istanbulmetro . istanbul architecture design

Istanbul nominated Best City in Wallpaper* Design Awards, REX Architecture designs Vakko headquarters, Mike Berg sculpture

Wallpaper* Design Awards 2010

Web  videos on Istanbul in Moncole and Wallpaper, Istanbul nominated as Best City by Wallpaper
The two bastion’s of international in-the-know cool, Monocle and Wallpaper were working the Istanbul theme this week with web videos. Monocle focuses on Arab tourists attracted to Istanbul by popular Turkish soap-opera NOOR, a flop in Turkey but a craze amongst middle and upper class Arab women lured by the rags to riches storyline, Istanbul scenery and the blue eyes of heart throb Kivanç Tatlıtuğ.  Wallpaper* magazine video features the less sexy but still hip Autoban design duo of Seyhan Özdemir and Sefer Cağlar as they expostulate the same old yada yada on east/west, old/new, chaos/order themes in a neat production centered largely in the Beyoğlu area. The City video was a part of Istanbul’s nomination as Best City in the Wallpaper* Design Awards 2010 (which was eventually won by New York).

http://www.monocle.com/sections/culture/Web-Articles/Soap-Opera-Tourists/

http://www.wallpaper.com/video/travel/city-short-istanbul/61718743001

http://www.wallpaper.com/designawards/2010/istanbul

REX Architecture, New York, completes Vakko and Power Media headquarters in Altunizade, Istanbul, January 2010

REX Architects of New York finish Vakko headquarters in Altunizade
REX Architects of New York (ex-Rem Koolhaas, OMA staffers) have finally after a long and arduous process about to complete construction of the Vakko headquarters in the Altunizade district of Istanbul. Vakko, a venerable textile brand led by the Hakko family, reached out to the New York firm to give them a brave new world look for Vakko and the Power Media group. Working with the existing half-built foundations of a hotel project,  the REXers led by front man Joshua Prince-Ramus transformed the concrete box using a plan they had originally design for an office building for Caltech University in California. REX’s design, a glass base surrounded by a jumbled grouping of steel boxes in the interior, presents a dynamic face to a company known more for it’s traditional textile designs.  After London’s Foreign Office Architects Meydan Shoppinging Center REX’s Vakko building becomes one of the few meaningful examples of international architects working in Turkey’s insular building culture. Thanks to REX’s effort and Vakko for the vision, Istanbul has a contemporary piece of architecture worth talking about.

http://www.rex-ny.com/work/vakko-fashion-center/

Mike Berg exhibition, "Heavy Metal", Galeri Nev, Istanbul, January 2010

Mike Berg, Heavy Metal art exhibition opens at Galeri Nev
American artist Mike Berg has been living in Istanbul for almost a decade.  His work concentrating on pattern, abstraction and gesture has seen this native of Washington state delve into the details of eastern and Islamic based geometric abstraction and handicraft. In his latest show HEAVY METAL at Galeri Nev in the Misir Apt in Beyoğlu, Berg shows large rusted steel sculptures and wall hangings that explore the tension between the ephemerality of momentary gestures of the hand and the solidity of the material.  The introspective Berg has long been obsessed with the ma thematic systems in the patterns of the architecture and decorative arts of Islamic cultures.  This can be seen in the apocalypticaly named wall paintings made from chalk lines, From Barbarism, To Decadence, Culture, which surround the viewer in a captivating abstraction that is Berg’s systematic reworking of eastern thought.
Mike Berg, HEAVY METAL, Galeri Nev, through February 6, 2010. Misir Apt., Istiklal Caddesi, Beyoğlu

http://www.galerinevistanbul.com/

Add comment January 18th, 2010

This is design in Turkey…Aziz Sariyer for Park, polyethelene outdoor furniture and objects

This collection of outdoor furniture by Aziz Sarıyer for Park actually came out last year. Sorry it’s taken me some time to get to it.

