaled city center taking its cues from the old town.

COMMISSIONS

Two Residences for the Staff of the University of Ankara, 1968

This was the very first built-project I did at the University of Ankara's Planning Office, my first place of employment. It was also instrumental in gaining the confidence of the Director of the Architectural Division of the office who later commissioned the University of Adana project to me.

The project requirements were simple: two town houses to be occupied by building and ground staff of the University and their families. The challenge was to design residential units that would fit in with the academic setting of this formal university campus, which literally had no other residential function anywhere near, and still support a domestic environment within the units.

The solution was a straight forward courtyard scheme, inspired by Jorn Utzon's famed elderly housing project near Kobenhavn, Denmark.

Adel Boshnak Villa, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In collaboration with Faisal Tamimi, 1979

Adel Boshnak is one of the head of households of a wealthy industrialist family in Saudi Arabia. During the oil boom of the 1980's, his family which has been in the engineering and construction business for decades decided to develop three key buildings: the business headquarters, a speculative residential building for the transient population of Medina, and a private villa for a CEO in Riyadh.

All three projects were completed by AL-MISHKAH, a firm  that I established in partnership with Faisal Tamimi., a Saudi national. The latter project, by far, is the largest of the three while the villa project is, by every indication, the more challenging of them all. As customs and cultural norms of this conservative society have been evolving over several decades, the desire to hang-on to significant values of the past has come into clash with conveniences afforded by "modern" life.

This villa at once embraces these conveniences and presents an open and inviting, configuration. At the same time, it clearly enforces the tenets of privacy and domestic specialization of interior spaces in order to help with the tradition based affairs of the family. Indigenous elements, such as the mashrubia, cooling fountains and tent forms are part of the composition. This is the proverbial deconstructed box with missing corners and transparent partitions.

Islamic Center of Western Pennsylvania, Monroeville, PA, 1987-88

This project officially called the Islamic Center of Western Pennsylvania includes a mosque, community center, and an elementary school. It is placed in the context of outdoor facilities containing an Islamic Garden, sport courts and cemetery.  The mosque as the central building is the most important architectural element. The principal reason for this is the rarity of mosques, in North America that are designed from scratch.

The mosque form as a building type is well established in ancient Islamic communities of the world. Yet, traditionally, its expression varies from setting to setting. While the traditional Arabic mosque is dominated by large halls enclosed by small domes or courtyards circumscribed by colonnades; the Ottoman mosque tends towards the large central dome; the Seljuk mosque follows the Persian Iwan model and Chinese Muslims pray under roofs of traditional Chinese structures with up-turned eaves. The tradition of mosque design intentionally conforms to, even embraces, local trends and designs, habits of congregations, and local means of construction.

This fact presents an important design challenge in communities where a track record of past designs do not exist. The best known examples of mosque architecture in North America, to date include the ones in Washington, D.C. and Indianapolis, Indiana -- and a few others in Canada. With the scarcity of previously realized examples, the design of a mosque in Pittsburgh, at the time, marked an important design opportunity, to say the least.

The project was designed for a site on Northern Pike, in Monroeville, PA. The design is represented here only in the form of photographs of a large scale model. Since the project came to a halt, due to lack of funds, shortly after the review process of the municipality was concluded in its favor.; no detailed drawings have been developed to date.

The objectives of the design included things like:

(1) synthesize traditional mosque forms with those of residential structures found at the location and in its scale;

(2) through the configuration of the building's footprint, align the access point to the site with the orientation of the building and the prayer hall towards Mecca, .

Islamic Center: A Preliminary Proposal for the Forbes Avenue Site, 1987-88

Once the project was abandoned by its patrons due to financial reasons, another project incorporating mixed use with the mosque function on the first floor of an urban site in the university district of Pittsburgh was explored. This too did not have the deep enough pocketbook to pursue this option any further. Currently, a mix-use tower has been erected on this site by developers not relate to the Islamic Center.

Islamic Center: A Preliminary Proposal for the Bigelow Blvd Site, 1987-88

A third project was envisioned on a modest budget, proposing to transform an existing Jehowah’s Witness Church that had been purchased by the Islamic community of Pittsburgh. Sketches to help the feasibility analysis of this project were prepared but this time the community members took it upon themselves to undertake the construction of the project. No design or working drawings were prepared by my firm; Architectural Design Associates, LLC.

Salem's Halal Meat Market, 1999

The one and only Hallal Meat Market of Pittsburgh belongs to Massaoud Salem, an engineer turned butcher, who initially was looking to satisfy just his own family's "halal" meat needs. Mr. Salem had purchased a property which had a commercial use several years earlier. Due to this non-conforming use condition and the local regulations restricting the alteration of existing properties, the "simple" store design turned into a major retrofit project.

