Notes from an Archiving Project: Building the Private Archive of an Architect in Turkey

Abstract

This paper focuses on an archiving project, conducted by the Architects’ Association 1927 in Ankara, about one of the leading figures of modern architecture in Turkey, Nejat Ersin (1924- 2010). Carrying out research on his life and works has been on the agenda since 2013, when the association moved its headquarters to the Corbusian housing block that Ersin designed. In April 2017, his wife donated his professional and personal documents to the association. After she passed away, his family members provided additional archival material in January 2018. These documents and projects, collected through donations, together meant that a new approach to the study of his work, foreseen in 2013, had become necessary. In this article, I will discuss the construction of the private archive of an architect in the context of architectural historiography.