I have to say first of all that in my opinion this is the best piece of design that came out in Istanbul and Turkey in 2007. Sarıyer has in his design work over the past decade gone past the point where style is even an issue. He’s in another zone where it’s about form creation at its most basic, in an epistemological register where archetype meets abstraction in a way that is only possible in the unique geography of Turkey. My treatment of these qualities of geometric abstraction in design in Turkey and by Turkish designers are described at length in my book, Turkish Touch in Design published by Nurus. (If you want to buy the book, contact Nurus).

In this case, Sarıyer is allowed to cogitate on some basic issues in abstract geometry as the client is his daughter. Park is an Istanbul based furniture company run by Sarıyer’s daughter by Dilruba Sarıyer and Mehmet Yucebaşoğlu in 2007. We see Aziz Sarıyer’s signature geometric approach to design at it’s best. Monolithic, geometric, low, objective, abstract yet with a slight residue of symbolism, these are the qualities of design in Turkey that have existed for centuries that Sarıyer so deftly translates into contemporary form ın these polyethelene furniture pieces.

Table, chair, lighting, seating group. PARK. Design by Aziz Sariyer, 2008

Add comment May 19th, 2008

Design Cities exhibit at the Istanbul Modern. I don’t like it. And if you read the discussion I have here with the curator Deyan Sudjic, you can tell why.

Poster, Design Cities, Tasarım Şehirler, İstanbul Modern

Design in Turkey does not seem to have a long or meaningful history. When it is mentioned most people are surprised that contemporary design from Turkey even existed at all. Didn’t Turkish designers just copy from the West? Wasn’t Turkish design just a second rate or third rate version of what was going in Milan, London etc? What of interest could possibly have been created in Turkey of the 1930s or 1950s, 1960s….?

Design in Turkey has for many years been part of a general importation of knowledge and culture from the West. The elites of the Turkish Republic and the Ottomans before them have for centuries imported knowledge and culture from the West in the belief that it was more advanced and hence more valuable. This sort of cultural imperialism worked well for both sides. The local elites were able to justify themselves as leaders pointing to their embrace of this “better” universal culture, agents of the West profited from the sale of ideas and products to Turkey. This scenario which started after the regime Mustafa Kemal Ataturk’s initial radical efforts to incubate local ways of doing things continues until today.

It is in this light that I would like to frame the below discussion I had with the curator of the Design Cities exhibition, Dejan Sudic of the Design Museum in London. I believe that this exhibition no matter the great value of the objects displayed here is ultimately another example of the long and still somehow active cultural imperialism that goes on in Turkey. In terms of design, I have no problems with the objects themselves. My issue is that as the first formal exhibition on design and design history by the leading gallery of modernism in the country, this exhibition is completely inappropriate. Whatever value these objects might have for young designers and the general museum going populace is outweighed by the fact that this exhibition does not advance anything but the tired canon of Western design history.

Let me be clear here in my description of this history. The history of design in the West is one that is tied closely to industrialization and excludes elements of the vernacular and everyday, what I would call anonymous design or design by non-designers. In a country like Turkey where most objects lack design pedigree, different social and designs traditions of local origin are more relevant to object making and design then one this closely tied to the canon of Western design history, industrialization and capitalism. For example, the recognition of the sensory dimensions of the environment seen in design from places like Brazil or Mexico or the efficacy of handicraft and materials in Scandinavia, these contexts show another history of design outside of industrialization and ultimately more relevant to this Turkish context then the cities shown in Design Cities.

In an era when there are serious ecological and cultural matters are pressing in from all sides, what good is this exhibit to Turkey and the Turkish audience? What cause or idea does it advance? These are questions that I fear have no answer beyond the curator’s own aesthetic judgements concerning these objects. With so much in our own history and design history still waiting to be explored and identified, exhibition’s like Design Cities seem to be more of the flashy regurgitation of Western models that ultimately is doing local design and our cultural contribution to universal culture no good.

