03-12-2014
A School Grows in Erzurum, Part 1
Most people have never heard of Erzurum. It is a city located on a high desert plateau surrounded by mountains in Eastern Turkey. It is hard to get to and difficult to live in. It is also the site of an amazing, high performance, preparatory school. The school offers a world-class, private education to deserving students—for free.
Some projects and clients bring out the best in everyone. It is especially thrilling when one can connect heartfelt ambitious Architectural ideas to a larger idea that is big, wonderful and worthwhile. This is the story of one of those clients and projects.
About Erzurum. While infrequently visited even by the Turkish population, the city is mainly known for two things: its strategic location against invasions from the east, which associates the city with the founding of the modern Turkish state, and its climate. Erzurum is really, really cold most of the time.
Once a station along the Silk Road, Erzurum has been the objective of unremitting military contests. Control shifted from the Byzantines to the Persians to the Muslims to the Greeks and Armenians to the Turks and then on to the Mongols before serving as a base of military power for the Ottoman Empire beginning in the 16th century. It alternated frequently between Russian and Ottoman control during the 19th century. Thereafter, the Erzurum Congress of 1919 was one of the starting points of the Turkish War of Independence.
Perhaps an echo of this cultural back-and-forth, modern Erzurum's population is divided between conflicting loyalties to Islamism and Westernism. It is no coincidence then the new Republic established the secular Atatürk University here in 1950. Modeled after a typical American university, it serves nearly 40,000 students and provides employment to nearly one in four people in the region.
Despite this, Erzurum remains a stronghold for Turkey's conservative Islamic movement. The headscarf is essential attire for the city's women. The city has therefore become symbolic of the current tug-of-war for Turkey's future.
Climatically, Erzurum is a not an easy place in which to live. Situated 5,766 feet above sea level, summers are brief and winters are very cold. Temperatures regularly fall below -30 °C (-22 °F), and snow blankets everything from late September until early May. Surrounded by the Palandöken Mountains, which rise above 10,000 feet, the region is known for its many winter sports venues. But this is not the Swiss Alps. There are few native trees. Desiccating winds create wind chill temperatures that plummet to dangerous levels. With sparse rainfall, there is little to support vegetation. Trees and plants that do exist grow very slowly.
In addition to the climate, Erzurum is located along a complex set of three major geological fault lines. Earthquakes are commonplace in eastern Turkey, causing severe damage and taking many lives. It is widely believed that a major earthquake is a disaster waiting to happen here, with seismic precautions only recently incorporated into the design of modern structures.
Considering these issues, Erzurum is not the first place one would think of for locating a world-class prep school. With considerable vision and dedication, though, it has emerged as such.
The Vision: The School. The school is named Bilkent Erzurum Laboratory School—"BELS" is its acronym. Conceived as the first in a network of secondary schools, it is an extension of Bilkent University, Turkey's first private, non-profit university, which was founded in Ankara in 1984 by Professor İhsan Doğramacı, M.D.
Dr. Professor Doğramacı (1915-2010) was one of modern Turkey's most famous doers of good and great things. Born in Erbil, Iraq, to a wealthy family, he was educated in Iraq, Turkey and the United States—spending time at both Harvard and Washington University in St. Louis. A practicing pediatrician, he devoted his entire life and his family fortune to the causes of child health and quality education—believing both were essential for lifting the long term trajectory of the country's impoverished and to address the increasing state of inequality across Turkey.
The founder of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, London, and Hacettepe Medical University and Children's Hospital in Ankara, Dr. Professor Doğramacı counted among his many achievements being a signatory of the World Health Organization in 1946, and serving as Chairman of UNICEF for many years.
Bilkent University was his other major passion. His vision was to create a center of excellence in higher education and research resembling those he had seen and worked at around the world, attracting top Turkish professors to return to Ankara to teach—and to make the new university accessible to all those of merit, regardless of their ability to pay.
The name "Bilkent" exemplifies this aim, as it derives from "bilim kenti": Turkish for "city of learning and science."3 With over 12,000 students, Bilkent is now one of Turkey's top universities. It awards full scholarships to nearly 20% of its students based on academic achievement.
This brings us to the creation of BELS. Through the continued leadership of his son, Dr. Professor Ali Doğramacı, the foundation set out to provide this same exceptional educational opportunity to elementary and secondary students in far away, economically disadvantaged areas of Turkey. The belief was that a free and world-class private education provided to the most talented Turkish students in these remote areas could help to produce the future leaders of the country.
In November of 2006 I was asked by Ali Doğramacı to design the new campus in Erzurum. I regretfully declined as the schedule was simply too difficult for my team to achieve: construction had to begin in just three months—and needed to be completed for the following fall!
The commission went to an architect from Istanbul, who planned four identical wings around a very large, diamond-shaped (square) courtyard. Each wing was fashioned, somewhat logically, around the idea of a ski chalet: steep rooflines mirroring the profiles of the nearby mountains. Two of the four wings along with the gym structure and the concert hall were built, in two stages.
While the physical plant remained a work in progress, the academic goals of the school were soon achieved. All students are required to follow three courses of study: the Cambridge International Examinations program (IGCSE), the International Baccalaureate program (IB) as well as follow the required Turkish Government curriculum. It is no exaggeration to say that BELS students academically achieve at a level that is equal or even superior to any elite prep school in the world—all from a place called Erzurum. Its graduates are automatically offered a full scholarship to Bilkent University.
