The ''Tree of Science'' () is a Turkish sculpture at the

Middle East Technical University Middle East Technical University (commonly referred to as METU; in Turkish, ''Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi'', ODTÜ) is a public technical university located in Ankara, Turkey. The university emphasizes research and education in engineering a ...

Ankara Ankara ( , ; ), historically known as Ancyra and Angora, is the capital of Turkey. Located in the central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5.1 million in its urban center and over 5.7 million in Ankara Province, mak ...

Campus at the door of the monument Eskişehir Yolu. The sculpture was constructed through the second drop- Atatürk Monument Competition in 1966 and was made by

Tamer Başoğlu Tamer Başoğlu (born 1938) is a Turkish sculptor. He was born in 1938 in Nazilli. Higher education In 1960 he graduated from the sculpture department of the Istanbul State Fine Arts Academy. With a state scholarship he went to Italy. In 1964 ...

. At the time this sculpture was erected, much of the surrounding area was barren, but an intense forestation campaign was in progress, led by then university president

Kemal Kurdas Kemal may refer to: ;People * Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a Turkish politician and the first president of Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental ...

. Over the years around 12 million trees were planted on the 11,100 acre METU land. Thanks to this effort, the white ''Tree of Science'' is surrounded by the deep green of the forest that replaced arid brown hills. METU is now the largest green area around Ankara. According to the

Aga Khan Award for Architecture The Aga Khan Award for Architecture (AKAA) is an architectural prize established by Aga Khan IV in 1977. It aims to identify and reward architectural concepts that successfully address the needs and aspirations of Muslim societies in the fields ...

, shared in 1995 by

Kemal Kurdaş Kemal may refer to: ;People * Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, a Turkish politician and the first president of Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental ...

and

Behruz Çinici Veli Behruz Çinici (1932 – October 18, 2011) was a Turkish architect. He graduated from Istanbul Technical University Faculty of Architecture in 1954, and worked as a lecturer in the same faculty between 1954 and 1961. He founded his fi ...

, the campus' planner and first architect, and Alattin Egemen, director of forestation, the forest helps mitigate the city's pollution.

References

Middle East Technical University Outdoor sculptures in Ankara {{Art-stub