Discussion by email between me, Gökhan Karakuş and Deyan Sudjic published in Galerist newspaper, May 2008. Some of my questions were answered, some not.

Questions for Deyan Sudjic regarding Design Cities exhibit, Istanbul Modern.

Gökhan Karakuş / Galerist
Istanbul April 10, 2008

Gökhan Karakuş. Where did the idea for doing this exhibition emerge? How did you get involved? You have a challenging job in London as head of the Design Museum, why did you feel it was important to do this exhibition?

Deyan Sudjic. I have been aware of Istanbul Modern since before I started work at the Design Museum. It has a beautiful space, and it is operating in an extraordinarily interesting context which makes the chance of curating an exhibition there particularly attractive. We discussed the idea of an architecture exhibition which did not materialize. But then design came up as a topic and it seemed to make a lot of sense in Turkey. Ataturk after all was very much aware of the power of design as an element in constructing a modern state. Think about his impact on every aspect of the way that Turkey looks: from its capital city, to the architecture of that capital, the country’s adoption of the Latin alphabet, even its dress. All of these are design decisions.
And Turkey today is making use of its industrial capacity to move up the value scale by beginning to use sophisticated design.

Gökhan Karakuş. The exhibition, Design Cities, uses cities as the vehicle to organize a certain history of design that could be labeled the Canonical History of Design in industrialized countries. Why did you decide to use cities in this way and not countries or movements?

Deyan Sudjic. I am as interested in the story of cities as I am in the history of design. And in fact as well as my role as the director of the design museum, I am the co chairman of the Urban Age project, a partnership between the London School of Economics and Deutsche Bank which has spent the last three years exploring the future of the city –
I think it is impossible in the contemporary world to define design in purely national terms: think about one of the exhibits in the London 2008 section, the Mini for example: Its supposedly a quintessentially British design, but it is owned by a German company, and the original engine was made in Brazil by an American company. And of course the original Mini was designed by Alec Issigonis – born in Turkey, of Greek origin, who settled in Britain. We show a work by Hussein Chalayan in the London section: he was educated in Britain, and works in London. We show several pieces by Zaha Hadid, born in Bagdad, educated in Beiruit, now a London resident. You would not call her a British architect, but you could plausibly describe her as a London architect. Cities after all have mostly been around a lot longer than nation states. Movements don’t always help understand the contradictory currents of design. London in 1851 was both rejecting the industrial revolution in the shape of William Morris, and embracing it in Christopher Dresser. Showing them side by side perhaps conveys that sense better

Gökhan Karakuş. Your exhibition is sort of the “greatest hits” of western design with a short stop in Japan for contrast. You have all the great names, great objects, great schools, what is the purpose of organizing this kind of exhibit for Istanbul? Why does the general Istanbul and Turkish audience need to know this history? As a popular and intellectual exercise what can be gained from this exhibition? Why are your pushing this particular history of design and its agenda at this time? In other words, why do you think it is relevant to manufacture this identity around design at this particular moment in Turkey when the concept of design and design values are still under debate, where the history of design in Turkey has yet to organized?

Deyan Sudjic. I think that I have touched on the answers to some of these questions in my earlier answers. I am not sure that I have an agenda, other than to say that I find many of these objects beautiful in their own right, and that understanding how some of them came into being, can provide pointers to understanding the world around us. I certainly think that what an exhibition with real object can do that nothing else can is to provide a physical tangible sense of the materiality of things. I have never seen all these objects together in one place before, and its not the same as making a list, or reading a book.

Gökhan Karakuş. What would you hope Istanbul’s design and architecture community would gain from this exhibition?

I hope that they will find enjoyable, provocative and engaging.

Gökhan Karakuş. What is the connection between this exhibitions program and its intended audience here in Istanbul?

