The first Koç Han: Pioneering modern architecture in Ankara

• Main Author: Oya Atalay Franck
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Koc University, Vehbi Koc Ankara Studies Research Center (VEKAM) 2013-01-01
• Series: Ankara Araştırmaları Dergisi
• Subjects: Modern architecture; First Koç Han; Vehbi Koç; Ernst Arnold Egli; Commercial buildings; Ulus; Ankara
• Online Access: http://www.journalagent.com/jas/pdfs/JAS_1_1_89_112.pdf

Koç Holding is the most established conglomerate in Turkey. Th e company’s beginnings date from the mid 1920s, when Ahmet Vehbi Koç, founder of Koç Holding, had his first own company registered with the Ankara Chamber of Commerce. In 1932, Koç moved his business from his father’s store on Anafartalar Street to a new building, the first Koç Han, erected the same year on Çankırı Street Nr.13 in Ulus. Th e building’s designer was Swiss-Austrian architect Ernst Arnold Egli, who had come to Turkey only five years earlier upon invitation by the government to work as chief architect of the Ministry of National Education. During his stay, which lasted from 1927 until 1940, Egli realized about 40 projects and worked on many more. Koç Han is the rare example of a commercial building by Egli. At a time when the urban aspect of the old town center of Ankara consisted mostly of one-or two-storeyed stone-and-wood houses, the first Koç Han represented an altogether new building type for the town, in being a multipurpose edifice with space for shops at street level, with large storage facilities below ground, and providing off ices and housing on the upper fl oors. Th e functional rigor of the plan and the sober modernism of the building’s facades contrasted strongly with the architecture of the time. In this respect, the first Koç Han was a strong statement regarding Ahmet Vehbi Koç’s belief in a modern Turkey and to the contribution of the building’s architect, Ernst Arnold Egli, to this project.