The design accommodates the scale and vocabulary of the existing fabric. It slides a brand new store between the existing party walls on either side, not to mention under the unexcavated rear portion of the site. Exterior cladding and the skinny and long space at the store level presented particularly difficult design challenges. The project was completed by a contractor affiliated with ADA, LLC.

Turkish Nationality Room, University of Pittsburgh 2001- 2012; See the "Architecture" page for information on this project.

The sketches included in this website represent subjects that I witnessed firsthand in China, Japan, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Turkey and USA.

Yunnan Province, Mainland China

Yunnan being one of the most ethnically diverse provinces of China, with minorities accounting for about 34 percent of its total population, is home to major nationalities including Yi, Bai, Naxi, and Dai.

Respectively these ethnic populations are concentrated in and around Kunming City, Dali, Lijiang. and Xixhuangbanna. Each region is rich with examples of authentic, living architecture in the design of homes, temples and other public buildings.

Kunming, Yunnan

Kunming is the capital and largest city of Yunnan province in southwest China. Kunming is located at an altitude of more than six thousand feet above sea level and has a population of more than six million inhabitants.

It is located at the northern edge of the large Lake Dian, surrounded by temples and limestone hill landscapes. Among all of the vernacular architectural examples of Yunnan, Yi architecture has absorbed the greatest influence offered by the main Han culture due to numerous invasions of Northern peoples.

Dali, Yunnan

Dali City, formerly known as Tali, is the county-level seat of the Dali-Bai Autonomous Prefecture in Northwestern Yunnan. The Bai people, who live in and around Dali City, maintain their centuries old architectural traditions with minimal influence from the Han population.  

The most characteristic aspect of the Bai settlements is facing the Erhai lake to the East and  positioning their “back” to the Chang Shan Mountains, to the West. According to Feng Shui, this is the next best orientation to the South-North orientation, when it is not available, as is the case in Dali.

Lijiang, Yunnan

The Naxi people, who live in and around Lijiang, maintain their centuries old architectural traditions with minimal influence from the Han ethnicity. Partially for that reason, Lijiang was designated as a UNESCO settlement under the protection of the influential world organization.

Xishuangbanna, Yunnan

Xishuangbanna is a Tai-Lü autonomous prefecture in the extreme south of Yunnan, China. The prefectural seat is Jinghong, the largest settlement in the area and one that straddles the Mekong river.

The Dai people related to Thailand, live in and around Xishuangbanna and maintain their centuries old architectural heritage with minimal influence from the Han ethnicity. Their construction methods and climate control features resemble those of Vietnam that has similar flora and climate conditions.

Great Wall of China, Beijing

The Great Wall of China is a series of fortifications made of stone, brick, tamped earth, wood, and other materials, generally built along an east-to-west line across the historical northern borders of China to protect the Chinese states and empires against the raids and invasions of the various nomadic groups of the Eurasian Steppe.

Several walls were built as early as the 7th century BC; these, later joined together and made into bigger and stronger walls, are collectively referred to as the Great Wall. Especially famous is the wall built in 220–206 BC by Qin Shi Huang, the first Emperor of China. Today. little of that wall remains.

The Great Wall has been rebuilt, maintained, and enhanced over various dynasties; the majority of the existing wall is from the Ming Dynasty (1368–1644).

I have been an architect for five decades and had an interest in environments around me. Fortunately, I was able to travel and found the opportunity to sketch things that I see around me. Many of the sketches included in this website deal with subjects from China, Japan, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Turkey and USA.

Czech Republic

Today’s Czech Republic is rich with architectural detail including Renaissance and Art Deco designs some dating back to the 17th Century, or even earlier.

The southwestern castle city of Cesky Krumlov, and a maze of twisting alleys built around the extensive castle, are one of the Czech Republic’s finest medieval sites. Its Old Town is a UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site.

Krásný Dvůr is a Baroque chateau in North Bohemia, Czech Republic. It has a 250-acre English-style landscape park and a garden inspired by that of Versailles.

The Dancing House, or Fred and Ginger, is the nickname given to the Nationale-Nederlanden building in Prague. It was designed by the Croatian-Czech architect Vlado Milunić in cooperation with Frank Gehry on a vacant riverfront plot.

Jindrichuv Hradec, a Gothic castle was built at the beginning of the 13th century. In the 16th century, it was gradually rebuilt into a Renaissance château. In the census following the Thirty Years' War Jindřichův Hradec was found to be the second largest city in the Kingdom of Bohemia.

Karlovy Vary or Carlsbad is a spa town situated in western Bohemia, Czech Republic, on the confluence of the rivers Ohře and Teplá. It is named after Charles IV who founded the city in 1370. It has always been famous for its hot springs.