Gökhan Karakuş. The history of design codified in this exhibition is one that is tied closely to industrialization and excludes elements of the vernacular and everyday, what I would call anonymous design or design by non-designers. In a country like Turkey where most objects lack design pedigree, don’t you think an exhibition open to different social and designs traditions would’ve been more relevant then one this closely tied to the canon of Western design history, industrialization and capitalism? For example, the recognition of the sensory dimensions of the environment seen in design from places like Brazil or Mexico or the efficacy of handicraft and materials in Scandinavia, would not these contexts be more valuable contributions to another history of design and ultimately more relevant to this context?

Deyan Sudjic. Which particular elements of Brazilian design are you talking about? It would I agree have been fascinating to look at the differences between Brazil and Turkey, and to wonder why Brazil has produced a Niemeyer, or a Campana, - or Mexico a Barragan, and Turkey has not, so far done so. It could easily have done so: During the 1940s, Turkey saw Bruno Taut, and Margarete Schutte Lihotsky as visitors, just as Brazil had Le Corbusier. And it is also true that both Brazil and Turkey are becoming increasingly important exporters by making use of contemporary design. But that would have been a different exhibition. One that would usefully be done one day soon.

If you look at what William Morris believed, I think that you will find that he was as implacably opposed to capitalism, and industrialisation as anybody. He was a revolutionary socialist, who believed passionately that machines were dehumanising. He was an ecologist before the word was even invented. And this exhibition opens with him. The work of Josef Hoffman and Koloman Moser were also based on workmanship and handcraft. So in fact was the Bauhaus, despite its rhetoric about the machine age.
If you look at the choices I have made in my cities, you will see that I have avoided , for example the work of Raymond Loewy, and Philippe Starck.
Design is of course a huge subject, and to make an exhibition like this work, some kind of framework is essential. The theme of craft vs industry, local vs universal is there , and I hope that you are able to see beyond what appear to be your preconceptions about the nature of this exhibition.
What your question seems to suggest is that this exhibition is some sort of imperialist propaganda effort, which I would vigorously deny. I am myself deeply concerned about the avalanche of stuff that is sweeping over the world, as we are all encouraged to consume more at every level. I certainly believe that design cannot be allowed to become simply a form of three dimensional marketing. But design is I believe fundamentally the product of industrialisation. And since all of us, wherever we live, are shaped by industrial production, its important to understand how it works.

Gökhan Karakuş. Today because of the ecological crises the notion of universal or standardized concepts of living promoted by industrialization and capitalism is starting to lose validity. Instead we are starting to see that there are certain efficiencies to be gained from an individual’s built environment in the history, culture, and climate of his or her immediate surroundings. Your exhibition seems to be promoting these universal/standardized concepts of modernity. In the first years of the 21st century, in seemingly a new era, what do you think is to be gained from the continued promotion of this agenda and history? In the light of the ecological crises don’t you think the canon needs to be adjusted to accept other ways of living and social practices not visible in your exhibitions works?

Deyan Sudjic. While rejecting your assertions that I am promoting ecological catastrophe, I am not unsympathetic to your suggestions. But it is a fact that in Istanbul, and Beijing, as much as Mexico City or Johannesburg, there are both shared assumptions, and very distinctively different things going on. The ipod, Manchester United, the Airbus, colour imaginations everywhere. I think also by structuring around the idea of cities I am also emphasising their differences.

Add comment May 19th, 2008

Can Yalman Hexa executive desk by Nurus

During the latest Salone del Mobile in Milano, Nurus unveiled Hexa, a new lightweight executive desk, at their stand in the Zona Tortona by the Istanbul based industrial designer Can Yalman. This was the first collaboration between Nurus, Turkey’s premier office furniture company and Yalman, a leading figure in the burgeoning Istanbul design scene.

The Hexa desk was produced by Nurus in the form of a hexagonal double carbon fiber structure. The simple straightforward shape belies a more complex geometry inspired apparently by nanostructure. Inspiration and metaphor aside I like the rawness of the rib skeleton which looks organic and technological at the same time. The whole ensemble might be a bit to stylized for some tastes but I think Yalman is onto something here with this insect exoskeleton meets surfboard design.

