Mimar Sinan and City Museum

Mimar Sinan and City Museum is a museum located in the Recep Tayyip Erdoğan National Garden in Kayseri. It deals with Kayseri’s historic, natural and cultural heritage through the life and works of Mimar Sinan. The museum building, developed as a result of a national architecture competition held in 2021, was completed at the end of 2025. The official opening date of the museum has not yet been determined.

History

The museum project is based on the “Mimar Sinan Museum and Architecture Center National Architectural Project Competition” announced on 5 March 2021 and jointly organized by Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality and the Kayseri Branch of the Chamber of Architects. The competition aimed to design a museum about Mimar Sinan’s life and works, an architecture center, and associated open and semi‑open public spaces. The museum was created to preserve and transmit the name and works of Mimar Sinan, who was born in Kayseri’s Ağırnas Neighborhood, to future generations.

The first‑place award in the competition was won by architect Melike Kavalalı’s project. The project team included Berin Erikci and Nimet Değertaş, and student assistants were İlayda Nehir and Cemre Nur Çoruhlu.

The structure was listed among the projects completed in the Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality’s activity evaluation at the end of 2025. The official opening date of the museum has not yet been determined.

Exhibition areas

According to the exhibition concept published in June 2025, the museum has six sections for permanent and temporary exhibitions. The total area allocated to museum exhibitions is 2,055 m².

The entrance section contains a foyer of 560 m². Following the foyer, the “Values of the City” section of 288 m² introduces Kayseri and directs visitors to other stops of the exhibition area designed as a cultural route. The section dedicated to Mimar Sinan, covering 176 m², includes an archive of the architect’s works, presentations on different building types and architectural details, as well as written sources and printed technical documents. The section of 580 m² devoted to Kayseri’s natural features, urban culture and the way the city’s inhabitants perceive it addresses the region’s geography, nature, underground resources, animal and plant life, the city’s historical layers and intangible cultural heritage. The “Layers of the City” section of 186 m² covers Kültepe, Kayseri’s development as an administrative, commercial and industrial centre, tombstones and scholars associated with the city. The “We Are from Kayseri” section of 85 m² is allocated to the perceptions of Kayseri by individuals of different origins and viewpoints. The section contains testimonies related to local and regional history and oral history records.

The other section of 180 m² is used for temporary exhibitions of works by Kayseri artists.

According to the Kayseri Metropolitan Municipality, the museum building of approximately 6 000 m² consists of ten structural masses. The building includes open and closed courtyards, exhibition spaces, a museum shop, seminar rooms, technical departments, warehouses, administrative areas and digital exhibition infrastructure. In a later statement, the total construction area of the building was given as 6 270 m².