In the 13th and 14th centuries Kutná Hora became increasingly famous for silver deposits. The Vlašský Dvur (Italian Courtyard) was first and foremost where Florentine experts taught the locals the art of minting. A few years later, Venceslas IV converted it into a royal palace and endowed it with a chapel adorned with beautiful oriel windows. At present it is home to a small museum that exhibits examples of coins minted within its walls.

Letovice. is a small town in Blansko District, South Moravian Region, Czech Republic. It is one of the most charming towns in the Czech Republic with human scale squares, picturesque streets, and uniquely designed houses

Mala Strana (Lesser Town) is one of the most historic districts of Prague. In the Middle Ages, it was a dominant center of the ethnic German (and since 16th century also Italian) citizens of Prague. It also housed a large number of noble palaces while the right-bank towns along the Vltava River were comparatively more bourgeois and Bohemian.

St Nick Church of Mala Strana is a Baroque church. It was built between 1704 and 1755 on the site of a formerly Gothic church from the 13th century that was also dedicated to Saint Nicholas.

About 30km north of Prague, the town of Mělník lies on a high ridge overlooking the junction of Bohemia’s two greatest rivers, the Labe and the Vltava. The completion in 1891 of Powerful torso of this rock castle dominates the Western region of this Bohemian Paradise. 

The new museum at the top of Wenceslas Square was the crowning achievement of the Czech National Revival. Architecturally speaking, the museum was already dated. Its neo-classical design is somehow part of an older world.

Vyšehrad is a historic fort located in the city of Prague, It was built, probably in the 10th century, on a hill over the Vltava River. Situated within the castle is the Basilica of St Peter and St Paul, as well as the Vyšehrad Cemetery.

[It is a convenient cross over the Czech-Poland border to reach Krakow on a day trip.]

The main square of the Old Town of Kraków, Poland, is the principal urban space located at the center of the city. It dates back to the 13th century, and at 9.4 acres is one of the largest medieval town squares in Europe. The Project for Public Spaces lists the square as the best public space in Europe, due to its lively street life.

I have been an architect for five decades and I have had an interest in environments around me, for as long as I can remember. Fortunately, I was able to travel and find the opportunity to sketch things that I saw. Many of the sketches included in this website deal with subjects from China, Japan, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Scandinavia, Italy, Turkey and USA.

Greece

The Acropolis of Athens is an ancient citadel located on a rocky outcrop above the city of Athens and contains the remains of several ancient buildings of great architectural and historic significance, the most famous being the Parthenon. Although the term acropolis is generic and there are many other acropoleis in Greece, the significance of the Athens Acropolis is that it is commonly known as "The Acropolis" without qualification.

Pericles coordinated the construction of the site's most important present remains including the Parthenon, the Propylaia, the Erechtheion and the Temple of Athena Nike in the fifth century BC..

The Erechtheion is an ancient Greek temple on the north side of the Acropolis of Athens which was dedicated to both Athena and Poseidon.

While there is evidence that The Acropolis was inhabited as far back as the fourth millennium BC, it was Pericles in the fifth century BC who coordinated its construction

Mystras is a fortified town and a former municipality in Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece. Situated on Mt. Taygetos, near ancient Sparta, It was abandoned and the focus of local settlements shifted to the new town of Sparta.

In 1989 the ruins of Mystras, including the fortress, palace, churches, and monasteries, were named a UNESCO World Heritage Site.·      

Thessaloniki is the second-largest city in Greece and the capital of Macedonia. Aristotelou square, presenting a mixture of traditions and new expectations, represents the history and the future of the city. Thesaloniki Hotel overlooking the Aristotelou square is one of the key landmarks of the town.

Italy

Hadrian’s Villa, in Tivoli, was designed to be a home for the Roman Emperor Hadrian in 117 A.D.

The Villa d'Este, in Tivoli, is a 16th-century villa famous for its terraced hillside Italian Renaissance garden and its profusion of fountains. It is now an Italian state museum, and is listed as a UNESCO world heritage site.

Scandinavia

Uspenski Cathedral is an Eastern Orthodox cathedral in Helsinki, Finland.

Tallinn Hydrofoil is the fastest seaway between Tallinn and Helsinki.

The origins of Tallinn date back to the 13th century, when a castle was built there by the crusading knights of the Teutonic Order.

The Historic Center (Old Town) of Tallinn is an exceptionally complete and well-preserved medieval northern European trading city on the coast of the Baltic Sea.

Germany

Altes Schlos in Baden Baden is the remnants of the Hohenbaden Castle, built in 1102, and known locally as the Altes Schloss (Old Castle). From the 11th - 15th century, it was home to the Margraves of Baden.

The Kurhaus. with its unique Belle Epoch styled elegance represents Baden-Baden's glittering center stage. It was built between 1821 and 1824, by Friedrich Weinbrenner.

Nestled in a beautiful landscape along the border of the Black Forest, Baden-Baden is the elegant, international spa and cultural town destination.

