Yalın Şeyler is my first book. I began to write at Selçuk's invitation, impressed by the originality of the team's work and convinced that reflecting on that body of work was worthwhile. While I was studying twenty years of work by Ömer Selçuk Baz and Okan Bal, I loved the chance to discuss some fundamental questions of architecture that also concern me, through the work of Yalın Mimarlık, instead of writing a chronological portfolio.
The chapters of the book took shape around a personal vocabulary that formed over time, about the design reflexes of Yalın Mimarlık. I drew links between the projects through archetypes, narratives, patterns, commons, the relationship with nature, tectonics and collaboration. One of the hallmarks of the book is that the same building returns in different chapters with other qualities. The Troy Museum, for example, is taken up as an archetype in one chapter and as a narrative space in another. At times it is also read through its relationship with nature, or through the practice of making together. We loved this approach, a little like a riddle and largely subjective.
Our graphic designer Okay Karadayılar, wild and fine in spirit, gave this flexible structure a physical counterpart by designing each chapter as a separate fascicle suited to its spirit. I hope that Yalın Şeyler, published by YEM Yayın and already in a second printing in its first year, becomes a personal reading in which the reader can also make their own connections and follow different paths.
Publication details
Book title: Yalın Şeyler: Ömer Selçuk Baz, Okan Bal, Yalın Mimarlık (2005–2025) Author: Banu Uçak Book design: Okay Karadayılar Editorial preparation: Ece Toprak, Okan Bal, Ömer Selçuk Baz Cover photograph: Yalın Baz Publisher: YEM Yayın First edition: December 2025 Language: Turkish Number of pages: 480 Dimensions: 16.5 × 24 cm ISBN: 9786259393155