Architect, Turkey Sedad Hakkí Eldem was the leading proponent of a regionalist and tradition-conscious modernism in 20th-century Turkish architecture. Born in Istanbul as the descendent of an elite Ottoman family, Eldem spent his childhood in Geneva, Zurich, and Munich, where his father served as an Ottoman diplomat. He studied architecture in the Imperial School of Fine Arts in Istanbul (1924–28; the school was established in 1882 by his great-uncle Osman Hamdi Bey), which was based on the École des Beaux-Arts. After graduation, he spent two formative years in Europe (1928–30), visiting the offices of Le Corbusier and August Perret in Paris and working with Hans Poelzig in Berlin. His beautifully rendered sketches, titled “Anatolian Houses,” dating from this period also reflect his fascination with Frank Lloyd Wright’s prairie houses, which were inspirational for his own vision of the modern Turkish house. In 1931, he returned to Istanbul to start his own practice and joined the facul...