KIRSEHIR AHI EVRAN CULTURAL COMPLEX
The Ahi Evran Cultural Complex, located in Kirsehir Province, Türkiye, is a contemporary architectural response to the enduring legacy of the Ahi tradition, an ethical, spiritual and socio-economic system rooted in Anatolian history. Supported by the historic Ahi Evran Zawiya, the project interacts with its urban and cultural context to preserve, reinterpret and reintroduce this 900-year-old heritage within the fabric of modern urban life.
Designed within a protected urban area and commissioned by the Kirsehir Municipality, the project aims to revitalize the city center while embedding the values of the Ahi tradition in the spatial and material character of the site. Rather than treating the complex and square as isolated interventions, the design integrates them into a coherent urban narrative that respects historical continuity and promotes contemporary functionality.
The layout focuses on the Ahi Evran Zawiya, which is positioned at a higher elevation to express a symbolic and spatial hierarchy. Zawiya is a small Islamic religious school or monastery, often associated with Sufi orders. It serves as a place for worship, spiritual retreat, teaching, and community gatherings. The new structures are deliberately scaled and positioned to respect this spiritual core, reinforcing a sense of reverence through topography and spatial ordering. Circulation patterns are created by organic transitions through the site with secondary paths to create a layered spatial experience that avoids strict axiality or grid planning.
The choice of materials reflects a balance between local tradition and modern construction: travertine, adobe, wood and stone all together reference local architecture, while reinforced concrete provides structural clarity and formal expression. Importantly, the structural system of exposed concrete frames, precast piers, masonry infill and prefabricated vaults is not concealed, but rather celebrated as an architectural language in its context. This honest expression of tectonics defines the identity of the buildings, where structure becomes ornament.
In urban terms, the project resists the imposition of large, empty squares, rare in traditional Anatolian cities. Instead, spatial openness emerges from the interplay of edges, corners and clusters of buildings, creating limited spaces that function as common meeting points while preserving the human scale. Monumentality is achieved not through isolation, but through integration, where the scale of the new buildings responds to their historical surroundings.
In the end, the Ahi Evran Complex demonstrates how architecture can function as a cultural text; buildings, materials, and spatial sequences create a narrative that connects past and present. The project contributes to a living urban heritage grounded in both memory and modernity through contextual sensitivity, material authenticity, and spatial intelligence.