Yalman’s recent work has matured greatly especially his mastery of abstract geometry. His fascination with the geometry of nature had been evident for a number of years and could be seen in much of the work he produced for Kale Seramik. With the Hexa desk he seems to have started developing his own taste for geometric abstraction which we hope will lead to further more successful investigations in this important area for design in Turkey.

back view, Hexa executive desk by Nurus designed by Can Yalman, 2008, computer render

front view, Hexa executive desk by Nurus designed by Can Yalman, 2008, computer render

prototype, Hexa executive desk by Nurus designed by Can Yalman, 2008

Product description by Nurus (excuse their awkward English)

Hexa is a futuristic and technological approach to executive desking system. The idea of combining a super-light material with a super-strong structure is the originating point of Hexa. This sculptural desk is made of carbon framework which is the essential point of diamonds. Carbon is a network of forms that creates its strength from its structural arrangement, and gives us the opportunity to create a furniture for the office of the future. With the surface of the carbon fiber tabletop equated in two stages, which one belongs to the owner, the other belongs to the guest, Hexa provides both visual and mental separation beyond the desk. Experience the perfect balance between design and nature!

The hexagon table takes its inspiration from a carbon nanotube, which is ideally thought as a hexagonal network of carbon atoms that have been rolled into a seamless cylinder form. The amazing properties of this nanotube make it the strongest and stiffest materials found on earth.

Add comment May 14th, 2008

This is design in Turkey, a manifesto. With thanks to Ilhan Koman for leading the way

Ilhan Koman, PI Series of experimental forms derived from mathematical formula, 1980-1983. photograph by Tayfun Tunceli. Courtesy Koman Foundation.

The history of design in the West is one that is tied closely to industrialization and excludes elements of the vernacular and everyday, what I would call anonymous design or design by non-designers. In a country like Turkey where most objects lack design pedigree, different social and designs traditions of local origin are more relevant to object making and design then one this closely tied to the canon of Western design history, industrialization and capitalism. For example, the recognition of the sensory dimensions of the environment seen in design from places like Brazil or Mexico or the efficacy of handicraft and materials in Scandinavia, these contexts show another history of design outside of industrialization and ultimately more relevant to this Turkish context.

Today because of the ecological crises the notion of universal or standardized concepts of living promoted by industrialization and capitalism is starting to lose validity. Instead we are starting to see that there are certain efficiencies to be gained from an individual’s built environment in the history, culture, and climate of his or her immediate surroundings. In Turkey today this question of the role of universal/standardized concepts of modernity is being questioned. I believe this questioning, in these first years of the 21st century, in the light of the ecological crises the canon of design is an extremely valuable contribution to the global discourse in design. We can no longer be so concerned with a particular style or idiom mordern or not, we instead need adjust this addiction to only the modenr to accept other ways of living and social practices.

These premodern social practices are those that need to be studied today to create a new value system for contemporary design and object creation in Turkey. We need to focus on a combination of environmental, social and mental realities existing in the cultures found in Turkey’s geography for thousands of years. Cultures such as the nomadic Turkic culture, Selcuk, Byzantine and Ottoman civilizations, Islamic philosophy, Shamanistic religion, Anatolian peasant society and Sufi traditions are just a few of the many premodern practices that should be accessed. I want to be clear that the cultures should be accessed not for any aesthetic or cultural agenda. Instead what I am proposing is that in an era when basic resources such as oil, food, water, are beginning to dwindle, we need to figure out other ways of doing things that are not as wasteful as industrialized capitalism. The source for other ways of doing things are these premodern ways of doing and creation that are still found in great number and still in use in Turkey and Anatolia.

