SEHID ALI PASHA LIBRARY
Construction
The Sehid Ali Pasha Library was built by Sehid Ali Pasha in the Vefa district in 1715, by Mehmed Aga of Kayseri, the ottoman empire’s chief architect of his time.
The fact that it is the second library built after the Köprülü Library in Divanyolu, which is the first library in Istanbul to have an independent building, adds special importance to the building.
The building consists of a basement, a ground floor, and an upper floor with two rooms inside each other.
It was built with a masonry technique consisting of a row of stones and two rows of bricks (alternate wall). In the structure, there are pencil works with ornamental malakari and hatayi motifs on the dome, marble layers on the walls, Kütahya and Iznik tiles brought from other buildings, book niches with kündekari covers, and şeşhane brick coatings on the floor.
After the library was badly damaged in the 1894 Great Istanbul Earthquake, the collections in it were moved to the Süleymaniye Library in 1933, library was emptied and used for different purposes from time to time. These usage patterns have caused a serious deterioration in the structure.
Project Description
Within the scope of the restoration applications, the filling soil in the garden and ground floor cells was taken to the natural ground level and the garden wall which was destroyed over time was rebuilt with rubble stone.
The missing parts of the facades of the building were completed with yonu stone, and sandblasting was done on the other parts.
Door and window joinery, which lost its originality, was replaced with wooden ones.
The hand-drawn works, wall tiles, marble claddings, şeşhane brick floors, and wooden kündekari covers in the interior were purified from later additions and complemented with original materials.
All mechanical and electrical infrastructure of the building has been renewed.
After all these restoration works, the building was made suitable for the library, which is its original function.
Client : KADEM Foundation
Building Area : 1.540 m²
Location : İstanbul, Fatih, Vefa District
Works have been done within the scope of the project:
- Preparation of Engineering Projects.
- Taking Technical Implementation Responsibility.
- Making Restoration Applications.
