An official document from Prime Ministry Ottoman Archives brings an Armenian architect’s scramble for commissioning to light. According to the document, a library from 18th century ?stanbul required repairing, and a Turkish professional Mehmet Bahri Bey was commissioned after his offer. Yet, Bahri Bey did not sign the contract, and an Armenian architect named Andon Kalfa demanded the job, paying a deposit to get the commission. He even offered to waive the first installment, and as a result he received the repairment job of the library. The precarious Armenian architect Andon kalfa of the late 19th and early 20th century, is also known – according to the memoirs of an Armenian citizen of Turkey – for his construction of Azaryan Mansion in ?stanbul, which is renamed as Sadberk Han?m Museum after its transformation into a museum in 1980. The restoration and the transformation of the Azaryan Mansion into Sadberk Han?m Museum was held by one of the prominent architects of Turkey, Sedad Hakk? Eldem, who is known for his surveys and analysis of the houses of the Ottoman Empire, which he frames under the term “Turkish House.” In his vernacular architecture survey book Turkish Houses (1984) Eldem claims that even though the non-Muslim impact on the Turkish house had been high, and that their influence especially in 18th and 19th centuries had been powerful, it is by the courtesy of the Turkish nation that the contradictory elements could coexist (19). In this paper I will argue that Eldem’s surveys and restoration practice, as an understudied aspect of his oeuvre, twists the cosmopolitan history of Istanbul for the sake of a nationalist inspiration for his model modern house. For this purpose, I will closely examine the Azaryan Mansion and its transformation in Büyükdere, ?stanbul, where Eldem forcefully implements his idea of “sofa plan.” The sofa plan diagram, as intricately studied in Eldem’s books, is symbolic of his ideal “Turkish house.” This close reading of a single building aims to construct a sample for the larger scale “forgetting” in the modernization of Turkey in the 20th century. The paper will first unfold the making of the cosmopolitan Büyükdere shore in 19th century by focusing on autobiographies, maps and photographs that highlight the diversity of actors involved in the making. It will then focus on the aftermath of the house and its restoration and transformation into an Ottoman folkloric crafts and costume museum.