Turkey’s geography is a great source for these practices relying on hand-made and craft and for natural, organic and authentic materials. From soap to silk, ceramics to candles, marble to iron, there is abundancy of local materials and techniques that can be be utilized that are valid today. The task is to combine these materials and technical practices with contemporary ways of doing things in technology especially that also provide similar efficiencies. The resourceful combination of the two, the premodern practices with the very contemporary technologies and methods will yield new and valuable ways of doing things. These ways of doing and creating will be extremely important as a change in the way industrialized capitalism works. Turkey is at a position now where it has the resources to articulate this agenda, advanced know-how and technology on one side, valid premodern ways of doing things on the other. It is a matter of combining the two to create a new vision for 21st century living based on the unique perspective afforded by Turkey’s geography and cultural heritage.

Add comment May 12th, 2008

Two terrible articles on the Istanbul design and architecture scene

The current hype around Istanbul architecture and design while a boon for the local scene has also produced some unfortunate coverage in the international media. As evidence, lets look at two articles that have recently appeared in the U.S. press that are particularly egregious in their superficial and haphazard treatment of Istanbul design matters.

The first one is in the Boston Globe with the pedestrian title of “Inspiring Istanbul” written by Tom Haines. This article highlights the architect Gökhan Avcıoğlu who recently returned to Istanbul after what was apparently an unproductive stint at architecture in the U.S. Staying away from scuttlebut on this front, reading this article and the architect’s commtns, I was taken aback by Avcıoğlu’s failure to grab the moment. Given the opportunity to say something “inspiring” about Istanbul and its architecture he comes up with this line, and I quote…

“How can you deal with 5,000 years of history? I’m not afraid of it. I think I’m building a kind of history. I’m human, and I can add something.”

Whaaa…?!? He is building “history”? He can add “something”? We can all build something that will eventually be history…you can do this pretty much anywhere in the world I think. Build something and it will be history, sometimes sooner then later. This is as bland archispeak as I’ve heard in many a day.

If you read the rest of article and see what he has so to say, the thing that irks me is Avcıoğlu’s flippant attitude toward the subject that is designing and building architecture in Istanbul at this moment. After many years of not being allowed to build anything, with the new found interest by Turkish society in design, architects in Istanbul right now have some clout to design that they are throwing it away by failing to articulate what their architecture is about and why it is relevant. The vision thing, to put it simply.
Getting back to Avcıoğlu’s remark and its lack of vision, the question for contemporary Istanbul architecture and design is not just building some thing, it is what and how you are going to build that thing. Of course, this is a problem that has occupied modernism in Turkey and Istanbul’s architecture for almost 100 years. That is to say, the problem of the critical ground for the aesthetic and architectonic basis of Turkish architecture in light of history - a vision for what contemporary Turkish architecture should be and what it should represent.

That’s the reason Istanbul otherwise lacks great pieces of modern architecture. Largely because of this lack of a critical discourse surrounding architecture that we can clearly see exhibited in examples like Avcıoğlu’s. To be fair to the guy, the failure of vision in most Turkish architecture is not one person’s fault (and do I like his design for a public restroom in Kadiköy) but spokesman for contemporary architecture in Istanbul he is not. That role I would give to architects like Nevzat Sayın or Can Çinici who have been working steadily and surely here for the last 20 years with a historical and critical agenda.

Another guy who shouldn’t have been allowed to talk about design in Istanbul is one Efe Buluç, a Pratt educated young industrial designer recently moved to Istanbul. In an article in Dwell magazine by Reyhan Harmancı entitled this time, “Inside Istanbul” the Ankara born Buluç when asked to name a Turkish designer from Istanbul that he likes he comes up with…nobody…

Question: Contemporary designer from Istanbul that you like…

Answer: “Hmmm…no… [Buluc smiles apologetically]“.

