How a picture-perfect Mediterranean village was saved from concrete — by a poet with a plan

The village of Akyaka is one of those places you hope no one else finds out about. Tucked between pine-covered mountains and the cool, crystal waters of the Azmak River, it’s a picture of serenity.

Whitewashed houses with wooden frames and sweeping eaves feel like part of the landscape. In spring, the air smells of eucalyptus and orange blossoms.

It’s a picture-perfect destination. But it almost wasn’t.

In the 1970s, Akyaka was just a small fishing settlement of functional brick houses surrounded by mosquito-infested marshes in Muğla, southwestern Turkey. But as Turkey’s tourism scene grew and parts of Anatolia began giving way to development, Akyaka was set for a transformation of its own.

Luckily, thanks to the arrival of Nail Çakırhan, a poet, intellectual and self-taught architect,