Never trained as an architect, Nail Cakirhan's first career was that of a journalist and poet. He had reached his forties before he first became interested in construction while accompanying his archaeologist wife Halet on her field missions. After spending over a decade as a supervisor of construction projects, he restored his mother's old vernacular house with the aid of two traditionally skilled local carpenters. Having thereby learned the necessary arts and crafts, he set out to build an indigenous house of his own. The ideas and forms of the house were merely sketched and then plotted on the ground as traditional master builders used to work.