Later in the Dwell article the reason Efe Buluç drew a blank when it came to contemporary Istanbul designers becomes sort of obvious. Commenting on a mystifying relationship between his hangout spots in Istanbul and the architecture of the master Ottoman architect Sinan, he comments…

“It’s interesting to have Kanyon (ed. shopping center) in Istanbul. You can’t compare Sinan to Kanyon—Sinan worked on a fantastic human scale—but Kanyon is very important because young Westernized Turks such as myself need a place to go and feel that there’s a modern environment.”

I’ve got some advice for Efe Buluç 1) your not going to learn too much about Istanbul design hanging out in a shopping mall 2) if you want to know more about Istanbul design, check out the work of these Istanbul designers… Aziz Sarıyer, Adnan Serbest, Tanju Özelgin, Ali Bakova, Yılmaz Zenger, Can Yalman and Oya Akman, to name just a few…

And to all those magazine and design editors out there who are considering covering Istanbul, I’ve got the title of the article for you, “Innovative Istanbul”. If you do more than scratch the surface, you might even find out why.

Add comment December 10th, 2007

The new Otomotion automotive lifestyle space, Doğuş Power Center, Maslak

Main showroom space, Otomotion, Doğuş Power Center, Maslak, Istanbul - lead designers, Kocacıklıoğlu Mimarlik

The Otomotion showroom, activity center and permanent exhibition space, the first of its kind in Turkey and the world, will include a number of different features highlighting the Volkswagen Group automotive products sold by the Doğus Group under one roof in a large 11,500m2, 11 meter high space located in the Doğuş Power Center shopping center in Maslak, Istanbul. This unique hybrid facility open year round features a flowing space mixing automotive showrooms and sales points for Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, Seat and Porsche with leisure and exhibition facilities. Designed to encourage browsing, these automotive showrooms and exhibitions stands are integrated with unique multimedia exhibition spaces which are surrounded by features including a 180 degree multimedia exhibition room, conference facilities and meeting rooms, amphitheater, Kids Club, Café and hospitality center, shop, lounges and office space.

The first of its kind in Turkey, the hybrid space was designed by a team of designers led by Kocacıklıoğlu Mimarlik of Istanbul, that combined experts in interior and retail design, exhibition design and multimedia design. Kocacıklıoğlu Mimarlik, one of Istanbul’s better known architecture and interior design firms, led the design of the hybrid space in conjunction with noted exhibition designer and creative consultant to the project, Walt Behnke of New York. As lead designers and design managers their strategy was to create a dynamic and engaging multimedia environment that will function as a public space allowing visitors to learn more about the automotive products in an informal recreational setting similar to a museum or art gallery. Instead of consumers shopping for cars, Otomotion is intended as a casual environment where brand values are emphasized in a more ambient and passive way.

Realizing this goal, the large, central space is organized around amorphous fluid blob forms that create flowing lines that will facilitate casual browsing through the auto showrooms and exhibition spaces or leisure activities in the cafes and children’s areas. As design managers, Kocacıklıoğlu Mimarlik integrated the complex functions in this one-of-a- kind space to create a harmonious unified experience that includes the work of an international team featuring graphics designed by Apple Graphics of London and unique and specially created dome exhibition pods by Atelier MarkGraph of Frankfurt. In its architecture and overall proportions, the achievement we see in this project is that it sets the stage for a new type of space for Istanbul that reorganizes commercial retail space into something that resembles more of a public building such as an aquarium or museum. Kocacıklıoğlu Mimarlik’s success has been to create an ambient and subtle environment that puts the emphasis on experience and less on “shopping” to create a feeling of a public area. At a time when Istanbul is being filled up with one shopping center after another, Otomotion, in parts, retail showroom, exhibition and leisure spaces, provides a good example of how through innovative strategies and architecture, new public settings can be created for the benefit of all. Kocacıklıoğlu Mimarlik’s design supports this feeling by providing a casual, informal environment of abstract shapes and volumes for this new kind of public/private space.

