The aim of the "Building Site Managers’ Virtual Archive" is to promote on a wide scale our esteemed site workers who have undertaken the responsibility for the application of important construction projects in Turkey and their projects. This site, which brings together people active in the building sector, principally those responsible for building sites, construction companies and projects, in a dynamic database, enables users to conduct a search on individuals and firms, and provides easy access to the relevant site workers, projects and firms listed in their search results. In a short period of time, this database, which will include the site workers who have been involved in building construction, particularly in the field, and their constructions, will have become an important source of information for the building sector, both in a visual and documental sense.

In explanation of the term “building site work” emphasised in this website lets look at the explanations of the masters of the trade on the French word "chantier" that it derives from. The dictionary meaning of "chantier" as a “construction site” is explained as follows in the book entitled “Yapi Isletmesi” (Building Management) by architect Ercumend Bigat: "It is an organisation that endeavours to produce every kind of construction or part thereof in accordance with the contract specifications and guaranteed price entrusted by the main operator, to manage and carry out the essentials of the project or programme given to one on works requiring repair or modification within the stipulations of the project’s terms of agreement; to earn money for the main operator by finishing the building in accordance with the required scientific and aesthetic principles; and to avoid bringing the client and the main operator into conflict."

Feyzi Akkaya's briefer and more practical description is as follows: "The workshop that is set up to ensure that the job to be done is carried out and finished on time with adequate security in accordance with the desired specifications is called a “chantier”.

Firuzan Baytop explains the term as follows: " ‘Chantier’ is the place where a building or installation on paper is brought into an operational state or a state where it is capable of performing the intended function." He also touches on this important point on the subject of building site works: “There are no schools, teachers or books for building site work. It can only be learned by living on site, by getting to grips with it."

If we consider that building site work is not a profession that can be taught in school, but that it is a responsibility stemming from accumulated experience and knowledge grafted onto university education, it will be the greatest opportunity provided to potential new young people training as “building site managers” to get acquainted with and to promote people in our country with this experience. One of the fundamental reasons for developing this website is to give wide publicity not only to building site workers who have produced firsts since the start of our history as a Republic, but also to the young building site workers who have played a part in the construction of buildings of the modern era using the latest technology.

We hope that this project, produced by the Building Information Centre in conjunction with KONE, will be beneficial to those just starting out in building work, to firms active in the construction sector, to students in related educational fields and to esteemed building site workers.