Bukinist
I am one of the last representatives of the 20th century. I did not live through the Soviet era, but the years that followed remain quite clear in my childhood memories. After our country emerged…
Socialism or Capitalism?
I am a representative of the last generation that witnessed a time when people would visit each other’s homes without notice. Homes were kept tidy as if someone could arrive at any moment, and sweets…
Kazim Agabeyov
When I think about my university years, the first things that come to my mind are not projects, grades, or exams. It is people. Among those people, the ones who have left the deepest impression…
Genetic Memory
Genetic Memory What is a native place? Is it the connection of one’s ancestral roots to a particular land, or the invisible attraction of genetic memory that draws us toward that place? Perhaps the feeling…
Sheki
Among all the regions of Azerbaijan, Sheki is my favorite, and whenever I get the chance, I try to visit it. When I think of Sheki, one of the first things that comes to mind…
Church of the Light and Tadao Ando
When I hear the expression “light and shadow,” the first person who comes to mind is my first architecture professor, Kazim Agabeyov. It was from him that I first learned how important light and shadow…
A City That Looks Like a Cardiogram
Every profession adds something to a person’s character. For example, there are jokes about how most physicists tend to have unusual hairstyles 🙂 Architects, on the other hand, are often known for their pursuit of…
Louis Kahn and Contradictions
I often think about good and evil, virtue and vice, love and hatred. Yet these thoughts never lead me to a definitive conclusion. Throughout my life, I have never met someone who was entirely good…
A Starry Night
There are moments in nature so magical that they appear only rarely. Yet once you witness them, they stay with you forever. One of those moments was Baku’s magical winter fog. The sea and the…
Kenzo Tange
Recently, during a conversation with architect Abdul Huseynov, whose work I have been following with great interest, he reminded me of something I had forgotten since my university years. Back when we were students, our…