Some projects and clients bring out the best in everyone. It is especially thrilling when one can connect heartfelt ambitious Architectural ideas to a larger idea that is big, wonderful and worthwhile. This is the story of one of those clients and projects.
About Erzurum. While infrequently visited even by the Turkish population, the city is mainly known for two things: its strategic location against invasions from the east, which associates the city with the founding of the modern Turkish state, and its climate. Erzurum is really, really cold most of the time.
Once a station along the Silk Road, Erzurum has been the objective of unremitting military contests. Control shifted from the Byzantines to the Persians to the Muslims to the Greeks and Armenians to the Turks and then on to the Mongols before serving as a base of military power for the Ottoman Empire beginning in the 16th century. It alternated frequently between Russian and Ottoman control during the 19th century. Thereafter, the Erzurum Congress of 1919 was one of the starting points of the Turkish War of Independence.
Perhaps an echo of this cultural back-and-forth, modern Erzurum's population is divided between conflicting loyalties to Islamism and Westernism. It is no coincidence then the new Republic established the secular Atatürk University here in 1950. Modeled after a typical American university, it serves nearly 40,000 students and provides employment to nearly one in four people in the region.
Despite this, Erzurum remains a stronghold for Turkey's conservative Islamic movement. The headscarf is essential attire for the city's women. The city has therefore become symbolic of the current tug-of-war for Turkey's future.
Climatically, Erzurum is a not an easy place in which to live. Situated 5,766 feet above sea level, summers are brief and winters are very cold. Temperatures regularly fall below -30 °C (-22 °F), and snow blankets everything from late September until early May. Surrounded by the Palandöken Mountains, which rise above 10,000 feet, the region is known for its many winter sports venues. But this is not the Swiss Alps. There are few native trees. Desiccating winds create wind chill temperatures that plummet to dangerous levels. With sparse rainfall, there is little to support vegetation. Trees and plants that do exist grow very slowly.
In addition to the climate, Erzurum is located along a complex set of three major geological fault lines. Earthquakes are commonplace in eastern Turkey, causing severe damage and taking many lives. It is widely believed that a major earthquake is a disaster waiting to happen here, with seismic precautions only recently incorporated into the design of modern structures.
Considering these issues, Erzurum is not the first place one would think of for locating a world-class prep school. With considerable vision and dedication, though, it has emerged as such.
The Vision: The School. The school is named Bilkent Erzurum Laboratory School—"BELS" is its acronym. Conceived as the first in a network of secondary schools, it is an extension of Bilkent University, Turkey's first private, non-profit university, which was founded in Ankara in 1984 by Professor İhsan Doğramacı, M.D.
Dr. Professor Doğramacı (1915-2010) was one of modern Turkey's most famous doers of good and great things. Born in Erbil, Iraq, to a wealthy family, he was educated in Iraq, Turkey and the United States—spending time at both Harvard and Washington University in St. Louis. A practicing pediatrician, he devoted his entire life and his family fortune to the causes of child health and quality education—believing both were essential for lifting the long term trajectory of the country's impoverished and to address the increasing state of inequality across Turkey.
The founder of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, London, and Hacettepe Medical University and Children's Hospital in Ankara, Dr. Professor Doğramacı counted among his many achievements being a signatory of the World Health Organization in 1946, and serving as Chairman of UNICEF for many years.
Bilkent University was his other major passion. His vision was to create a center of excellence in higher education and research resembling those he had seen and worked at around the world, attracting top Turkish professors to return to Ankara to teach—and to make the new university accessible to all those of merit, regardless of their ability to pay.
The name "Bilkent" exemplifies this aim, as it derives from "bilim kenti": Turkish for "city of learning and science."3 With over 12,000 students, Bilkent is now one of Turkey's top universities. It awards full scholarships to nearly 20% of its students based on academic achievement.
This brings us to the creation of BELS. Through the continued leadership of his son, Dr. Professor Ali Doğramacı, the foundation set out to provide this same exceptional educational opportunity to elementary and secondary students in far away, economically disadvantaged areas of Turkey. The belief was that a free and world-class private education provided to the most talented Turkish students in these remote areas could help to produce the future leaders of the country.
In November of 2006 I was asked by Ali Doğramacı to design the new campus in Erzurum. I regretfully declined as the schedule was simply too difficult for my team to achieve: construction had to begin in just three months—and needed to be completed for the following fall!
The commission went to an architect from Istanbul, who planned four identical wings around a very large, diamond-shaped (square) courtyard. Each wing was fashioned, somewhat logically, around the idea of a ski chalet: steep rooflines mirroring the profiles of the nearby mountains. Two of the four wings along with the gym structure and the concert hall were built, in two stages.
While the physical plant remained a work in progress, the academic goals of the school were soon achieved. All students are required to follow three courses of study: the Cambridge International Examinations program (IGCSE), the International Baccalaureate program (IB) as well as follow the required Turkish Government curriculum. It is no exaggeration to say that BELS students academically achieve at a level that is equal or even superior to any elite prep school in the world—all from a place called Erzurum. Its graduates are automatically offered a full scholarship to Bilkent University.
