Sarkis Balian: The First Star Architect of the Ottoman Empire

Until the 19th century, architects and masons in the Ottoman empire were anonymous, part of a guild-based system at the service of the Sultan. However, Sarkis Balyan, a third- generation member of a prolific and prominent family of Ottoman-Armenian architects changed all that. As an independent architect, Sarkis Balyan designed and built some of Istanbul’s most iconic palaces. His groundbreaking and inventive feats of design and engineering revolutionized the Ottoman architectural practice, propelling him to fame and fortune as the first modern architect with a distinctive signature style and the widespread name recogition that is celebrated globally to this day.

Originally published Հունվար 2025.

About the speaker

Büke Uras

Büke Uras studied architecture at La Sapienza University in Rome. He worked as an architect in New York and Istanbul and currently lives in Paris. For over ten years, Uras has been collecting architectural drawings and documents from the Ottoman era and the early Turkish Republican period while contributing to various magazines, newspapers, and exhibition catalogues on architecture. In 2021, he published his most comprehensive publication to date with The Balyans, Ottoman Architecture and Balyan Archive.

Büke Uras