Turgut Toydemir

Turgut Toydemir (13 July 1938 – 20 December 2024) was a Turkish architect.

Life and career Turgut Toydemir was born in 1938 in Istanbul. He spent his childhood in the Sultanselim neighbourhood of the Fatih district. He went to highschool in the Çarşamba neighbourhood. In that period he would get the hang of architecture by hanging around the neighborhood with his childhood friend Ersen Gürsel who would also become an architect. Toydemir graduated from Vefa High School in 1957.

Toydemir graduated in 1961 from the Istanbul Technical University's Faculty of Architecture. He established his own office, which would become known as Turgut Toydemir Piramit Architecture. As a young architect he not only drew the architectural design, but also did the structural calculations and site supervision.

At that time, Istanbul had a population of about one and a half million people, and two-three-storey masonry buildings from the Ottoman times were common. As the zoning plans were made before 1961, 4-5 story buildings were allowed. Thus, Toydemir carried out projects of reinforced concrete as part of the demolition and renewal of old buildings, as well as new building projects.

In 1969, he obtained his master's degree at what is today called the Yıldız Technical University.

According to his own saying, parallel with the economic developments in Turkey, Toydemir worked on different types of building projects and completed architectural projects of various scales, from housing projects to large-scale urban design projects, from health facilities to educational buildings, and from tourism buildings to commercial office buildings and shopping malls.

On 20 December 2024, at the age of 86, Toydemir was shot and killed by an off-duty police officer in Istanbul during a road rage argument.

Oeuvre

Architectural and urban works

Bitlis Eren University (2013), Bitlis, Turkey (2013), a historical monument and hotel in Beşiktaş, Turkey Sheraton Hotel Samsun (2014), a high-rise building in Samsun, Turkey

Architectural works carried out with foreign partners Turgut Toydemir was with his office also a local associate in various projects with foreign architects. These projects are all LEED or BREAAM certified.

Sabancı University (1999), Tuzla, Istanbul