Ahmet Vural Behaedddin Biography
EMU Faculty of Architecture, Ahmet Vural Behaeddin Committee, June 2021. He was born on 20 June 1927 in Nicosia, the son of Mehmet Behaeddin and Akile Mısırlızade. After completing his primary, secondary and high school education in Cyprus, he graduated from Istanbul Technical University, Faculty of Architecture in 1951 with the title of Architect Engineer. Between 1951-1953 he worked as an assistant to D. Brandi in Göttingen, Germany. Between 1953-1954 he worked as an assistant to C. Hutton in London, United Kingdom. In 1954, together with Ercan Hıfsı, the second architect of the Turkish Cypriot Community, they established their office in Nicosia, on the ground floor of their family building. Later, after Ercan Hıfsı's migration from the island, he carried out his freelance architectural works alone from the Ahmet Vural Behaeddin Architecture Office in Asmalı Mescit in Lekoşa until 1963. Between 1964 and 1971, G.I.C. He worked in the Architecture department of the City of London. He returned to Cyprus in 1971. Between 1973-1976, Ahmet Vural Behaeddin worked with his teacher from ITU, Sedad Hakkı Eldem, on 7 Village and Cenzur city center projects in Fizan for Libaş company in Libya. After 1976, until 1993, when he passed away, he designed more than 100 works, mainly in Cyprus and again mainly in housing and banks, sports facilities, commercial buildings, and schools. 13 of his works, which he has produced since the 1950s, have been taken under protection by the Supreme Council of Monuments.
Membership and Awards:
1953 - Member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
1958 – No. 1 founding member of the Chamber of Architects of K.T.M.M.O.B.
Kyrenia Gate, 1st Prize at the Girls' High School Building Architecture Competition in 1960 (published in the 1965-Baumeisster architecture magazine)
Tülin Behaeddin, wife of Ahmet Vural Behaeddin, who has the honor award of KTMMOB Chamber of Architects, signed a cooperation protocol with Eastern Mediterranean University, Faculty of Architecture in 1999. Within the scope of the protocol, studies are carried out in order to examine Ahmet V. Behaeddin's pioneering role in Turkish Cypriot architecture, his architectural identity and his contributions to the country's architecture, and to preserve this value by protecting it. In this context, a reading room in the name of Ahmet Vural Behaeddin was established in the Faculty, and the magazines and books donated by the Architect to the EMU Architecture Faculty for the education and research of the faculty and students. Again in this context, EMU Faculty of Architecture has formed a committee that deals with protecting this value, keeping it alive with all its values and transferring it to future generations with a sense of social responsibility. The Ahmet Vural Behaeddin committee carries out activities to commemorate Ahmet Vural Behaeddin every year with various activities.
Ahmet V. Behaeddin, an important representative of the Modern Architecture movement, is the first architect whose works were sent to Docomomo (the organization for the documentation and preservation of Modern Stream buildings, sites and regions) from Cyprus.
Academic studies, research, master's and doctoral thesis studies are carried out about him. Ahmet Vural Behaeddin, who left us valuable architectural works, which can be considered as direct proof of the level of civilization, as a world heritage, is still a source of inspiration today.
