History
In 19th century during the period of Sultan Mahmud Han the Second, while reorganizing all of its systems according to the requirements of the era, the Ottoman Empire has also reedited the civil higher education in terms of the needs of the state. In this context, first the country’s highways and then the railroads projects were designed and afterwards various schools for educating engineers, architects and assistant staff (technicians) which would be working on these projects.
The “Turuk-u Muabir Mekteb-I Alisi” (with its name in the next periods the “Hendesehane-i Mülkiye/Mühendisin-i Mülkiye Mektebi”) which was opened in 1874 in Galata Palace under the Ministry of “Turuk-u Muabir” (roads and crossings/bridges) was one of these schools. For completing rapidly the railway network connecting Istanbul to Europe, Hijaz, Iran and Russia, the conductor (technician) education given within the “Turuk-u Muabir Mekteb-I Alisi” was separated and restricted with its three years education plan, and started to provide education in a building (Museum of Health) on Divanyolu with the name of “Turuk-u Muabir Kondüktör Mekteb-i Alisi”.
The architecture education, which was being given as special courses within this school, which was the foundations of our institution, has continued when the name of the school changed to “Nafıa Fen Mektebi-Public Works Science School”. In 1937 as the first technical school regarding Hasan Ali Yücel’s “a technical school for every city” project, our institution started to provide educationwithin the premises of Yıldız Palace. In the academic year of 1942-1943 the architecture education became a four year based Architecture Division within the Istanbul Technical School.
In 1959-1960 the division of architecture started with the one year specialization (graduate) education. When in 1969 the Istanbul Technical School changed its name to IDMMA (Istanbul State Academy of Engineering and Architecture) the Division of Architecture became a department at the same year the masters education became a two year program. IDMMA turned in 1982 into Yıldız University following the introduction of the Law on Higher Education and at last into Yıldız Technical University in 1992. In 1982 with the establishment of the faculty of Architecture, the unit for urbanism became a separate department within the framework of the Law on Higher Education. The faculty with its two departments of Architecture and City and Regional Planning has revised its current form.