The Brandenburg Gate is an 18th-century neoclassical monument built on the orders of Prussian king Frederick William II after the successful restoration of order during the early Batavian Revolution.

Hans Scharoun's design for Berlin's golden Philharmonie was highly controversial when the concert house opened in 1963 at Potsdamer Platz. Since then, the stunning building has since become the model for numerous concert halls around the world.

The New National Gallery on Potsdamer Platz was designed by Architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

The Reichstag is a historic edifice in Berlin, Germany, constructed to house the Imperial Diet of the German Empire. When it was severely damaged after being set on fire. After World War II, the building fell into disuse.

After German reunification it underwent a reconstruction led by architect Norman Foster and it once again became the meeting place of the German parliament.

I have been an architect for five decades and I have had an interest in environments around me, for as long as I can remember. Many of the sketches included in this website deal with subjects from China,, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Turkey, Japan and USA.

Japan

Honomaru Jo, Kyoto -- Nijō Castle consists of two concentric rings of fortifications, which contains the ruins of the Honomaru Palace, various support buildings and several gardens.

Higashi Hongan Temple is one of two dominant sub-sects of Shinto Buddhism in Japan It is also the name of the head temple in Kyoto.

The Kyoto Imperial Palace is the former ruling palace of the Emperor of Japan and it still technically serves as the senior palace of the imperial house. The Emperors have since resided at the Tokyo Imperial Palace after the Meiji Restoration in 1869.

Sensoji Temple, Kyoto, is an ancient Buddhist temple located in Asakusa, Tokyo, Japan. It is Tokyo's oldest temple.

Sensoji Temple is one of Tkyo's most significant. Adjacent to the temple is a five-story pagoda, Shinto shrine, the Asakusa Shrine.

Kyoto is a city located in the central part of the island of Honshu, Japan. It has a population close to 1.5 million. Formerly the Imperial capital of Japan for more than one thousand years.

USA

The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Los Angeles is an art museum with three locations in greater Los Angeles, California. 

Michael Graves has designed some buildings whose spaces, imagery, and relationship to their surroundings make sense, and as well as delight and amaze us. San Juan Capistrano is one of these buildings. 

After the storm, Los Angeles presents the remnants of good times that have been had, on Long Beach.

San Francisco Bay, California is a shallow estuary in the U.S. state of California. It is surrounded by a contiguous region known as the San Francisco Bay Area, and is dominated by the large cities of San Francisco, Oakland, and San Jose.

Big Sur is a lightly populated, unincorporated region on California's Central Coast that is frequently praised for its rugged coastline and mountain views, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean

Newburyport in New England, USA is a small coastal, scenic, and historic city in Essex County, Massachusetts. A historic seaport with a vibrant tourism industry, Newburyport includes part of Plum Island.

Shoal's Marine Laboratories, New England was dedicated to marine science education, outreach, and research. The  Laboratory is a seasonal field station operated by Cornell University and the University of New Hampshire; located on Appledore Island, Maine.

I was able to travel quite a bit and find the opportunity to sketch things that I saw. Many of the sketches included in this website deal with subjects from China, Japan, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, and Turkey .

Ayder is a yayla (summer resort) in Rize Province. It is a typical yayla with no settled population; it hosts visitors during summers. The average altitude is 1,350 meters (4,430 ft). It is a part of Çamlıhemşin district of Rize Province.

Burhaniye Beach: This sandy beach is situated in Burhaniye, in the northeastern Aegean Sea coast of Turkey. It is a local resort place for Turks.

Ephesus was an ancient Greek city on the coast of Ionia in the İzmir Province of Turkey. It was built in the 10th century BC on the site of the former Arzawan capital by Attic and Ionian Greek colonists. During the Classical Greek era it was one of the twelve cities of   the Ionian League. The city flourished after it came under the control of the Roman Republic in 129 BC.

The Bosphorus is a narrow, natural strait and an internationally significant waterway located in northwestern Turkey. It forms part of the continental boundary between Europe and Asia, and separates Asian Turkey from European Turkey. The world's narrowest strait used for international navigation, the Bosphorus connects the Black Sea with the Sea of Marmara, and, by extension via the Dardanelles, the Aegean and Mediterranean Seas.

Kanlıca is a neighborhood on the Asian side of the Bosphorus strait, in the Beykoz district of Istanbul Province,. Kanlica is known for its popular specialty, yogurt topped with castor sugar, offered in local restaurants and cafés.

Kastamonu Cifte Hamam Konak is a well known edifice in the  capital district of the Kastamonu Province,. The region is also home to the Kastamonu Hukumet Konagi,the seat of the local government; the famed Yakup Aga Mosque; and ornate vernacular domestic architecture examples.

Canakkale is the home to Mount Ira, Zeus' second home, according to Greek Mythology, to which he would escape from the wrath of his many wives and mistresses.