Entrance, Otomotion, Doğuş Power Center, Maslak, Istanbul - lead designers, Kocacıklıoğlu Mimarlik

Theater area, Otomotion, Doğuş Power Center, Maslak, Istanbul - lead designers, Kocacıklıoğlu Mimarlik

Shop, Otomotion, Doğuş Power Center, Maslak, Istanbul - lead designers, Kocacıklıoğlu Mimarlik

Add comment December 10th, 2007

More Istanbul design …. literally, Takeaway Istanbul

Erdem Akan, maybe Design, Takeaway Istanbul, Ring, 2007, takeaway-istanbul.com

Young entrepreneur Seda Ertem’s new takeaway istanbul brand is a unique take on Istanbul culture. Her collection of objects inspired by the geography, architecture and street culture of Istanbul incorporates these motifs into a range of products ranging from typical souvenir items such as t-shirts, magnets, coasters and mugs to Istanbul specific objects such as soap, tea glasses and hot plates. The most elegant of the lot has to be the ring which places the outlines of the Bosphorus strait separating Europe and Asia on your finger, Istanbul design at its most literal.

2 comments November 26th, 2007

Istanbul Dolmuş and Minibus Map - superpool

For the uninitiated, Istanbul is a city that is notoriously difficult to navigate. While getting back and forth across the Bosphorus via ferryboat or going up and down the Levent-Taksim subway are fairly easy operations, anything else more complex requires lots of local knowledge and/or pluckiness. One of the urban transportation systems that most visitors to the city never, or honestly speaking are unable to use because of the sheer difficulty of figuring out how they work are the city’s vast networks of minibuses and dolmuş (shared taxis). These minibuses and minivans run point-to-point from centers throughout the city allowing passengers to get on and off anywhere en route for a shade of what it would cost for a taxi. Extremely efficient but devilishly inscrutable in their operations for non-residents, the dolmuş and minibus lines are a ubiquitous presence in Istanbul’s famous snarled traffic.

For years I thought that the city government would eventually publish a map of these bus systems being as they were a de facto part of the public transportation system. Of course, they never did but lo and behold, two enterprising young architects, Gregers Tang Thomsen and Selva Gürdoğan of Superpool have. These two ex-OMA staffers have put together an accurate map that looks more like a subway map then an a fairly ad-hoc network of buses. The map will soon be available for purchase to both visitors and residents alike. More details when i get them.

1 comment November 22nd, 2007

Istanbul is It, Awards by Wallpaper and Conde Nast

So a crew of jetsetters and stylemakers over at Wallpaper magazine have voted Istanbul Best City in their annual Design Awards competition. The likes of jury members such as designer Naota Fukasawa, hotelier Ian Schrager, designer Ron Arad, fashion designers Viktor and Rolf, actress Jane Birkin, and MD of Charme Matteo do Montezemolo, decided that:

Having carved out a niche as an art city, with its new modern art gallery and Sakip Sabanci Museum, Istanbul’s latest incarnation is as a shopping paradise and chic nightspot.

Not stopping at voting Istanbul Best City, the Muzedechanga restaurant located in Emirgan Yeniköy  on the grounds of the Sabanci Museum was voted Best New Restaurant. Woo hoo!!!

If this was not enough, Concierge.com and Conde Nast Traveller have put Istanbul on their top 10 “It” cities of 2007 for style and design. In a horribly written blurb smacking of vacuous orientalism that compares Istanbul to…. Marrakesh…?!? and inaccurately uses the word “burka” to descibe the headscarves worn by religious Turkish women, hotspots such as the Istanbul Modern and 360 Restaurant are trotted out as evidence of our new “It”ness.

Obviously there is more going on in the city then Wallpaperish style but its good to see we have arrived at this point. The challenge here is to get beyond this city of moment status and move forward to something more concrete and long term. Towards the important goal of becoming a genuine design producing city with a unique character and aesthetic. In the London, New York, Paris, Milan league, synthesizing the special nuances of the city’s geography and history into a design ethos that is at the same time thoroughly contemporary.

2 comments January 19th, 2007